About
JBellavance

Meet Joe Bellavance

Whether you’re a local community college, or a well known ivy university, everyone is challenged to enroll students. The challenge may be larger for some than others, but the challenge is the same.

The success I have had is helping institutions better understand who they are, who they should focus on reaching, and connecting the right message for their audience. It’s what I call the AAA approach. Analyze (what’s your purpose), Anticipate (who’s your audience), Adapt (adapt your message for your audience). I’m always amazed at how little time is focused on those simple things. Here’s a little background on my enrollment career:

As the Dean of Enrollment at Lyndon State College (VT) I supervised the Admissions, Financial Aid and Registrar offices. Prior to taking a leadership role the institution had seen declining freshmen enrollments. Over the next ten years we grew record enrollments by implementing several key initiatives; we revamped our student search outreach, restructured our staffing model, trained our admissions staff to review financial aid packages with families, and focused our marketing strategies on our academic strengths that made us a public college leader in out-of-state recruitment.

As the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Nichols College (MA) I led an enrollment effort that grew the college from 660 students to 925 students in six short years. By developing a well-focused marketing strategy, refocusing staff energies, and creating more dynamic on-campus programs we reduced the number of inquiries received by nearly 50% while increasing applications and enrollments to record numbers. We also reduced the financial aid discount rate each of the last 4 years.

As the Vice President of Enrollment and Marketing at Regis College (MA) I supervised the undergraduate and graduate admissions offices as well as the offices of Financial Aid and Marketing/Communications. As a campus leader I worked with hundreds of secondary school counselors, a national research firm, the Board of Trustees, The Sisters of St Joseph, and the President’s office to guide the college from a small, single-sex women’s college to a coeducational college that blends a liberal arts foundation with pre-professional programs.

After 20 years leading enrollment offices I joined the College Board, a national leader in higher education enrollment services. For six years I led the College Board’s New England Higher Education Division. The role provided me with the opportunity to work with over 200 New England colleges and universities. The role also provided me with the opportunity to partner with the Harvard College Admissions team to coordinate the annual Harvard Summer Institute on College Admissions (SICA), a one-week conference for 200 college and admission counselors each June. As a SICA faculty member I presented on numerous topics that included; Student Search, First-Generation Student Recruitment, Trends in Higher Education, and Changing Demographics.

For the next four years I served the College Board nationally as the Senior Program Director leading their Student Search Service®, Enrollment Planning, and Segment Analysis Service enrollment programs. This role presented me with numerous opportunities to work with colleges and universities across the country and present at multiple regional and national enrollment conferences.

I hope this bio has given you some insight into my approach and work experience. I look forward to sharing my experience with your institution.