Winter 2022 Conference Speakers
Sabiha Afrin
Using Social Media to Build an Emotional Connection with Students and Prevent ‘Melt’ in the Virtual Era
Sabiha Afrin, currently the digital marketing/media manager for the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at American University, is a brand and communications specialist with extensive knowledge developing large-scale marketing campaigns. Her work focuses on growing business and territory while driving quality traffic to institutional websites. In addition to holding a master’s degree in marketing, she has over eight years of experience creating cutting-edge strategies and delivering measurable results in the U.S. and abroad. An integral part of SPA, Sabiha firmly believes that higher education in public affairs and policy shapes the knowledge, skills, and values of our future changemakers.
Rachel Biundo
Keynote Panel
Rachel Biundo is the Vice President of Institutional Advancement at John Tyler, becoming Brightpoint Community College. She serves as the Executive Director of the Tyler Foundation and leads the college’s marketing, web, brand management, and creative services team. She holds a BA in communications from Virginia Tech and a master’s degree in nonprofit studies from University of Richmond.
Rachel has spent her career working to advance private sector, nonprofit and public sector organizations through strategic marketing, communications, and fundraising roles. She has led transformational efforts including brand research and development, brand expression, nonprofit restructuring, and fundraising.
Most recently she has provided oversight to ensure alignment of the college’s four concurrent strategic initiatives: renaming, strategic planning, development of a new diversity, equity and inclusion plan, and development of the college’s QEP. She serves as the appointed leader for the college’s renaming initiative.
Brandy Hawkins Boies
Keynote Panel
Brandy Hawkins Boies is the Director of Public Relations at Lord Fairfax Community College, soon to become Laurel Ridge Community College. She has worked at LFCC for over 16 years where she began as the Administrative Assistant to the President before moving into Student Life and then Communications and Public Relations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in management from Radford University and a master’s degree in Education with a concentration in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University.
During her time in Student Life, she oversaw Outreach efforts where she discovered the need for strategic marketing efforts at the college and the establishment of a consistent brand. In 2016 she wrote a proposal for establishing a marketing department at the college. Her proposal was approved, and she became the Director of Marketing. In this role she worked with the Director of Marketing for Workforce Solutions to establish credit and non-credit program marketing pages on the main college website, and printed collateral. Several other initiatives have been established under her marketing leadership, including a website redesign, a podcast, and The Laureate magazine.
Amanda Broome
Keynote Panel
Amanda Broome started managing the social media and public relations at Patrick & Henry Community College in August 2015. Over the last five years, Amanda has actively pursued Diversity and Inclusion training. In 2020, she became one of the college’s Diversity Search Advocate and in 2021 she was appointed the co-chair elect for the college’s diversity and inclusion counsel. Over the last two years, Amanda helped the college navigate its response to COVID-19 and to the name change through her social media and public relations efforts. In her spare time, Amanda also teaches communications, social media, marketing, and art courses for the college.
Corey Byers
Managing Social Media: How to use response trees and virtual operations support teams (VOSTs)
Corey Byers, a senior PR specialist and PIO for VCU Police, joined VCU's University Public Affairs team in 2014. She handles media relations, mass communications, social media and VOST management for the agency.
Jordan Fifer
Leveraging Faculty Expertise in the News
Jordan Fifer is a media relations officer at Virginia Tech, where he’s worked in University Relations since 2014. In his current role, he aims to elevate faculty expertise in the existing news cycle. He previously worked in multimedia production and web design before managing the university’s flagship social media accounts. Fifer’s first love was journalism, having worked for eight years as a newspaper reporter.
Rachelle Kamrath
Presentation Techniques to Enhance Retention
Rachelle L Kamrath, M.A. is Communication Assistant Professor with the Leadership Communication Skills Center at Marine Corps University, Quantico. Her work in professional military education focuses on writing and speaking for impact. She earned her M.A. in Instructional Communication in 2004 from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. From 2005-2013 she was the head coach of the competitive speech and debate team for the University of Nebraska–Kearney. Her areas of professional interest are public speaking, instructional communication, interpersonal/small-group communication, organizational communication, and adult learning. She resides in Woodbridge, Virginia with her husband MSgt Doyle Lyon (Ret) and her children Reginald (age 6) and Alice (6 mos).
Jeffrey Kraus
Keynote Panel
Jeffrey Kraus currently works as the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications for Virginia’s Community Colleges, where he is a member of the chancellor’s cabinet and leads an award-winning team directing strategic online, external and internal communications for the statewide system. He has also taught as an adjunct instructor at Rappahannock Community College and the Virginia Commonwealth University Richard T. Robertson School of Media & Culture.
Kraus began his professional career as a radio traffic reporter and a part-time anchor/reporter for the Virginia News Network (VNN), a statewide radio news network. He went on to work as a national wire service, radio and award-winning television journalist in Richmond, primarily covering government and politics.
As the president of the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association, Kraus successfully convinced the then-chairs of the House and Senate money committees to overturn longstanding General Assembly tradition and allow reporters to attend the joint conference committee meetings where the state budget is finalized – a process that had been closed for decades.
His professional background includes strategic communications, speechwriting, and media relations for former then-Virginia Governor, now U.S. Senator Timothy M. Kaine. While working in the governor’s office, Kraus authored a Virginia historical marker that stands in Capitol Square, honoring the service the Freedmen’s Bureau and Freedmen’s Bank offered to African Americans after the Civil War.
Kraus earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from VCU. He and his wife, Lisa, live in suburban Richmond.
J. Scott Parker
Worst Practices - Mistakes We Make (and Ways to Avoid Them)
J. Scott Parker is the marketing and communications manager for Cranwell International Center at Virginia Tech. He is a communications generalist who produces news stories, videos, and marketing graphics on an ongoing basis. He was previously a video producer for Virginia Tech and Mountain Lake PBS, in upstate New York. Parker earned an M.F.A. in film and video production from UNC Greensboro and was awarded a Fulbright Grant to produce a documentary short in New Zealand. As an avowed extrovert, he definitely does want to talk to you during the conference.
Chay Rao
Using Social Media to Build an Emotional Connection with Students and Prevent ‘Melt’ in the Virtual Era
Chay Rao is the Director of Communications & Strategic Public Relations for the School of Public Affairs (SPA) at American University. In this role he is responsible for leading a team tasked with creating and implementing all communications and marketing initiatives for the school, as well as managing and protecting SPA’s brand awareness and external messaging. Over the last decade, Chay has worked in communications roles in a variety of organizations, from nonprofits to law firms, and Fortune 100 companies, before joining AU in 2019. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and two children.
Tristana Nesvig Trani
Managing Social Media: How to use response trees and virtual operations support teams (VOSTs)
Tristana Nesvig Trani has worked at VCU since 2001 and joined the University Public Affairs team in 2012 to direct social media strategy and integration. She plans and creates content for the main VCU social media sites, consults on university branding projects and acts as a social media community strategist — offering guidance and training for the numerous social media administrators across the university and its academic medical center.