Andrea Gilbert is a seasoned leader who propels the success of RNL partner clients across enrollment, student success, and donor engagement. A solution-focused leader, she is passionate about client success, retention, and satisfaction. During her extensive career, she he has served hundreds of campus partners in the United States and United Kingdom. She has partnered with campuses to achieve their recruitment goals through the use of predictive modeling services, search and application generation strategy, territory management, financial aid, student retention, and consulting services—helping those institutions recruit the students who are the best fit. She has also led the RNL teams that transform donor engagement to provide a better donor experience, and boost results.
Previous experience
Prior to joining RNL in 2005, Andrea served as director of admission at Illinois Institute of Technology (IL), where she started as the events coordinator. Her primary responsibility was supervising the admission staff, development of the communication flow, territory management, and progress to goal for IIT. During her tenure at IIT, enrollment and net tuition revenue grew significantly.
During her time as an RNL consultant, Andrea has helped diverse campuses achieve results. She helped increase enrollment 44 percent over 10 years of partnership with an all-women’s university on the East Coast. She helped a Midwest Jesuit institution enroll the largest class in history. And, she assisted one of the nation’s premiere military academies to focus recruitment on the best students in the U.S. from every state, transforming their enrollment strategy. She worked with the RNL leadership team to re-imagine donor engagement, including optimizing platforms, omnichannel outreach, and building pilot programs to amplify major gift pipeline. These are just a few examples of the hundreds of institutions Andrea has touched in her leadership role with RNL client partnerships.
Education
Andrea graduated from Lake Forest College with a B.A. in English and French and holds a Master of Science in technological communication and information design from Illinois Institute of Technology.
Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn
Presentations and Insights
- Blog: Four Strategic Stars by Which to Steer Your Enrollment Ship
- RNLNC 2022 Presentation: Building a Solid Enrollment Foundation
Quotes from Andrea
“I decided to make a career in higher education to help more deserving students go to college. When I was on campus, it was rewarding to be a part of that transition home to the life-changing world of higher education. When I started at RNL in 2005, I was immediately energized at how we can help students and families at scale, partnering with hundreds of institutions and foundations to meet their goals for enrollment, retention, graduation, donors and dollars. It’s a rewarding mission, and excites me every day.”
“To succeed in enrollment and donor engagement, you need to focus on full funnel solutions. This mean engaging families and donors at every stage of the process, from initial interest to their big commitment. And you must be data-driven at each stage. I have long said that ‘if you didn’t track it, it didn’t happen.’ Data is more important now than ever, because it drives personalized outreach, and ensures that we use our resources wisely. Understanding who your students are in your inquiry pool, or how donors are behaving throughout the year, is key to success. RNL can help you see a daily picture of where your constituents stand, so we can make better decisions, together.”