Sarah Williams on Creating Connected Student Journeys

How can higher education institutions connect the entire student lifecycle from applicants through alumni using a unified technology platform? How can consolidating systems curb digital sprawl while enhancing user experience and improving data quality and lowering costs? We talk through these with Sarah Williams, Product Manager and Interim Associate Dean for Online Education at the University of Utah. Discover how leveraging role-based access, overcoming political data silos, and deploying personalized platforms and communications can transform student engagement, streamline operations, and support continuous institutional improvement across campus departments.

Episode Highlights include:

[05:51] Breaking down institutional data silos - Sarah Williams outlines how unifying data across departments creates a continuous student journey.

[09:15] Segmenting communication to eliminate noise - Moving away from blanket emails toward targeted notifications improves student engagement and safety alerts.

[14:22] Creating a unified platform for all audiences - The University of Utah consolidated multiple separate apps into a single personalized entry point.

[14:24] Selecting Pathify to drive role-based personalization - Replacing three expired software contracts with one unified platform enabled custom views for over 350 campus roles.

[25:56] Preventing portal overload through dynamic user design - Prioritizing user personas ensures heavy amounts of campus content remain organized and relevant.