Senior Strategist, Campus Sonar
Ph.D. Higher Education (West Virginia University)
Katlin Swisher is a senior strategist at Campus Sonar, a higher education agency that uses social listening research to help campus pros achieve their goals. In this role, she is dedicated to using data and storytelling to help campuses build trust with their audiences, support strategic planning and branding efforts, and inform organizational change. She is also an instructor of media at WVU.
Swisher holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in higher education administration from WVU and served as the managing editor for the Graduate Student Journal of Higher Education. In 2012, she graduated summa cum laude and as a University Honors Scholar with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from WVU. She was named WVU's Ms. Mountaineer for 2011-2012 and a WVU Foundation Outstanding Senior and Public Relations Outstanding Senior.
Her research interests include West Virginia higher education, land-grant universities, strategic planning, higher education policy, and higher education access. Swisher has presented research at the American Marketing Association’s Higher Education Symposium, American Educational Research Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, College and University Public Relations and Associated Professionals, National Rural Education Association, and West Virginia Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and she is a member of the national journalism honorary Kappa Tau Alpha. She currently serves WVU as a member of the Women’s Leadership Initiative and as a professional mentor for the Reed College of Media. Her previous professional roles at WVU include assistant director of marketing and communications, admissions counselor, enrollment marketer and communicator, and overseeing New Student Orientation.
In her spare time, you can find Swisher cheering on the Mountaineers, hiking in West Virginia’s beautiful state parks, and traveling the world as a clarinetist with the WVU Alumni Band.