I love building and facilitating community.

I am a connector. Ideas, people, places, concepts — I believe that connection is everything.

From the time I was little, growing up in rural Willamette Valley, Oregon, I knew that creating connections between people and ideas was a passion. I turned this passion into a career when I decided to study international relations at the University of Oregon. I ended up graduating with two Bachelor’s degrees, before I would move on to work for a non-profit advancing the rights of people with disabilities in the international education sector.

By the time I obtained my Master’s in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, I was completely convinced of the power of education and international experiences to transform and connect. Nothing makes you feel smaller, or more aware of how little you actually know, than immersing yourself in another way of being.

Working my way through the ranks of higher education administration—sales, enrollment, admissions, marketing, project management, student affairs, project management, and even teaching as adjunct faculty—I honed in on my natural ability to take a hypothetical idea and turn it into a tangible concept. I often found myself in a consultative role, being asked by a colleague or friend to offer advice on a project, business idea, or help with social media or another digital tool. I realized that I could help more people by opening my own business. In 2020, I founded Alisyn Gruener Consulting to offer digital, social, project-based, and logistical support services for business owners, non-profits, and companies.

I current serve as a Senior Program Manager at a top-10 public research university, and serve my small client portfolio on the side. When I’m not managing email communications or putting together project flows, you can find me chasing around my four-year-old kiddo, one large puppy, and two geriatric cats with my partner.

We live in the beautiful high desert of Central Oregon.

Resume

Alisyn Gruener

Profile

Efficient, innovative, and exceptionally organized independent consultant with over 13 years of customer onboarding, digital marketing, email communications, social media management and growth strategy, as well as general brand consulting and implementation expertise.

Core Competencies

Exceptional Customer Service Mind

Target Audience Strategy

Partner and Relationship Management

Project Management

Email Marketing & Promotion

Digital Learning and Instructional Design

Professional Experience

Founder: Small Business Digital Services Consulting
Alisyn Gruener Consulting, Bend, OR
Jan 2020 - Present

Work with small business owners and organizations to support their business needs, utilizing technology, social media, and interactive digital media. Advise and implement social media promotion and management, email marketing and branding campaigns. Offer best practices in customer engagement and success.

Accomplishments:

Designed, launched and grew social media following on Facebook and Instagram from zero to 20k+ for one client’s health and wellness initiative.
Managed logistics, social promotion, email marketing, and tech support for monthly virtual events.
Established and implemented a client’s YouTube channel, securing over 300 subscribers in the first month utilizing SEO and branding best practices.

Senior Program Manager
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
May 2023 - Present

Drive and support the operations and administration of online graduate programs, ensuring seamless coordination between academic units, functional teams, and colleges. Serve as an ambassador for the program portfolio, delivering guidance and essential information to stakeholders to enhance collaboration and efficiency. Play a key role in day-to-day program management, overseeing digital student resource hubs, streamlining processes, and enhancing the overall online learner experience by developing centralized resources and engagement strategies.

Assistant Dean of Student Life and Engagement
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA
Sept 2017 - Feb 2023

Oversaw a diverse and extensive portfolio of programs and projects designed to support graduate student professional and personal success. Advise and mentor colleagues and stakeholders to support customer success initiatives and philosophies. Design and implement platforms, SasS products, and LMS-based courses and sites.

Accomplishments:

Led and implemented a complex, multi-stakeholder project to design and launch a community-wide platform, hosted by a SasS edtech product, that greatly improved and streamlined new student onboarding and campus communications.
Designed and led a complete restructure and overhaul of orientation programming, including the implementation of a multi-course, asynchronous, completely online approach to onboarding.

Adjunct Faculty, M.A. International Education Management
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA
May 2016 - December 2019

Served as a professional coach and professor for graduate students in an online, professionally-focused course during the final semester of their M.A. International Education Management program. Served as the course instructional designer and manager.

Accomplishments:

Designed and implemented a multi-instructor online course, soliciting buy-in, encouraging collaboration, and maintaining excellent colleague relationships to ensure colleague success utilizing the site.
Integrated transitional learning theories, as well as student learning outcomes, in course design and curriculum to promote maximum professional growth for students in the course.

Assistant Director of Admissions
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA
July 2015 - August 2017

Oversaw admitted student communications and led institution yield strategy, ensuring a personalized, high-touch experience with concierge-like service.

Accomplishments:

Managed inbound communication and yield strategy, implementing data-based approaches to ensure a high-touch customer experience by connecting with 100% of incoming learners and implementing a CRM (Salesforce) to track and score all activity to prioritize outreach.
Built trusting and collaborative relationships with departments, managers and administrators to find mutually beneficial solutions to student experience challenges.

Enrollment Marketing Manager, Custom Professional Programs
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA
January 2013 - July 2015

Managed digital marketing and print advertising, customer relationship management via Salesforce, social media presence and promotion, and all email marketing communications to attract, admit, and enroll custom language program clients.

Accomplishments:

Increased enrollment and retention by developing external communications, digital marketing, recruitment and inquiry-generating projects.
Provided excellent customer support management, serving as the primary customer enrollment specialist, providing information, guidance and support to interested, applying and newly enrolled clients.

Project Coordinator and Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer
Mobility International USA, Eugene, OR
September 2009 - May 2010

Delivered personalized one-on-one and group training on disability inclusion and crisis management in study abroad to higher education professionals and leaders.

Accomplishments:

Increased global awareness of the disability inclusion movement through the creation and marketing of organizational social media, blogging, online event sites.
Served as a customer success manager, growing high-touch customer relationships, offering ongoing training and onboarding, and offering support through the implementation of programs and software.

Education

M.A., International Education Management, 2013
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Monterey, CA

B.A., International Relations; B.A., Spanish, 2009
Robert D. Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR