Meet the Team

Tim Westerbeck

President

Tim is a leading strategic advisor to higher education institutions around the world. His work focuses on helping institutions grow amidst significant disruption, by defining strategies and new business models aligned with the future.  He has served as a colum­nist for Busi­nessweek and is a fre­quent com­men­ta­tor in The Wall Street Jour­nal, The New York Times, and other global media. Tim is also a reg­u­lar pre­sen­ter at global indus­try forums, such as the Indian Man­age­ment Con­clave, AACSB Inter­na­tional, The Euro­pean Foun­da­tion for Man­age­ment Devel­op­ment, and oth­ers.

David Mulligan

CEO

David is a suc­cess­ful entre­pre­neur who has started and oper­ated sev­eral busi­nesses over the past 25 years. He is the co-founder and for­mer Chair­man and CEO of First Com­mon­wealth, Inc., which became publicly traded in 1995.

Sharon Higgins

ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING SERVICES

Sharon most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for Loyola University Maryland. She has more than 25 years of experience managing higher education branding, advertising, digital strategies, public and media relations, issues management, market research, and creative and content development. Prior to working in higher education, she directed marketing efforts at Ernst & Young and Aon Consulting. Sharon has presented thought leadership at leading industry conferences, including the American Marketing Association’s Annual Conference on Higher Education Marketing, CASE, eduWeb, Jesuit Advancement Administrators, and the Graduate Management Admission Council.

Steve Shriberg

Associate Vice President, Consulting

Steve has 10 years of marketing and advertising experience in agencies and universities, including 4 years of marketing international higher education programs. Steve has an MA in International Affairs and a BA in International Business and Marketing from Washington University in St. Louis.

Bridget Thies

Executive Assistant

Bridget has 10+ years of administrative experience and is responsible for overall office management and providing administrative support to the President and CEO.

Her previous experience as a Critical Care nurse laid a solid foundation for situational awareness, prioritization, multitasking, meticulous documentation and strong interpersonal skills, which she now uses to benefit Eduvantis and its clients.

Rich Funk

Director, Paid Digital Media

Rich has more than 10 years experience developing effective digital strategies and managing digital marketing campaigns across a variety of industries. In addition to higher education, Rich has worked in diverse and complex digital marketing environments at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Tribune Media Company. Rich is also an experienced educator on digital marketing. He has taught at UC San Diego and been a featured speaker at Chicago Social Media Week and the American Marketing Association’s Annual Conference on Higher Education Marketing.

Bahtyah Williams

Digital Marketing Coordinator

Bahtyah works with our digital clients and her Eduvantis teammates to ensure consistent communication and reporting across our spectrum of digital campaigns. Through her education and internships with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, she has substantial experience on many digital marketing, event planning, public relations and marketing projects. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Strategic Communications with a focus in marketing from Hampton University.

Jesse Golenberg

Manager, Consulting Services

Jesse focuses on working with clients to develop effective growth strategies and identify new program opportunities. He is also a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois. Before joining Eduvantis, Jesse sailed with the University of Virginia Semester at Sea study abroad program as the appellate officer, sparking his interest in higher education. Jesse has a joint JD/MBA from Golden Gate University and a BS in Psychology from Indiana University.

Emily McMahon

Director, SEO

Emily brings 10+ years of higher education marketing expertise focused on the utilization of SEO, UX, analytics, and down funnel conversion tactics. She specializes in leveraging data-driven digital strategies to help universities drive enrollment and grow their brands. Emily has an MBA from Illinois State University, a Certificate in Data Analytics from Cornell University, and a BA with a double major in Communication and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.

Garrett Fisher

Associate Consultant

Garrett focuses on delivering high-quality, data-based market analysis to clients, helping them gain positive, results-oriented solutions. Prior to Eduvantis, Garrett was a business analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he drove strategic initiatives in loss mitigation and operational inefficiencies. Garrett earned his BA in Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kristel Keys Running

Associate Director, Paid Media

Kristel has more than 20 years of experience in the marketing industry, focusing on multi-channel marketing program development and digital marketing campaigns to increase enrollment at colleges nationwide.  She also has extensive experience in content strategy and production.  Kristel has a MA in Business Communications and a BS in Communications Technology Management.