QuickFire: Devin Purgason

20 questions with Forsyth Technical Community College’s Executive Director of Marketing and Student Care

14 minutes
By: Kevin Renton
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Volt Publisher Kevin Renton invited AMA’s 2024 Emerging Marketer of the Year Devin Purgason, executive director of marketing and student care at Forsyth Technical Community College, to discuss the rising respect for community colleges. From leveraging AI tools like ChatGPT to balancing the art of storytelling with genuine student support, Devin dives into the challenges and triumphs of higher ed marketing. They discuss the struggle to adapt to market shifts and the importance of empowering students and transforming communities.

Forsyth Technical Community College, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, serves to catalyze equitable economic mobility, empowering lives, and transforming communities. Known for its focus on high-quality education and workforce training, Forsyth Tech offers a wide range of programs that prepare students for in-demand careers and further academic pursuits. With a commitment to innovation and student success, the college is a leader in driving positive change.

Related: QuickFire: Jenny Petty 

Read the full transcript here

Kevin Renton

Hi everybody, welcome to QuickFire. This is where we put higher education marketers on the hot seat and fire them 20 rapid questions to find out what makes them tick, what makes them successful and what their goals are for the future. 

So in the crossfire today we have Devin Purgason, executive director of marketing and student care of Forsyth Technical Community College and, of course, recently the AMA Emerging Marketer of the Year in Higher Education. Devon, welcome to Quickfire.

Devin Purgason 

Thank you so much for having me, Kevin. I’m excited.

Kevin Renton

What’s your elevator pitch? Who are you and what do you do at Forsyth?

Devin Purgason 

I’m Devin Purgason. I serve as the executive director of marketing and student care where we combine our marketing team with also our student care team, which is really a concierge-like service, helping support students no matter where they are in the marketing funnel. So they can be successful students, successful completers. They can continue to persist and retain as our students because we see that that’s such a huge part, a vital part to our marketing strategy here at Forsyth.

Kevin Renton

I wanted to work in higher education because…

Devin Purgason 

I have always loved higher education. I always have been a nerd. I’ve wanted to either teach, or I wanted to work in some capacity. I had a boss early in my life that said, “Dev, you want to be a teacher that administrates a little or an administrator that teaches a little?” And I decided on the second.

Kevin Renton

In the next five years, I’d like to…

Devin Purgason 

In the next five years, I would like to continue to expand my role here in Forsyth Tech. I would also like to start writing a little bit and being able to produce a little bit more different types of content.

Kevin Renton

When I’m not working, I’m…

Devin Purgason 

When I’m not working, I’m either taking pictures or traveling or eating.

Kevin Renton

The marketing tool I can’t live without is…

Devin Purgason 

Honestly, it’s ChatGPT.

Kevin Renton

Interesting that you said ChatGPT was a marketing tool. How do you use that?

Devin Purgason 

Yeah, I mean, I use ChatGPT on the daily, whether it is helping me ideate and think of different ways to contextualize certain things. For instance, I just used it for our Spotify wrapped that we have posted. Hey, how can I take a Spotify wrapped tool and then, you know, compile that in a way that would be great for Forsyth Tech because it already knows a lot about Forsyth Tech. 

So, it’s an ideation tool. It helps me make draft content and write draft content. It can even help me create like a random sketch that I give to my designer and say, hey, make this good, you know, make this not AI. So I use it constantly.

Kevin Renton

How did you, does your whole team use it? 

Devin Purgason 

Yeah, so our entire team uses it. Yep. At some level. 

Kevin Renton

How did you roll it out with your marketing team? Did you allow them to use it or did you just, did you just, hey, let’s sign up and start playing around?

Devin Purgason 

So, I was the first to start using it. And, I will be honest, I got a little bit of resistance at first. I think people were a little like, I don’t wanna even be talking with an AI or this is gonna produce really junk content. And so I was kind of the one that led the charge of, hey, I’m using it, this is the way I’m using it. And then eventually people kind of like, hey, can I get some of that? Can I hop on that? And then finally they started rolling out like team versions and stuff of that nature. So yeah, we use it throughout our entire team.

Kevin Renton

I start my day at…

Devin Purgason 

I start my day at 6:30. I feel like that’s kind of late for a lot of people in my sphere.

Kevin Renton

The secret to students succeeding at my school is…

Devin Purgason 

The secret to students succeeding at Forsyth Tech is our incredible, radical support.

Kevin Renton

And I guess with your role, most marketers lose track of the student, but when you’re head of student care as well, you manage the student in the communication when they’re actually at the technical college.

Devin Purgason 

Absolutely. And it’s something that we have seen is so important to the student population that we have. A lot of our students are first-generation college students, they’re adult learners that have come back after not being there for a period. So they really need as much support as possible to help them, so that they’re successful. And I just feel like it’s one of those things where, you know, if we are constantly filling the funnel, but then people are leaving, we’re not retaining them. We’re really not doing our job. And so it’s just become something that is really important to our marketing strategy as a whole.

Kevin Renton

I admire the marketing at…

Devin Purgason 

Ooh, OK, this is such a good question. I admire the marketing… I’m going to give you two. Carrie Phillips, University of Arkansas Little Rock. Love her. She’s amazing and her team does amazing work. 

And then secondly, I mean, Jenny Petty at the University of Montana. She is just rocking and rolling her team. They are winning awards like crazy and she is such an inspiration. She, also like me, really focuses on student experience being a big cornerstone to her marketing. And I just, I respect them so much.

Kevin Renton

Outside of higher ed, what’s resonating with you?

Devin Purgason 

The biggest thing that has resonated with me outside of higher ed is Brat, Charlie XCX. It has been this music influx that we had in 2024. That’s just been fantastic. I think that the way that she rolled out her album, the way that she did the artwork, the way that she did like just the advertisement in itself has been just game-changing and brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Charlie, if you’re listening to this, I love you.

Kevin Renton

The biggest challenges facing higher education marketers are…

Devin Purgason 

I would say the biggest challenge facing higher ed marketers: burnout. And what I mean by that is I feel like we are constantly in this loop, and this is nothing new, of more work, more responsibility and stagnant resources or less resources.

Kevin Renton

My favorite social media channel is…, and why?

Devin Purgason 

I love Instagram. Instagram is my favorite and I think the reason that it is my favorite and will continue to be my favorite for a long time is because it’s so photo-focused, and I do a lot of photography on the side. I love photography and so that’s my bread and butter and so I’ve always had a natural inclination towards Insta.

Kevin Renton

My biggest professional achievement is…

Devin Purgason 

I feel like I have to say the American Marketing Association Emerging Marketer Award. That, that was really, really amazing. And I’m just so thankful to the AMA for that.

Kevin Renton

Talk to us about that process. How do you get notified that you’re being considered or…?

Devin Purgason 

There is a committee that can nominate. So it’s not like an open nominations thing. And I believe it’s those who work on the planning committee or maybe some other group, but they nominate. And then you are sent a notification that you’ve been nominated. And then you fill out this really lengthy application. Once you send that application in, I just wait, wait, wait. And then I was notified that I was a finalist, one of the three. 

So right there, I felt like I had already, I have, being a finalist was winning the award for me. Just that, that’s amazing, just to be considered, nominated, and then become a finalist. And then, as you know, at the conference, they announce the winner. 

Kevin Renton

On the other side of the coin, what’s been your biggest professional mistake?

Devin Purgason 

There have been so many, but one that I will share here. There was once that I neglected to send out a communication that was really, really important. And the result of not sending out that notification was actually the news being called and a story being created because of that. So that I would say is probably one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made that I will share here.

Kevin Renton

What’s working in higher ed right now?

Devin Purgason 

What’s working in higher education right now are community colleges.

Kevin Renton

What’s working about community colleges? Why do you think they’re working?

Devin Purgason 

Yeah, I feel like community colleges, like we have seen with this coalescence of people being discouraged with higher education and the investment in higher education. With that, adding on the fact that community colleges are at a lower rate of cost. Plus, they are really concerned with getting students skilled and up-skilled to have and find family-sustaining wages. I mean, that’s our goal at a community college. 

Coupling those things together has, I think, created a resurgence of love and respect for community colleges. We’ve seen our enrollment just ticking up over the last three or four years. And we are just continuing to look at the community that we serve, finding the needs that that community has, and then creating programming based on that. And I think that’s just a fantastic, wonderful, amazing thing that’s working very, very well in higher education right now.

Kevin Renton

What’s not working in higher ed right now?

Devin Purgason 

What’s not working in higher ed right now is moving at a glacial pace. A couple things that I think I look at with that, I think what I just mentioned, one of the successes of a community college is the fact that we are nimble enough to be able to respond to the needs that are happening currently. I see in overall higher ed, that’s not necessarily the case. 

And I think that we see it a little bit with AI adoption and things of that nature. You know, a lot of companies and businesses are becoming AI forward, whereas higher education is having a little bit of a step back. And, you know, I know that there are ethical considerations and things, and that’s what, that’s what higher ed is here to do in some sense. But I think that there needs to be a little bit more moving at the speed of business.

Kevin Renton

A key to my success has been…

Devin Purgason 

 

A key to my success has been having people in my life that have poured into me and helped me grow even whenever it’s not great. Even whenever I’m not doing great or I’m really struggling, having people that can, that I can talk to, that can listen to me. I mean, I just, there are people all over the country that have poured into Devin Purgason and the reason that I have any success today is because of the collective wisdom that I have, that I have been able to garner from all of these various people. So I have a lot of mentors that I really, really respect and appreciate. That’s the key to my success is being teachable in that way.

Kevin Renton

One thing I’ve learned about managing my team is…

Devin Purgason 

One thing that I’ve learned about managing my team is that it is not good for my team if I continue to try to be a player. And what I mean by that is that I am someone who is continuously trying to jump in the work and rub elbows and bump into them or, you know, kind of micromanage or things like that. I’ve had to really learn how to be a coach. And that’s been difficult for me because I have been a sole producer for so long in my career. Whenever you become a manager of people, they don’t really explain to you how your role really changes. And so I think that’s been one thing.

Kevin Renton

I love my job because…

Devin Purgason 

I love my job because every single day I get to come to work for a place that has a mission and a vision that I’m passionate about. Forsyth Technical Community College, our vision statement is this: “We are a catalyst for equitable economic mobility, empowering lives, and transforming communities.” And every single thing we do from the marketing, from every course we teach, to every email the president sends out, every billboard, it really pushes back to that mission that we are here for Forsyth and Stokes County and we are going to make a difference. We believe that what we’re doing is going to make a difference in helping people have a family-sustaining wage and getting out of poverty.

Kevin Renton

Devin Purgason, thanks for being on QuickFire. Thanks for your time..

Devin Purgason 

Thank you, Kevin.

Kevin Renton

Kevin Renton

Publisher

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