(From left to right: Keith Stefanczyk, Andy Drefahl, Christopher S. Rice)

Christopher S. Rice, Ph.D.

Chris Rice has over 14 years of experience in Higher Education in teaching, administration, student engagement and information technology.

Christopher drives improved student experiences and outcomes by utilizing rigorous ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and helping institutions to find the patterns in the data that enable them to better understand student and faculty needs and design appropriate and effective student programs and learning experiences. He is a passionate believer in the power of research, design thinking and social technologies to build memorable and meaningful student experiences.

As the Social Technology Strategist for the University of Kentucky’s Office of Undergraduate Education, he helped build, launch and manage the Big Blue Network, a private social network for incoming freshmen designed to improve student engagement and increase student retention and graduation rates. Christopher also worked extensively with administrators, faculty and student affairs personnel to develop social media and social networking skillsets that would help them to build richer, more engaging student experiences.

As Associate Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching (CELT) and a faculty member (also serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Internship Director) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kentucky, Christopher has been a dedicated champion for designing effective engagement and learning experiences for the Millennial Generation.  As an instructor, he was an early adopter of many instructional and web 2.0 technologies, from blogs and wikis to Twitter and Facebook to Second Life and Audience Response Devices (“clickers”).

He has also worked as an Enterprise Architect for academic technologies and user experience at the University of Kentucky, Research Director at the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and Program Director at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development.

Keith Stefanczyk

Keith Stefanczyk has over 26 years of strategic marketing, branding, advertising and CRM experience in B2B, B2C and higher education environments.

Over the past eight years, Keith has implemented and communicated the results of the Experience Analysis and Design (EAD) methodology for universities and community colleges across the country. Prior, his work on a team designing collaboration technology for higher education led to what was to become the EAD methodology. Keith also served as Director of Marketing and Creative Services for a Chicago-area community college and was on the team that reengineered recruiting, enrollment and marketing efforts into a customer-centric, CRM-based model. Keith has written a number of white papers on marketing and has multiple degrees from DePaul University. Keith is the co-author of a travel book and his photographs have been published in numerous books, magazines and newspapers.

Clients have included major public and private universities and community college systems, ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA, Chicago Cubs, Harlem Globetrotters, Intel, Avnet, Microchip, Grande Cheese, the Cities of Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, Mesa, Gilbert, Arizona State Parks and many others.

Andrew Drefahl

Andy Drefahl has over 19 years of CRM, marketing and sales strategy experience in B2C, B2B and higher education environments. Andy drives value with the strategies and solutions he deploys by researching and incorporating the Voice of the Consumer (VOC) and the Voice of the Business (VOB).

Andy has conducted CRM and customer strategy engagements for higher education, high technology, consumer packaged goods, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services clients. He has led the development of a global professional services CRM strategy offering on loyalty and retention and developed innovative CRM strategies focused on delivering and measuring the exchange of value between firms and their customers.

Andy’s customer experience insights in higher education led to what was to become the EAD methodology.

Andy has presented his approaches and case studies nationally. He holds an MBA from Marquette University and a BBA from UW Milwaukee. He is the author of several articles and industry case study presentations on applying marketing science to the customer experience. Clients have included several major universities, General Mills, SC Johnson, an international premium coffee conglomerate, a premium paper manufacturer, Harley Davidson Motor Company, McKesson, Hitachi Data Systems, Johnson Controls, IBM and MasterCard Worldwide.