Jaime Hunt sits down with Abbigail Tumpey, Vice President for Institute Communications at Georgia Tech, to unpack how AI in higher education is reshaping the future of enrollment marketing, communications strategy, and institutional leadership. From synthetic audience testing to AI-powered workflow optimization, Abbigail shares how Georgia Tech is embedding artificial intelligence into the fabric of its communications culture. The conversation explores what it actually looks like to operationalize AI across a university marketing team — not just experiment with it. If you’re wondering how higher education marketers can move beyond AI hype and start building smarter systems, this episode offers one of the most practical and visionary conversations in higher education podcasts today. Guest Name: Abbigail Tumpey, Vice President for Institute Communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology Guest Social: LinkedIn Guest Bio: Abbigail Tumpey is the vice president for Institute Communications at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she leads the Institute’s marketing and communications strategy. As Chief Communications Officer, she oversees brand and reputation management across media relations, events, research communications, marketing and internal communications, executive communications, creative services, and digital strategy. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Abbigail spent 25 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including 21 years in senior communication leadership roles. She served as head of communications from March 2021 to March 2022, overseeing the agency’s communication efforts during the COVID-19 emergency response. In that role, she reimagined CDC’s communications function and led the agency’s largest communications reorganization in more than a decade. During her tenure at CDC, Abbigail expanded clinical outreach capacity and built public-private partnerships and coalitions that advanced patient safety and public health initiatives. She spearheaded numerous national and international campaigns, including serving as one of the founders of the World Rabies Day initiative in 2007 and overseeing CDC’s antibiotic resistance communications from 2009–2016. She also played lead communication roles during major outbreak responses, including the 2012 multistate fungal meningitis outbreak, the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 mpox response. In 2016, Abbigail was named one of 36 Champions of PR by PR Week magazine for their inaugural Hall of Femme. In 2021, she was recognized as a PRWeek Health Influencer for shaping the national dialogue around the COVID response, vaccine distribution, booster efforts, and improving health outcomes. Abbigail earned a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida. She is married to influenza researcher Terrence Tumpey and is the proud mother of two sons. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Jaime Hunthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimehunt/https://twitter.com/JaimeHuntIMCAbout The Enrollify Podcast Network:Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too! Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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