Strengthening the Higher Education and Vendor Relationship with Teresa Valerio Parrot

Gil Rogers, the host of FYI, is joined by Teresa Valerio Parrot, EdD, APR, principal at TVP Communications. Teresa also serves as co-host of the Trusted Voices Podcast, which focuses on bringing listeners into conversations with the leaders in higher education who are navigating the most high-profile and high-impact issues today. Teresa also is the founding co-editor and contributor to the Inside Higher Ed blog, Call to Action. 

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Who is Teresa Valerio Parrot?

Teresa often says that while her husband is her true love, her alma mater was her first love. When stepping onto a college campus, she is reenergized, and her clients can verify that she lights up when she visits. Higher education is her love and her home. (Her second and third are on an airplane and on stage as a keynote speaker.)

In this Episode…

Teresa brings her more than twenty years of experience (and love) of higher education to the discussion as she and Gil discuss her early career and how she discovered the intersection of communications and leadership.

Teresa and Gil examine the institution and “vendor” relationship. They explain the reality of the mantra “That can wait until after May” due to the May 1st national candidates’ reply date for admissions.

Gil references a LinkedIn post that served as a message to vendors to “cool it on the outreach to decision makers at institutions” during that time, as it could do more harm than good.

“There is a need for grace, and I mean that from both sides,” says Teresa. “We’re here to help, and that’s really what we enjoy doing, and that’s why we stay in our fields. There is this recognition that the only way we can do that is if we reach out and have a connection.”

Teresa points out that the reach out “Doesn’t always have to be that we’re looking for something. It may be that we have a resource, or we have something to provide.”

Gil then uses an analogy of a bus when examining higher education and the roles that everyone has to play (definitely worth listening just for this).

He says the people on campus and those in higher education adjacent vendor roles “Are here because we care about student perspectives and student outcomes, and that’s why we do what we do. And so that point of grace and understanding is that everyone has goals, everyone has priorities.”

Tune in to hear the rest of the discussion, and don’t forget to subscribe!

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