The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology has named Nicole Greenwald (MA in Counseling Psychology, 2011) as Vice President of Brand & Enrollment—a position that serves as the institution’s strategic and operational lead in branding, communications, marketing, and enrollment.
Greenwald moved from Florida in 2008 to enroll as a student at The Seattle School, where she has been employed in various positions since 2009. Prior to joining The Seattle School, she worked in donor development and admissions in primary school and university settings in south Florida. Her previous positions at The Seattle School have included Admissions Counselor, interim Manager of Admissions and Director of Admissions, and Director of Enrollment Management & Marketing. The new position—VP of Brand & Enrollment—integrates and expands upon the work Greenwald has contributed to The Seattle School for the past decade.
“Branding language isn’t particularly common in higher ed, but it’s indicative of a function I believe we need to create a platform big enough to hold the fullness of our story,” says Dr. Craig Detweiler, President of The Seattle School. “I’ve been impressed by Nicole’s ability to capture and share many voices emanating from within our community. This makes her uniquely equipped to steward and extend our mission and brand through leading our enrollment, marketing, communications, media, and public relations initiatives. Join me in celebrating Nicole’s contributions and affirming the work she is charged with in this new role.”
Greenwald also works as a licensed mental health counselor and clinical supervisor at the Shelterwood Collective, a collective of therapists and other healing professionals in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, which she co-founded in 2011 with fellow MA in Counseling Psychology alumna Bethanne Kinmonth. This work allows Greenwald to collaborate in community with other therapists and healers, remaining attuned to the evolving needs and realities in the helping professions—which, in turn, informs her ability to steward The Seattle School’s brand and foster relationships with potential students.
“We have a practitioner/scholar model for our faculty. I am grateful to be part of an organization that values bi-vocational practice,” says Greenwald. “My work as a therapist keeps me deeply connected to the on-the-ground realities of this field. I lean on this felt experience often as I invite others into this work.”
In her role at The Seattle School and her work out in the Seattle community, Greenwald brings a creative, relational approach to business development, nonprofit leadership, and entrepreneurship. After nearly a decade, that is still one of the things Greenwald most appreciates about being part of The Seattle School: building creative, adaptive systems that reflect the missional impulse toward integrating realms that are often perceived as separate.
“We are all complex, and vocation is complex, so to be part of an organization that not only supports that but celebrates it—that is probably the thing that I like most about inviting people to come here,” says Greenwald. “We offer a frame, but what our alumni are doing with it is so broad, diverse, and creative. Those are such fun stories to tell—and they’re such missional stories, too.”
That integration of creativity, relationship, and entrepreneurship has marked every stage of Greenwald’s career at The Seattle School. In the realms of marketing, communication, and admissions, she has worked to build teams, develop infrastructure, and foster cohesive innovation as The Seattle School has grown and established itself as a leader in the realm of theological education. All of this—integration, innovation, creativity—is formally and explicitly contained in Greenwald’s new title of Vice President of Brand & Enrollment. “Because that’s what a brand does,” she says. “The brand is the story that emerges from the mission, and it holds together all the different stories that are born out of that mission.”
Whether it is designing a solution to a problem, modeling rhetorical and dialogical leadership, or innovating new ways to tell the story of The Seattle School, Greenwald’s work in brand stewardship reflects a broader institutional commitment: bringing complexity, integration, and embodied, real-world wisdom to realms that are often engaged dogmatically and in isolation.
“In our 21 years, we have evolved so much and our impact has expanded dramatically,” says Greenwald. “In a world with such complex division and such a deep need for wise healers and leaders, my hope is that our brand will continue to evolve and adapt as we amplify our mission. We’re very different than we were 21 years ago, but that founding mission of text.soul.culture is just as important today as it was then. I hope we’re always exploring new ways of telling that story.”