UA Little Rock Team a Finalist for National Marketing Award

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of three finalists for the AMA (American Marketing Association) Foundation Higher Education Marketing Team of the Year Award.

Additionally, Dr. Carrie Phillips, UA Little Rock’s chief communications and marketing officer, is one of three finalists for the AMA Foundation Higher Education Marketer of the Year Award.

The University of Oregon and Montclair State University in New Jersey join UA Little Rock as finalists, while the University of Arizona’s Christie Harper and the University of South Carolina’s Anne Peters are finalists along with Phillips. Winners for these awards, and others, will be announced during the AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education Nov. 8-11 in Aurora, Colorado. 

“Today’s higher education marketing requires an unparalleled mix of empathy, agility, and strategic foresight,” AMA CEO Bennie F. Johnson noted in an AMA news release. “This year’s finalists represent the absolute gold standard of our field, demonstrating how visionary storytelling and data-driven strategy can transform institutional reach and impact.” 

The team award honors a high-performing marketing team or department whose collaborative work, campaign performance, and problem-solving have set new standards for institutional impact, according to the AMA. The Higher Education Marketer of the Year award recognizes an individual higher education marketing leader who has demonstrated exceptional vision, transformed their institution’s market position, and advanced the overall field through strategic excellence. 

“I’m incredibly proud of this team — to be one of three finalists nationally says a lot about the work happening at UA Little Rock and the people behind it — what makes me especially proud is that we haven’t been afraid to change things, even when they were working,” Phillips said. “We’ve looked at the research, adjusted our strategy, changed how we work as a team, and kept looking for ways to get better. That’s not always easy to do.” 

Rather than resting on its laurels, UA Little Rock’s Marketing and Communications (MarComm) team challenged assumptions in the past year and emphasized the high quality of UA Little Rock education — and the outcomes of graduates — in addition to affordability, a message that translated to more engagement, applications, and enrollment. Freshman enrollment increased for a fourth-consecutive year, and is up roughly 70% from four years ago. 

“I think we’ve gotten really good at connecting the work to where the university is trying to go,” Phillips said. “We’ve evolved our brand strategy, restructured our team, and built much stronger partnerships across campus. And we’re seeing results.”

MarComm now joins campus conversations earlier, shaping messaging for best results, and the department re-organized for a stronger layer of leadership, creating clearer ownership across the team, more opportunities for mentorship and advancement, and more room at the senior level for strategy. Among MarComm’s innovations is MarComm Academy, which attracted approximately 75 faculty and staff participants for practical training directly from team members in their areas of expertise.

“We know our team can’t tell the UA Little Rock story alone, so we’ve spent a lot of time building relationships, sharing tools, and helping more people across the university become better marketers and communicators,” Phillips said. “We’ve done a good job getting the affordability message into the market — people know UA Little Rock is affordable — now we have an opportunity to keep building the quality and reputation side of that story: the experiences our students have here, the outcomes they’re seeing and the value of a UA Little Rock degree.”

For Phillips, the positive gains of the past year reflected her broader leadership philosophy: “I don’t think past success is a good enough reason to stop asking whether there is a better way.”

She brought that same commitment to continuous improvement from campus to her role as CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) IV chair. Under her leadership, CASE IV recorded 1,545 engagements against an annual goal of 748 — 207% of its target — and exceeded its goal every quarter. The impact extended beyond the region, as CASE adopted the full structure across its districts nationwide.

She’s emphasized professional development within MarComm, with members now regularly presenting at national conferences, and gaining the confidence to lead on campus and beyond. Phillips is also deeply involved with usage of Artificial Intelligence — a campus priority — including several MarComm-specific tools. 

“Higher Ed marketing has given me the chance to do work that matters, and I’ve gotten to do it alongside some really smart people who have made me better along the way,” she said. “I’m also very aware that nobody gets recognized for this work alone. I have an incredibly talented team, and we have colleagues across UA Little Rock who trust us enough to try new things with us.”

“To be recognized alongside some of the best higher ed marketers in the country is incredibly meaningful,” added Phillips. “It’s a good reminder of something I believe pretty strongly: what we do matters. It matters to our students, our institutions, and our communities.” 

The leading global professional marketing association, the AMA has almost 70 chapters and a presence on 350 college campuses across North America, according to the AMA. It’s home to five premier scholarly journals, and the association’s philanthropic arm, the AMA Foundation, strengthens and elevates the marketing profession by advancing knowledge, building a global community of marketing leaders, and supporting marketing initiatives that drive innovation and societal impact. 

“MarComm has helped bring greater focus and consistency to how we tell the UA Little Rock story; they’ve built strong partnerships across campus, created more opportunities for others to be part of that work, and kept the university’s larger goals at the center,” said Christian O’Neal, vice chancellor for University Advancement. “Being named one of three finalists nationally is a tremendous recognition of the entire team.”

“There is a lot of momentum at UA Little Rock right now, and telling that story well matters,” added O’Neal. “This team has helped more people see the quality of this university, the opportunities available to our students and the value of a UA Little Rock degree. It’s exciting to see that work recognized on a national level.”