Ronda Russell

Ronda Russell has played a leading role in the sustained and diversified enrollment growth at Montana State University over the past 25 years including record enrollments for each of the 10 years leading to MSU’s 125^th anniversary. An undergraduate of Concordia College and a master’s degree student at MSU, Russell began her MSU career in 1983 as a part-time assistant in the new student orientation program. She was soon asked to spend the remainder of her time in the Office of Admissions, where she was named director in 1993. Through bold vision, careful use of sophisticated data, demanding mentoring of staff and just plain putting in the time, Russell has significantly enhanced MSU’s visibility to students across the country and with curricular interests that make MSU a good fit. She is the chief architect of a carefully built long-term recruitment and orientation strategy that annually communicates MSU’s exceptional story to 200,000 prospective students, welcomes over 25,000 to campus visits and guides over 3,000 new students through their first steps at MSU.  

Ronda Russell has expanded MSU’s reach for enrollment, contacting over 200,000 students per year through creative communication campaigns and welcoming nearly 25,000 campus visitors each year.