Relational, strategic, and unapologetically business: Katie Rigney-Zimmermann on admissions leadership

International Women’s Day: Relational, strategic, and unapologetically business: Katie Rigney-Zimmermann on admissions leadership

There is a version of admissions that schools still cling to. A department responsible for inquiries, applications, tours, and paperwork. The version that sees it as administrative. Functional. Reactive. Katie Rigney-Zimmermann knows that version is scraping just the surface.

Admissions, done well, is far more than process. It is relational. It is strategic. It is business savvy. And in a market where parent behavior, competition, and expectations are shifting fast, it is one of the clearest windows a school has into its own future.

Now Director of Admissions at the American International School of Budapest, Katie brings more than 15 years of experience across international school admissions, including senior admissions, marketing, and communications leadership roles at Saigon South International School. 

What makes Katie’s perspective so refreshing is that she says what many schools still hesitate to admit: admissions has always involved sales.

“Early on, a lot of what we did in the office was sales pitching. It was paper-based. Families came in, you gave the tour, and then you followed up. Phone calls, emails. That was the world.

That’s a four-letter word in schools we must recorgnize. Especially with not-for-profit schools… they don’t think sales. But it still has to happen. Parents have choices. They have many choices.

If schools don’t understand that part of the role–the relationship-building, the follow-up, the communication of value–then they’re going to struggle. You can’t just assume families will understand what makes you different. You have to help them see it.”

That honesty matters. Katie is not arguing that schools should become corporate. She is arguing that schools need to be honest about what enrollment requires: trust-building, clarity, follow-through, and a much stronger understanding of how to connect with families in a competitive market. Sales. 

She is just as direct about where admissions belongs internally.

“Our role is super strategic. If you’re not going to get the enrollment numbers, if somebody can’t purposefully predict what that should be and let you know, it shifts the direction of the school.

Admissions often hears and sees more of what’s happening in the marketplace than any other position. We hear what parents are worried about. We hear what they’re comparing. We hear what they think they understand and what they don’t. That’s important for leadership teams to know as they plan for the future.”

That is the heart of her argument. That admissions provides leadership insight. It is one of the clearest places a school can understand how the market is moving in real time.

Katie also brings an especially important lens because she has seen different markets up close.

“In Asia, we saw the shift happen quickly. Families moved online. Especially after COVID. They weren’t looking at brochures and magazines anymore–they were looking at what came into their Facebook feed. We had to adjust how we communicated, how we nurtured, how we followed up.

COVID happened, and I think our marketing strategy saved us.

Now in Europe, I think there’s another wave coming. Private equity is seeing education as a lucrative business model. The websites are going to get flashier, because that’s the parent’s first stop. Schools are going to have to work harder to get their messaging out.”

It is a sharp read on what may be ahead. Europe may be moving into a more visibly competitive era–one where stronger brands, better digital experiences, and clearer conversion strategies become impossible to ignore.

But what stands out most in Katie’s perspective is that even as she talks about sales, competition, and market pressure, she never loses sight of the human side of the work.

“We need to lean into automation. AI and automation are going to change so many things for us. Make the tools work for us, so we can do the things only humans can do.

Use the CRM to do the background work so I can call parents and talk to them personally about their child, so I can set up the Zoom calls, so I can spend two hours on a visit. The parents still want the personal.

It has always been important to give parents the "Disneyland" experience when they are on campus and that will never change.”

That balance–strategic and human, commercial and connective–is exactly what makes Katie such a thought-provoking voice in this space.

And when the conversation turns to women in leadership, Katie’s perspective becomes even more powerful because she does not speak only about representation. She speaks about mentorship, community, and the women who made room for others.

“For the number of women who are in education, there are still fewer women in leadership. But I’ve seen women be incredible mentors to younger women–really stepping up to help them develop and create opportunities for them.

Aimee Gruberand TK Ostrom were a big part of that. They helped get the admissions and marketing strands into EARCOS. That didn’t just happen. They pushed for it, and then other women stepped up to keep it going.

For me, it was never just one mentor. It was a group of mentors. People I leaned on, asked questions of, and learned from along the way. Once we had our EARCOS Google group, it felt like everybody in it became a mentor. People were willing to answer questions, ask questions, and share what they knew. I never felt judgment.

And now I’m seeing that again in Budapest. Finalsite connected me with another admission director in the city and now we have started to build an admissions group across the schools. It has that same feeling of connection and generosity. In many ways, I feel like I’m helping build here what I was so lucky to have there.”

Her experience speaks to the kind of leadership schools need more of. Not just women in leadership, but women building pathways, networks, and spaces where others can grow with more support than they had themselves.

During my discussion with Katie, that, to me, is what stayed with me most. Not just that Katie understands admissions as leadership. Not just that she is comfortable naming the business realities around it. But she holds all of it together–strategy, people, market awareness, and mentorship– in a way that remains grounded in people.