The Graduate School of Education’s redesign of its website has been recognized with a Gold Award in the 2025 Education Digital Marketing Awards.

GSE officials say the award celebrates the school’s transformation of its digital presence into a human-centered, data-driven platform that inspires prospective students to explore, engage and apply.

“This award affirms the strength of our strategy and our commitment to creating a digital presence that is as welcoming as it is effective,” says Amber Winters, assistant dean for marketing and director of communications at GSE. “We are proud of the recognition and even prouder of the impact it has had on the students we serve.”

GSE partnered with Simpson Scarborough to reimagine the website experience, simplifying more than 2,500 pages of content and reshaping the site around clarity, storytelling and a stronger emotional connection with prospective students. The refreshed site emphasizes intuitive navigation, clear pathways to programs and outcomes, and a digital voice that reflects the school’s mission of equity, access and impact.

“Design was only one part of the transformation — this project was about people,” Winters explains. “The new site gave us a way to tell our story with heart and purpose. Prospective students can immediately see themselves in the narrative, navigate with ease and connect with the information that matters most.”

The redesigned website, which launched in January 2025, delivered results within the first 30 and 90 days. Engagement rate increased by 16 points year over year — the most significant gain to date for a Simpson Scarborough project — while clarity of messaging, ambition association and user perception improved across all major content areas. Visitors spent more time on the site and flowed more effortlessly toward key actions, including applying.

After 90 days, the site’s engagement rate rose from 43% to 59%, and average engagement time per session increased by six seconds — an impactful shift given the industry’s typical attention window of three to five seconds.

In addition to Winters, members of the GSE’s marketing and communications team who worked on the project are Nicole Mehlman-Davidow, assistant director of communications and web; William J. Belz III, assistant director of web and accessibility; and Danielle M. LeGare, director of content, whose collaboration and strategic vision shaped the redesign’s success, Winters says.

For more information about the Education Digital Marketing Awards, visit https://educationdigitalmarketingawards.com/