about us
We’ve spent our careers in and around schools — leading marketing, communications, and admissions from the inside, then guiding dozens more as consultants. Somewhere along the way, this stopped being a job and became the work we genuinely love: helping a school find its story, and the families who belong in it. House of Hats is the two of us doing that work on our own terms — with the schools we believe in, and the methods we’ve built ourselves.
There’s no account team here, and no junior staff learning on your dime. When you work with House of Hats, you work directly with the two of us — and we work side by side on every project, bringing different, complementary strengths to all of it: strategy and storytelling, the big picture and the fine detail, marketing and admissions, the plan and the hands to help carry it out.
With more than 25 years of experience, Tracy is the strategist schools lean on to see the whole picture — connecting brand and messaging, website strategy, and marketing and admissions planning into one coherent direction. Before House of Hats, she built Finalsite’s marketing consulting service from the ground up, creating the frameworks and training behind it and mentoring a team of consultants who supported schools across the country.
That consulting depth is built on years leading marketing, communications, and admissions inside schools themselves. For more than a dozen of those years, she ran all three for a large multi-campus international school — navigating competition, enrollment, brand, and a centralized admissions approach across campuses. It’s a rare vantage point: she has sat in the seat her clients sit in, and built a service that supported countless more — which is why schools trust her to know what will actually work.
With more than 15 years across schools, nonprofits, and cultural institutions, Lori works across brand, enrollment marketing, and family communications — and brings a distinctive mix of instincts to all of it. A genuine technology enthusiast, she’s quick to master any platform a school throws at her, and pairs that fluency with the analytical skill to turn complex data into clear, actionable strategy — whether she’s shaping an inbound campaign, sharpening website messaging, or refining admissions communications. Through all of it runs a storyteller’s instinct for finding what makes a school distinctive and saying it in a way the right families notice.
That range comes from years inside schools themselves, where she held communications, admissions, and advancement roles — serving as a director of communications and brand steward, spearheading website redesigns, and building the advancement and fundraising efforts that taught her how schools cultivate lasting community. It’s why she understands the whole journey, from a family’s first inquiry to enrolled, engaged, and giving back.
You’ve met us — the best next step is a conversation about you. Tell us where your school is and where you’d like it to go.
