Dear colleagues,
I am pleased to announce that I have named Anne Buckley, APR, as Vice President for Marketing and Communications. In this role, Anne will provide vision and leadership to bolster Maryland’s reputation as a top national and global university in research, academics, arts and athletics, with a commitment to embracing the diversity of our community.
Anne brings decades of higher education experience to build upon the creative foundation and strong brand that the Office of Marketing and Communications has helped establish. Under Anne’s leadership, I am excited to expand the university’s reputation for cultivating fearless leaders dedicated to the public good.
As vice president, Anne will lead the university’s 50-person Office of Marketing and Communications, which includes communications, marketing, editorial strategies, creative design and web services. She will work closely with senior leadership across UMD to develop and deploy a communications and marketing enterprise that serves the needs of the university while supporting the colleges, schools, programs and units.
Anne is joining UMD from the University of California San Diego, where she currently serves as the university’s inaugural chief communications and marketing officer. In this role, she has worked to unite reputation, brand and messaging priorities across the university, the academic health sciences schools, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the UC San Diego Health system, the NCAA Division I athletics programs, advancement and enrollment management. Anne also launched UC San Diego’s first strategic communications plan to drive awareness of the prestige and distinction of the brand.
Previously, Anne served as the inaugural chief communications officer for the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she directed a staff of approximately 80 professionals in all strategic public relations activities, with an emphasis on crisis communications and issues management; internal and executive communications; and oversight of WBHM public radio. Prior to that, she was the senior director in the Office of Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, and held positions as a reporter and national news editor for the Associated Press.
I would like to thank Jim Harris, Vice President for University Relations, for chairing a diverse and dedicated search committee which had the significant task of finding a successor for Brian Ullmann. Brian served in the role with distinction most recently for the last four years, and I am grateful to him for building out an exceptionally talented team of marketing and communications professionals. I would also like to thank Katie Lawson for serving as interim vice president and continuing to remain a valued member of my leadership team.
We look forward to welcoming Anne when she begins her role on September 4, 2024.
Sincerely,
