Two seasoned marketing and communication professionals have been tapped to co-lead West Virginia University’s Division of University Relations during the time a national search is conducted to find a full-time vice president, WVU President Jim Clements announced Thursday. The positions are effective Feb. 1.
Associate Vice President for Marketing and Operations Tricia Petty and Assistant Vice President for University Communications Becky Lofstead will each take on additional duties and responsibilities to temporarily cover the vacancy created by the departure of Chris Martin, who recently accepted a position as the president of the Poynter Foundation in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“I have the utmost confidence in Tricia and Becky,” Clements said. “Together, their combined talents and skills will keep this Division moving forward over the coming months. They understand the current operations extremely well, have great contacts, and outstanding professional reputations, all of which make this a uniquely suited model for this transition period. I am very pleased and thankful that they have agreed to take on additional duties for the University.”
Petty joined WVU’s Enrollment Services unit in 2000 as a marketing and communication specialist, with responsibilities for the budget, personnel and data management. She also served as director of undergraduate recruitment before joining University Relations in 2006 to oversee integrated marketing and operations. She earned an undergraduate degree in international relations from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in counseling and human development from the University of Georgia.
Lofstead came to WVU in 1987 as assistant director of News and Information Services, and also served as director of that unit and as executive director of internal communications before being named assistant vice president for communications in 2008. She is a graduate of WVU’s Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
No changes in title are associated with these temporary extra duties and elevated responsibilities. Clements said he will announce a search committee and a chair of that group in the coming weeks, with the goal of filling the vice president’s post by fall.
-WVU-
01/31/13
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