Milligan named executive vice chancellor for University Relations

Tom Milligan has been named executive vice chancellor for University Relations by incoming Chancellor Robert C. Holub.

Milligan will direct marketing, branding and communications efforts and will play a lead role in developing a comprehensive strategy to improve the campus’ communications with alumni and its fundraising capabilities.

Milligan, who will begin his new position Sept. 1, comes from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he served as vice chancellor for communications at Tennessee’s flagship research university since 2005. Previously, he spent 13 years at Colorado State University, rising to become assistant vice president, university relations. He has won the highest professional awards, notably the Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America, the Gold Medal from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the Communicator of the Year for the Colorado chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Holub said, “I consider this vice chancellorship to be a key position on my team and Tom to be uniquely qualified to fill it and perform at high levels. He has built successful programs at two public research universities and has served in leadership roles at both institutions.”

Milligan, who has worked with Holub at the University of Tennessee, said, “I am pleased to be joining UMass Amherst and Chancellor Holub in this exciting time in the university’s history. I look forward with great enthusiasm to support his efforts as he leads UMass Amherst to compete with the best public institutions across the country.”

Holub noted that in addition to communications and marketing expertise, Milligan, 43, has helped to plan and execute student recruitment efforts and worked to create innovative scholarship offerings. He has been a leader in advancement efforts, working closely with alumni and development units. He also has direct experience with a comprehensive fundraising campaign, government relations work and diversity efforts.

“Tom has outstanding insight into higher education, its challenges and its possibilities,” Holub said. “We share a commitment to the importance and value of the faculty as a core of a great public research university, and also of the role that universities must play in society.”

Prior to his higher education experience, Milligan served as a reporter in the Santa Fe bureau of the Albuquerque Journal and as a radio and news sports director for KBOM-FM in Santa Fe. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State, San Marcos) and a master of business administration from the executive MBA program of the New York Institute of Technology.

Milligan is married to Coleman Cornelius, a writer and former reporter for the Denver Post. The couple has two sons, Quinn, 11, and Mason, 8.

July 11, 2008.

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