This December, University President Frederick Lawrence officially announced Ellen de Graffenreid's appointment as senior vice president for communications, effective Feb. 1.

De Graffenreid will be replacing Andrew Gully as SVP of communications, a position that has been vacant since June. Gully left his position to become senior vice president and worldwide director of communications for Sotheby's. De Graffenreid will also have the opportunity to build her own staff following Bill Burger's departure as the former vice president for communications last December to work at Middlebury College.

The selection was officially announced to the University community in an email from Lawrence on Dec. 20. "Ellen is an integrated communications and marketing leader with deep experience in higher education and the high technology sector," the email read. De Graffenreid will oversee such endeavors as media relations, government relations and public affairs, advertising, Web services and publications.

De Graffenreid will report directly to Lawrence. "I am thrilled to welcome Ellen to campus and to the executive team," said Lawrence in a Dec. 20 BrandeisNOW article. "She is an experienced and skilled communicator with an impressive background in academia, health care and the corporate sector. I know she will have a tremendous impact in raising Brandeis' profile across the country and around the world."

De Graffenreid hopes to showcase all of the causes and activities Brandeis students pursue.

"I'm really looking forward to working more closely with students and learning about what the students are doing," said de Graffenreid in an interview with the Justice.

"What I think is great about Brandeis is the students take initiative ... and that is where the super great stories come from."

According to de Graffenreid, communications and marketing involve storytelling. "You have to have fantastic stories and things going on, and Brandeis has a lot of things going on ... that will be very engaging to people," said de Graffenreid.
De Graffenreid also noted the University's focus in specific areas of excellence.

"I have been working at big public universities that all have programs of excellence, but they have broad missions ... But [at] Brandeis, you have this fabulous liberal arts education ... with a research enterprise in specific locations," said de Graffenreid.

According to de Graffenreid, the University's distinctive nature is one of the reasons she chose Brandeis.

"Working at these types of institutions in marketing is very attractive because you can show what is unique about that school," she said.

De Graffenreid is leaving her position as director of communications and marketing at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to come to Brandeis.

Prior to her position at UNC, de Graffenreid acted as director of communications and marketing at the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center and director of communications and donor relations at the Washington State University Foundation.

Preceding her employment at the university level, she worked for Hewlett-Packard Corporation, and has provided free marketing consulting for Planned Parenthood of Louisville, the Louisville e-Health Initiative, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program and Fearrington Cares.