Mariellen Gallagher Joins Rockefeller University as Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs

Mariellen Gallagher, who has handled external affairs for three major universities, has been appointed vice president for communications and public affairs at The Rockefeller University. The announcement was made jointly by Arnold Levine, Ph.D., the president-elect of The Rockefeller University, and Torsten N. Wiesel, M.D., the current president.

“As The Rockefeller University prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2001, we are pleased to appoint Ms. Gallagher to lead the communications and external public relations programs and activities,” says Levine. “With extensive experience in both journalism and marketing communications, she will strive to increase public recognition of our mission and achievements.”

“With its extraordinary contribution to scientific research and graduate education, The Rockefeller University is a world-class institution,” says Gallagher. “I look forward to communicating the exciting sense of discovery that goes on here every day. The upcoming centennial provides a wonderful opportunity to tell that story and reinforce the university’s contribution in making New York City an international center of science, commerce and culture.”

Gallagher began her career as a radio and television broadcaster at the CBS- and ABC-owned stations in Philadelphia, where she produced award-winning reports and anchored the noon newscast. In the mid-1980s, she took her skills to the University of Pennsylvania working as a public relations specialist while attending the Wharton School of Business.

At Penn, where she was director of public affairs from 1985 to 1989, Gallagher received an award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for a national radio series about college costs. In 1989, she moved to New York University, and in 1994 became assistant vice president of public affairs at Fordham University. At Fordham, she won four more CASE awards for the university’s magazine and publications, including a Gold Medal for a series of student-recruitment brochures that contributed to a 70 percent increase in applications.

As spokesperson at Penn, NYU and Fordham, Gallagher developed a strategic approach to media relations, publications, advertising and events- and crisis-management, resulting in increased attention from the media, government and the public.