Rebecca Murphy started her new job as Associate Vice President for University Communications and Marketing on Jan. 3.

“Rebecca was selected because of her great and wide-ranging experience especially her experience in higher education,” said Emily Vincent, director of university media relations.

She previously served as the director of marketing communications of Geauga Lake, as well as the associate director of marketing for Cleveland Museum of Art. Most recently, she served as the assistant dean of marketing and communications, enrollment and student services at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

“My role is to really support our team and the great efforts that they put forth in enhancing our brand and working with different units around the university to help them be successful,” Murphy said.

Murphy took over for Tom Neumann, who joined Akron General for a senior vice president position in June 2012.

Vincent said Murphy has tremendous opportunities to market the university as a great institution and college town. According to Vincent, 110 people applied for Murphy’s position.

Murphy said she loves working at Kent State. She is originally from the Akron area with a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Akron University.

“It’s so welcoming and friendly,” Murphy said. “The people are wonderful, they’re so patient and kind as you’re learning so much about the institution.”

Murphy said Kent State is a large institution and it takes time to learn and develop relationships. She also said she believes the most important thing to accomplish at Kent State is taking its brand and incorporating and re-packaging that brand with all of the wonderful things happening on campus.

“The over arching goal would be to take Kent State and catapult it to solidify our position as a world-class institution,” Murphy said. “By doing that we will take a look at how we incorporate all the great new things that are happening with the brand we have and repackage that so we can take our place on that stage.”

Contact Haley Phillippi at [email protected].