Senior Vice Chancellor and CFO Kelly Fox announced today that Frances Draper will be retiring from her role as vice chancellor for Strategic Relations and Communications, effective July 15. Associate Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Content Strategy Jon Leslie will assume leadership of the strategic marketing and media teams as the interim senior associate vice chancellor of Strategic Communications.
"When Frances first let me know she thought it was time to retire, I was concerned that CU Boulder would be losing a key leader with unique knowledge and experience," Fox said. "So I am gratified that I was able to convince her to stay on in another role that would allow her to scale back her time a bit, as senior strategic advisor for Public Policy and Community Relations, providing counsel to me and the Chancellor's cabinet."
In that role, Draper and the Public Policy and Community Relations team will continue to work closely with the strategic communications group. They will continue to manage community and local government relations, as well as legislative coordination/strategy, for CU Boulder in close coordination with the colleges and units, and with the system Office of Government Relations for state and federal issues.
"Advancing our public mission and connecting to the community is a key element of the Academic Futures plan, and even more important now as we look to make the university more self-sustaining in the future while remaining affordable for our students," Draper said. "I am truly delighted to have the opportunity to further contribute to the university."
Fox noted that Leslie will continue the focus that the strategic communications team has been developing over the past several years: coordinated communications to the campus' many constituents–students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and the public. The search for a permanent replacement will begin this fall.
"The Chancellor, Provost Russ Moore and I are really pleased with the gains we have made on making our communications more effective and coordinated among the colleges and with our strategic initiatives–contributing directly to recruitment, retention, building our reputation and building our fundraising capabilities," said Fox. "The use of data to inform the allocation of resources for communications is something the team has built over the years under Frances' direction, and Jon is leading the charge to make that yet more timely and meaningful."
