Laurel Stavis, director of public affairs and government relations at Wellesley College, will become the College's first director of public affairs next month.
The job is "a broadening and heightening of what used to be called news director," said Roland Adams, the acting director of the News Service.
In the new expanded role of director, Stavis will head the Public Affairs Office and serve as the Dartmouth's liaison between the President and the media as Dartmouth's principal communications officer, according to a College job description.
After a year-long search following Alex Huppe's resignation from the position of news director last fall, a committee chose Stavis out of a pool of nearly 200 candidates to fill the position, said Senior Assistant to the President Peter Gilbert, who headed the search committee.
"As director of public affairs, Laurel Stavis will lead a new era in Dartmouth's communications with its various constituencies, taking on a broadened portfolio of responsibilities and coordinating an array of communications efforts throughout the institution," said College President James Freedman in a statement released by the College.
Stavis said she is looking forward to coming to the College.
"I have admired the Dartmouth News Service from afar, and one of the things I most look forward to is working with them," Stavis said.
When asked if she had any special projects planned, Stavis replied that she plans on doing "a lot of listening to a lot of different people." She added that "Colleges are cultures and each is different."
Stavis said the job was an "opportunity to broaden Dartmouth's role in relation to its many constituencies."
Adams said that the News Service has a "tremendous staff, and I am not bashful about saying so." Although Adams believes he successfully handled his job as acting news director, he said "we are all looking forward to Laurel coming here and achieving new heights."
Gilbert previously told The Dartmouth the office formerly known as the College News Service changed its name to the Office of Public Affairs "to reflect the responsibilities of the office that deals with not just the media, but also with public affairs and communication issues."
Stavis is the ninth head of the operation, but the first after its renaming. Stavis is also the first woman to head the office, Gilbert said.
Stavis said she has been a member of the Wellesley public affairs staff since 1987.
Stavis's activities at Wellesley have included responsibility for advance security work with the White House for four visits to the college by three first ladies Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton and Raisa Gorbachev.
As a former professional classical singer, Stavis found that working in the Public Affairs Office at Wellesley "was much like singing." Both jobs require conveying acquired knowledge to large audiences, she explained.
