Dear UMBC Community,

It is my great pleasure to share the news that Lisa K. Van Riper has been appointed as UMBC’s vice president for communications and marketing. She comes to UMBC from Goucher College in Baltimore, where she serves currently as vice president for marketing and communications. She will begin in the role at UMBC on July 21.

Lisa has more than 25 years of experience in communications and marketing in higher education, consumer packaged goods and services corporations, and public service agencies. At Goucher, she leads a team of professionals who collaborate across campus to support the college’s goals for recruitment, fundraising, reputation-building, and more through an integrated, digital-first approach to storytelling and marketing. She successfully led a major branding initiative for the college and has overseen a broad effort to enhance and modernize the college’s digital marketing strategy and develop a cohesive, unifying brand identity.

As a member of the president’s cabinet at Goucher, Lisa has also attended thoughtfully to internal communications for the college, serving as lead for crisis and issues management communications and for presidential and cabinet communications generally.

Prior to her role at Goucher, Lisa served as vice president for marketing, communications, and information technology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and as vice president for communications and public relations at Common App. Her higher education leadership experience includes several years as assistant vice president for university communications at the University of Richmond, and her professional experience outside of higher education includes communications leadership roles with CarMax, Inc., and Alexandria Renew Enterprises, an independent, special-purpose government unit in Virginia that manages wastewater for the city of Alexandria and surrounding areas.

Lisa earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and is currently enrolled in Goucher’s Master of Fine Arts program in Nonfiction. She is an active member of Leadership Baltimore County.

In addition to being an expert marketer and talented communications professional, Lisa is a strong manager and leader who has successfully built and developed teams and fostered effective collaborations with campus partners. I am particularly excited about her skills in these areas and her deep interest in supporting the leadership and staff in University Communications and Marketing (UCM). Lisa’s expertise and experience will contribute enormously to our shared work to advance UMBC’s strategic priorities and our mission as a dynamic, inclusive public research university.

My thanks to all who participated in this important search and to the UCM team for its steadfast dedication to their work and to UMBC. I want to offer my sincere thanks, as well, to Tim Cobb, who has provided valuable support as interim vice president of the division since January. Congratulations and welcome, Lisa!

Sincerely,