Announcing Lafayette’s new Vice President for Communications and Marketing
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
I am excited to share with you that Kathryn Meier will be joining Lafayette as our new Vice President for Communications and Marketing. Kathryn brings to the role nearly 20 years of leadership experience in higher education. We are thrilled to welcome her to Lafayette, and look forward to her officially joining the College March 31.
Kathryn comes to us following a national search that attracted outstanding candidates from across the country and around the world. Throughout this process, she stood out from this strong field with extensive experience that prepares her well to provide vision, leadership, and direction for communications and marketing strategies and programs that align with and advance the College’s mission and priorities.
Across her career, Kathryn has earned a reputation as an innovative strategist. She has cultivated multifaceted expertise in strategic planning, crisis management, and communications and marketing, with a demonstrated record of collaboratively driving positive organizational change and building sustainable, optimized operations to support mission-driven success.
Since 2023, Kathryn has served as Vice Dean in the College of Engineering at Drexel University, following more than four years serving as the inaugural Assistant Dean for Strategy and Innovation in the same college at Drexel, during which time she accelerated the creation and launch of the college’s strategic plan, redefined and expanded marketing and communications operations, and led the implementation of new college-wide initiatives. In her role as Vice Dean, she served as chief strategist and the Dean’s deputy for Drexel’s flagship college. She drove implementation of top priorities, deepened existing industry and alumni partnerships, and harnessed opportunities around strategic interdisciplinary initiatives.
Prior to Drexel, Kathryn served for more than 15 years in a variety of positions across different colleges and academic departments at the University of Delaware. Her roles included Chief of Staff and prior to that Director of Communications in the College of Arts and Sciences, Manager of Marketing and Communications in the Lerner College of Business and Economics, as well as Assistant to the Chair in the Department of English. She also held earlier roles in the university’s Sea Grant program and Office of Residence Life.
Kathryn’s extensive administrative experience is complemented by her time spent teaching and advising students at both Drexel and Delaware. Her courses as an adjunct faculty member and guest lecturer focus primarily on stakeholder engagement, technical, and business communications, while she also delivers executive communications workshops to senior STEM faculty as part of the ELATES at Drexel program.
Active in service to the profession, Kathryn’s professional affiliations include the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Association for Business Communications, Association for Women in Science (AWIS), and Association for Continuing Higher Education, with service in her earlier communications roles to the Public Relations Society of America and the National Federation of Press Women. She has received numerous professional honors and awards, and her work has been published in institutional and national publications.
A native New Yorker and an active senior dog rescue volunteer and foster, Kathryn holds a B.A., MBA, and Ph.D., all from the University of Delaware. She has also earned leadership certifications from Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education, Duke University CE, and the HERS Leadership Institute at Bryn Mawr College.
I extend my sincere gratitude to the members of our search committee for their diligent efforts on this comprehensive search: Krista Evans and Scott Hummel, co-chairs, and Adam Biener, Fran Della Badia ’91, Sherryta Freeman, Chris McCumber ’89, Scott Morse, Mary Neuenschwander, Melissa Schultz, and Nicole Eramo (ex-officio).
We are excited to welcome Kathryn and her family to our Lafayette community.
On Lafayette!
President Nicole Hurd