Nancy Paton, who led PR for Kaiser Permanente in the Ohio region, is moving to the University at Buffalo as communications chief of the largest of the Empire State's SUNY schools.
Paton takes the VP for communications title at UB on Nov. 11, responsible for the image of the research university with 13 colleges and more than 28K students.
UB associate VP/comms. Joe Brennan left in August for the VP for strategic comm. role at the Univ. of Iowa.
UB announced the search for the new communications position, along with a chief information officer, in March to support its UB 2020 strategic plan endeavor.
Paton handled PR, B2B marketing, internal and external comms. and government relations among her duties at KP. She was previously chief marketing and communications officer at University Hospitals in Cleveland and at Oakwood Healthcare (Dearborn, Mich.). She has also been a lecturer at Kent State Univ., where she teaches PR.
UB has New York's largest state-operated medical school and the only state law and pharmacy schools. It is in the midst of the strategic planning initiative under which it plans to grow by 40%.
President Barack Obama spoke at UB in August, noting the university's future plans, graduation rates and affordable price.
President Satish Tripathi said hiring Paton comes at a "special point" in the school's history as it looks to branding and positioning to pitch its status as a "21st century research university."
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