Kathryn KranholdKathryn Kranhold

UCLA has appointed Kathryn Kranhold associate vice chancellor for university communications and marketing. She begins Dec. 1.

Kranhold will oversee several communications departments at the public university, which collectively comprises a staff of about 90 responsible for everything from UCLA’s branding, marketing and online presence, to its reputation and media engagement, to events planning duties with prospective students, parents and alumni. She’ll report to Rhea Turteltaub, UCLA’s vice chancellor for external affairs.

Kranhold comes to UCLA from Edelman, where she was executive VP in the independent PR giant’s Los Angeles office, specializing in reputation management, financial communications and corporate positioning. Prior to her time at Edelman, which she joined in 2013, Kranhold was senior VP of corporate communications at Walt Disney Co., where she handled PR, financial reporting, crisis and shareholder and government relations.

Before her life in PR, Kranhold was a journalist, serving as a staff writer for the Harford Courant, where she worked for 10 years, before moving to the Wall Street Journal, where she worked for the next 12 years. She later logged stints performing corporate reputation and litigation work at Brunswick Group, and served as a VP at Sard Verbinnen & Co.

“I'm thrilled to be joining one of the world's leading universities at a critical time to help drive communications around the campus's important teaching and research mission as well as its $4.2 billion Centennial Campaign,” Kranhold said in a statement.

UCLA this fall received more applicants than any other American university.