CU-«Ƶ Vice Chancellor for Strategic Relations Frances Draper announced Wednesday that Bronson Hilliard, assistant vice chancellor for Strategic Media Relations, will be leaving CU-«Ƶ on Dec. 16 to accept a position as senior associate with the Denver-based consulting firm GBSM.
Hilliard has held the AVC post since June, 2013. Prior to that, he for served for more than six years as Director of Media Relations and Spokesperson for the campus.
“Over his near-decade of service to CU-«Ƶ, Bronson built a highly strategic and proactive media relations team and really brought our media operations into the digital age,” said Draper. “His collegiality, strategic thinking, humor and perspective will be greatly missed.”
As AVC for Strategic Media Relations, Hilliard oversaw news, issues management, executive communications, internal communications and social media. He and his team manage more than 400 packaged news stories and media issues per year on behalf of the faculty, staff, students and administration of CU-«Ƶ.
He helped establish CU-«Ƶ Today – the campus’s first digital news tool – and with his social media team oversaw the growth of the campus’s social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to record numbers. He also established the university’s crisis communications cross-campus team, which has expertly handled numerous crisis events on the campus, such as the 2013 flood.
Draper said she will soon launch a search for Hilliard’s replacement and will lead the Strategic Media Relations operations herself in the interim. Any media questions can be sent to her, Ryan Huff or Malinda Miller-Huey in the Strategic Media Relations group.