College of Arts and Sciences Appoints New Communications Director

Sarah Scalese, a communications professional with more than 10 years of experience in both higher education and corporate public relations, has been named director of communications in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic communications plan, in addition to coordinating day-to-day operations.

Sarah Scalese

Scalese reports directly to George M. Langford, dean of Arts and Sciences, and oversees a communications manager, web production specialist and social media coordinator.

“We are delighted to have Sarah as part of our team,” Langford says. “Her experience and expertise, coupled with her boundless enthusiasm, are a boon to the College of Arts and Sciences. In particular, she’s a savvy social media strategist who, in a short amount of time, has dramatically improved our engagement on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.”

Scalese comes to Syracuse from Boston, where she managed several consumer technology accounts at Racepoint Global, an advanced marketing services agency. Before that, Scalese led the Corporate, Education and Nonprofit Practice at Schneider Associates, where she conceptualized, developed and implemented integrated public relations campaigns for such clients as the MIT Sloan School of Management, the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration and Northeastern University.

At Syracuse University, her work encompasses interdisciplinary public relations, digital PR and social media marketing.

“I am excited to be part of the College of Arts and Sciences because, in many ways, it is the heart and soul of Syracuse University,” Scalese says. “Almost every student on campus comes into contact with the college, directly or indirectly, during his or her time here. This creates myriad opportunities for us to tell our story, thus elevating our profile.”

In addition to galvanizing the college’s social media presence, Scalese has bolstered the number of published student and faculty stories—and, by extension, associated media hits. (Her insistence on publishing four stories a week has recently spawned coverage in the New York Times, CBS Sunday Morning, Parade magazine, Entertainment Weekly and the Huffington Post.) She also is working to better integrate the communications efforts of the college’s many academic and non-academic units.

“Right now, much of my time is devoted to identifying our PR strengths, as well as those areas needing improvement,” says Scalese, who earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Jacksonville University in Florida. “Organizational behavior and thought management are vital to this process.”

Scalese also has served as communications director for the Massachusetts House Minority Leader, where she was named “Press Secretary of the Year” for two years in a row; and spent five years writing and producing televised newscasts in Boston; Albany, N.Y.; and Jacksonville, Fla.

She resides in Marcellus with her husband, Justin Gravius ’04, a web communications specialist at Cornell University.