VCU news

By Anne Buckley

Pamela DiSalvo Lepley, APR, has been named vice president for university relations, a cabinet-level position in which she serves as chief communications officer for Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Medical Center with oversight of the offices of public affairs, university marketing, executive communications and events and special programs.

Previously at VCU, she has served as executive director of the Division of University Relations and as director of what was then called the Office of Communications and Public Relations.

“Pam launched the university's first-ever branding effort, which has been resoundingly successful in communicating as a unified, nationally competitive public research university with an academic medical center,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “Her experience, professionalism, judgment and insight into communications trends and best practices set the right tone for the university’s communications. She is a valued and trusted adviser.”

Lepley joined VCU in 2002 after serving as vice president and director of public relations at Siddall Inc., of Richmond, Va., where she developed and directed several award-winning strategic marketing and communications programs for a variety of national business and government clients. Formerly, Lepley was press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, serving as the governor’s chief environmental spokesperson.

Before that, she spent more than a decade in broadcast journalism working as a general assignment and political reporter before moving on to newsroom management as an executive producer and assistant news director.

Lepley has also served as a part-time faculty member in VCU’s Robertson School of Media and Culture, part of the College of Humanities and Sciences. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and has earned an Accreditation in Public Relations, or APR. She is the 2011 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Public Relations.

Lepley received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Pennsylvania State University and her Master of Public Administration degree from VCU.