Umass Lowell welcomes new vice chancellor of University Relations
Diverse background elevated bec rollins
LOWELL >> First and foremost, bec rollins is a “storyteller.”
Starting out as a visual journalist and television reporter with a pass ion for multimedia, rollins’ career shifted to higher education, first in Boston and now in Lowell. rollins was named the next vice chancellor of University relations at Umass Lowell in a message from Chancellor Julie Chen on
Jan. 17.
rollins, who lowercases her first and lastname, will succeed Vice Chancellor for Advancement John Feudo, who has served as the interim vice chancellor of University Relations since August. She starts Feb. 13.
With a passion for “mission-based organizations,” rollinsmost recently served as the chief marketing officer and vice president of marketing and communications at Simmons University. She’s also led communications operations at Partners in Health, the Appalachian Mountain Club and Pathfinder International and was former Bostonmayorthomas Menino’s media relations manager, according to a university press release.
Umass Lowell became the perfect next step in her professional journey, rollins said, because of the significance of its city and community.
“When I heard about the position at Umass Lowell, understanding the differentiator about Lowell as being the place that focuses on attracting, educating and supporting and matriculating students who are first-gen students, students who are immigrants,” rollins said. “Feeling very close to that community personally, I felt that it was a natural selection for me in terms of being in higher ed and also wanting to stick tomy own personal will and need to be involved in a missionbased organization.”
As vice chancellor, rollins’ biggest priority is to “elevate the brand” of the university to showcase its importance to students and show them the access they’re afforded there. That means highlighting the “high- quality, affordable education” Umass Lowell provides, rollins said.
“We talk every day about higher ed, but it’s become so difficult for people to pay for the education that they need, especially the young people we’re talking about, it’s going to lift them into another place in life,” rollins said. “But if they’re saddled with all sorts of debt on the way out of school, it becomes even more difficult, so I think that this school will also provide that attractant for students.”
The hiring process, as with other higher-level positions, involved a search firm and a search com
mittee composed of university stakeholders, Chen said, but stand- out applicants were considered on a rolling basis, as they aimed to find a permanent hire quickly.
It was rollins’ experience and strength as a storyteller that made her truly stand out, Chen said. Not only are they appealing to high schoolers, but also to their families, alumni and corporations, Chen said, which means they needed an effective communicator to create such messaging.
Chen said she is excited to welcome rollins to the team and market their mission and goals that are “core to who (they) are as a university.”
“This outreach to first generation, first generation attitude students, promising them that they’ll have an opportunity to do hands- on work, get connected to companies and nonprofits that are likely to be the ones that will hire them,” Chen said. “It’s who we’ve always been, but it’s really making sure that it’s done in an intentional, strategic way and that we get that message out so that the students that would benefit most from being at Umass Lowell understand what we have to offer.”
rollins’ journalistic roots are strong. She worked
on Harvard University’s news team for more than 10 years, was a daily news reporter and producer for news stations in Boston, Nashville and Charlotte and is currently a member of both the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Press Photographers Association.
She said she plans to launch into the social media landscape and bring her background as a videographer to bear in the role, creating different types of messaging across platforms to reach their target audiences.
“I’ve always done multimedia since before there was the term ‘multimedia’ that we use now,” rollins said, “and so I feel like my time has come in terms of being able to understand, frankly, a lot more about social media and storytelling in general than many people in my generation, just because that’s always been something that’s been close to my heart.”
Jonathan Strunk, University Relations executive director of communications, said he and the other media executives look forward to collaborating with rollins and working under her leadership.
“I think I speak for everyone, I say we’re excited,” Strunk said. “We’re excited to welcome Bec to the team, we’re excited to learn from her and we’re excited to see what we can do together.”