Thursday, September 16, 2021
Joel Curran, who is vice chancellor for communications at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is shifting to Notre Dame for the VP-PA & communications spot effective Nov. 1.
Prior to joining his alma mater in 2013, Curran did a five-year stint at MSL Group as managing director for its midwest region and then New York.
Earlier, Curran had a nine-year run at Cramer-Krasselt, where he co-founded its CKPR unit.
At UNC, Curran oversaw 50 staffers dealing with media relations, executive communications, internal PR, web publishing and social media.
He handled fallout from the UNC’s connection to the Confederacy, drove publicity surrounding its $4.3B capital campaign and managed communications the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins called Curran a talented, highly accomplished leader in the higher education space who has a passion for the work of PR.
Curran said Notre Dame “with its Catholic mission, elite academics, rapidly growing research enterprise and highly ranked athletics program” makes it unique among top-tier global research institutions.