Kim Manning

Kim Manning

Vice President for University Communications and Marketing
Rutgers University
Speaker

Bio

Kim Manning is responsible for high-level communications and marketing programs and university wide policies that advance the prominence of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and support the priorities of the central administration.

As a member of the President’s Administrative Council, she oversees the Department of University Communications and Marketing, which handles executive communications; university wide marketing programs; institutional brand management, including visual identity and trademark licensing; primary university websites and social media; major print and electronic publications, including Rutgers Magazine and Rutgers Today; university wide news and media relations; and institutional photography, as well as a variety of additional functions. The Department of University Communications and Marketing has won numerous awards for its publications, websites, public relations, and outreach programs and is the largest unit within Rutgers’ Department of External Affairs.

With more than 25 years of service to Rutgers, Manning rose through the ranks of the university, first joining the Office of Television and Radio as a producer/director in 1985. She became director of that office in 1992. Between 1996 and 1998, she was a key member of the project management team for RUNet 2000 and was instrumental in the planning of this $98 million data, video, and voice network installation project, believed at the time to be the largest telecommunications project undertaken at an American university. For two years until 2001, Manning managed the merger of television and radio with the publications office. In 2001, she became executive director for University Relations, serving initially in an acting capacity. She was appointed vice president for University Relations in 2004. In 2013, the department was renamed University Communications and Marketing, where Manning continues to serve as vice president. She is the first African American to hold the senior communications post at Rutgers. Manning also worked for the CBS Television Network in New York as regional manager in the affiliate relations division and for WPXI-TV, an NBC affiliate in her native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.