Please join me in extending best wishes to Gary Zarr. After the separation of Ms. Richie Hunter, Gary was asked to serve as Interim Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations (SCER), and as planned, he will be leaving Rensselaer at the end of the year. 

During the past year, Gary led the communications efforts of President Jackson’s transition and oversaw the publication of the university volume, Transformed and Transformative: Shirley Ann Jackson and the Reinvention of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I was honored to have Gary and the SCER staff to engage the campus community with my Inauguration events. Gary has provided strategic advice and counsel in leading SCER regarding community and regional engagement, government affairs, reputation management, and media relations. Gary was instrumental in working with our research faculty in announcing our partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical School and the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine in New York City. He oversaw the initiative to advance diversity marketing by developing bilingual marketing materials in English and Spanish and the development of a bilingual digital toolkit with messaging that fully aligned across the Institute.  

Gary intends to focus on communications, marketing, and other business ventures. Ms. Pamela Smith, Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations, will oversee the division, and we will begin a national search for a Vice President of Communications. 

I ask that you join me in wishing Gary Zarr the best in his future endeavors.