Notre Dame Appoints Gibbons as Executive Director
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPatrick Gibbons will join the University of Notre Dame as executive director of academic communications in April. He is currently chief communications officer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. In his new role, Gibbons will work closely with faculty, administrators and staff members to enhance Notre Dame’s academic reputation nationally and internationally among its peers in higher education as well as with prospective faculty and students. He also will support broader strategic efforts to enhance relationships with corporate sponsors and government, nonprofit and philanthropic audiences. Gibbons has a strong background in government and nonprofit scientific and research communications, strategic communication planning, media relations and marketing. His career began as a public affairs officer in the United States Marine Corps, during which he served in a variety of assignments, including head of media relations for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon and public affairs officer for the commandant of the Marine Corps. After leaving the corps, Gibbons served as communications director for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. He later served as communications director and then vice president of communications for RTI International, one of the world’s leading independent nonprofit research and development organizations, dedicated to improving the human condition by turning knowledge into practice. Since 2013, Gibbons has served as chief communications officer for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a role in which he worked closely with executives and technical staff members across the organization to develop and modernize the laboratory’s enterprise-level communications function, processes and tools. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1988 with a bachelor’s of science degree. Gibbons earned a master’s degree in communications from the University of Oklahoma in 2002.