The following email was sent today to the MIT community by President L. Rafael Reif.
To the members of MIT’s faculty and staff,
I am pleased to share the news that, after a year-long search, MIT will soon have a new vice president for communications. Alfred Ironside, most recently vice president for global communications at the Ford Foundation, will join us on February 24th. Alfred will serve on MIT’s senior leadership team and report directly to me.
As MIT’s chief communications officer, Alfred will advise senior leaders across MIT and shape our overall communications strategy, including media relations, crisis communications, marketing and branding, as well as digital strategy and development. In addition to supervising the Office of Communications – which includes the MIT News Office, Communications Initiatives, Reference Publications and CopyTech – Alfred will seek to align, support and inspire the efforts of communications professionals across the Institute.
From the U.S. State Department and the American Red Cross to the United Nations and the Ford Foundation, Alfred has devoted his career to mission-driven institutions with global reach. Working on the ground around the world as well as in senior management roles, he has built a remarkable record of helping distributed organizations advance their missions through smart and strategic communications.
You can read more about his background here.
Alfred inherits a function with impressive strengths. Every month, our communications reach tens of millions of people worldwide, and MIT News is among the most visited university news sites in the nation.
Our communications team is eager for his arrival, and I know our whole community will benefit from his scope, strategic insight and personal wisdom. Raised in Philadelphia in a diverse family – his mother did not emigrate from Colombia until the age of 27 – Alfred’s personal experience also bridges cultures in a way very familiar at MIT.
As Alfred and his family make their move from New York, please join me in offering them a warm MIT welcome.
Sincerely,
L. Rafael Reif
