Vice President Integrated Communications

The Vice President for Integrated Communications is a newly established role and will serve as the chief communications officer responsible for conveying the University’s mission, vision and values to internal and external audiences. This person provides leadership for University marketing, web content, licensing and internal campus communications, and oversees University Relations, the Broadcast Media Center, and Printing and Graphic Services. The vice president provides strategic leadership, counsel and assistance to top administrators and across campus in the areas of communications, marketing, public broadcasting, media relations, crisis management and outreach. In this capacity, this individual works with the president, provost, cabinet members, deans and other academic officers.

Interim Vice President, Peggy Kuhr

August 21, 2012

Peggy Kuhr, dean of The University of Montana School of Journalism, has been named UM’s interim vice president for integrated communications. She started her new duties Aug. 21 and will report directly to President Royce Engstrom.

Kuhr chairs the search for the new vice president for integrated communications position and will return to her dean role once the new vice president has been hired and begins work. Denise Dowling, chair of UM’s radio-television department, will serve as interim dean for the School of Journalism.

“I am pleased to employ Peggy’s expertise as a member of my cabinet as we begin a new academic year,” Engstrom said. “She is known for her strong journalism background and her insistence on transparency. I believe she is uniquely positioned to expand and enhance our communications with the campus community and the greater Missoula and Montana communities.”

“I am honored to serve in this important officer-level position for my alma mater,” said Kuhr, who earned her undergraduate degree at UM. “As a member of the campus family and as a journalist, I understand the need for the University to communicate quickly and clearly with the public during this time of transition to a new vice president.”

 Peggy Kuhr has been dean of the School of Journalism since August 2007, when she returned to her home state and her alma mater. She had a 26-year career in newspapers before joining The University of Kansas in 2002 as the Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community.  Kuhr is president of the national Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.

At KU, Kuhr co-developed a website featuring community journalism tools, training tips and insights into how communities work. She also created the Rosedale Project, where KU journalism students developed an after-school program for Rosedale Middle School students in Kansas City, KS.

Kuhr spent 16 years at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, WA, serving as projects editor, city editor and managing editor for content. The newspaper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1993 in Spot News reporting for coverage of the Randy Weaver standoff on Ruby Ridge in North Idaho. She was city editor at the time, and directed reporting coverage of the 13-day siege.

Kuhr also worked for The Hartford (CN) Courant and the Great Falls (MT) Tribune. After receiving her Bachelor's degree from UM, she studied at the Université de Rouen in France under a Rotary International Graduate Fellowship. She is a Michigan Journalism Fellow. Her Master's degree, from Gonzaga University, is in Organizational Leadership. Her husband, Tom Foor, is professor emeritus at UM and continues to teach statistics and beginning anthropology courses.