Distributed June 19, 2003
For Immediate Release

News Service Contact: Mark Nickel



Marisa Quinn named assistant to the President at Brown University

Marisa A. Quinn, currently director of community and government relations, will become assistant to the President at Brown University on Aug. 1, 2003.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — President Ruth J. Simmons announced today that she has appointed Marisa A. Quinn, currently director of community and government relations, to serve as assistant to the President. Quinn will begin her new duties Aug.1 2003, although she will continue to be closely involved with community and government relations until a successor is named.

“I am delighted to have Marisa Quinn joining our senior leadership team in this important position,” Simmons said. “Marisa brings to my office her skills and strengths in communications, project management and external relations. Additionally, her experience in Washington and locally will be particularly helpful in our work as Brown continues to develop and improve its partnerships with the City of Providence and the State of Rhode Island.”

As assistant to the President, Quinn will have primary responsibility for assisting the President in managing the daily demands of the office. She will work closely with the President and other senior officers to implement University goals and objectives and to provide timely and effective communications on behalf of the President’s Office. Her duties will include:

  • serving as a liaison to various University constituencies, including faculty, students, staff, parents and selected external organizations;
  • representing the President, as requested, on University committees and at events;
  • functioning in an advisory capacity to the President and providing briefings and research materials regarding specified issues and priorities;
  • serving as the staff liaison for the cabinet, consulting with senior officers to establish decisions, and ensuring that decisions made at cabinet meetings are communicated and implemented;
  • providing oversight responsibility for the President’s schedule and travel agenda;
  • performing special projects and other responsibilities as assigned.

Quinn succeeds David A. Greene, who is now serving as interim vice president for campus life and student services.

Quinn, a 1986 graduate of the University of Rhode Island (B.A., political science), earned a master’s degree in political science and public policy at Rutgers in 1991. She began her career in public affairs in 1988 as a legislative aide to Sen. Claiborne Pell, then chairman of the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and the Humanities.

From May 1991 to May 1993, she was a policy adviser to New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, specializing in higher education, workforce development, science and technology and the economy. That led to a position as public affairs specialist with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where Quinn managed communications and served as the principal writer on a project to connect the Port Authority’s three airports in a regional transit network.

From March 1996 until she came to Brown in May 1999, Quinn was with the Rhode Island Department of Education, where she had overall responsibility for communications to the public, news media, education community and policy-makers in federal, state and local government.

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