Meike Kaan, who is currently the College’s associate vice president for communications, will succeed Jim Reische as chief communications officer (CCO) on July 1. Reische will transition to a parttime position, President Maud S. Mandel announced in an all-campus email on Jan. 23.
In her new role, Kaan said she intends to collaborate with different offices at the College to develop and implement a cohesive communications strategy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which she cited as a watershed moment for the Office of Communications. “I look forward to continuing the work that we started two years ago, developing institutional messaging in really close collaboration with other units on campus,” she told the Record.
Kaan has worked at the College’s Office of Communications since August 2016. Previously, she served as the executive director of communications and external relations at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Doha, Qatar, and as the director of communications at Cornish College of the Arts.
“I’m really looking forward to connecting more deeply with the campus communities that I haven’t been in close contact with in my previous role — one of them is faculty,” she said.
Reische has served as the College’s CCO since December 2016. Before beginning his tenure at Williams, he held similar roles at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., and Grinnell College. He also worked in communications for four years at the University of Michigan, his alma mater.
As CCO at Williams, Reische has coordinated the communications strategy throughout a presidential transition, the drafting of the College’s strategic plan, and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I love being around people who are using their brains — thinking and talking about ideas and figuring out how they apply to the world,” Reische told the Record.
Reische highlighted the pandemic as a standout moment in his career. “The sophistication and compassion of that whole effort really made me proud to be here,” he said. “But it was exhausting … This job involves giving a lot of yourself to the community.”
Reische’s emails, particularly those sent during the pandemic, are known for their quick-witted humor.
After his retirement as CCO, Reische will remain at the College in a new, part-time role as special advisor to the president for executive communications and media relations. In his new position, Resiche will continue to collaborate with Kaan, Mandel, and the rest of the College’s senior staff to develop and implement a cohesive communications strategy.
“After a number of years in a really busy, vibrant, but also sometimes high pressure environment, I wanted to focus a little bit more narrowly on the parts of the job that I am distinctively good at,” Reische said. “It’s a pretty rare opportunity in a person’s career to be afforded that opportunity.”
