02/18/2025
By Sarah Corbett

Dear Colleagues,

As a result of the university’s restructuring in December, 10 positions in the Office of Brand, Communications & Creative Strategy were eliminated. These cuts affected all working groups within our department.

The reduced staffing has required us to rethink how we can best align our efforts with UMass Lowell’s strategic priorities, particularly when it comes to growing enrollments.

As anyone who has worked with BCCS knows, a spirit of collaboration is central to the ethos of the department. We are proud to partner with colleagues from across the university to engage in creative problem-solving and to provide top-tier communications, content and marketing solutions.

However, our smaller team requires some changes in how we approach our work, and it impacts our availability to provide the same breadth of services. We ask for patience and understanding as we move forward.

As part of the changes in BCCS, Leo Rice has stepped into the role of executive director of enrollment marketing, where he will lead marketing initiatives across all student demographics. David Joyner’s role as senior director of communications and digital media has expanded to include oversight of the media relations function.

Also on the BCCS leadership team, Executive Director of Web Development & Experience Gerry Nelson directs web design and development as we move toward the next generation of uml.edu.

As our team continues to evaluate how to best partner with the campus, there are some things you can do to help:

• To request marketing support for programs or initiatives, print projects (such as posters or brochures) or media outreach, the best way to connect with us is to fill out a project request form.

• If you need help with a digital project such as uml.edu website updates, remediation of documents for accessibility, or customized URLs, you should fill out a web ticket.

• To request a change related to the Graduate and Professional Studies (UML Online) website, complete this form.

By taking these steps, you will help us review your request as expeditiously as possible.

Looking ahead, we are excited that we will soon be sharing with the campus updated branding guidelines. These guidelines, which were developed over the past year with input from the campus community, will help us shape a recognizable and consistent identity for the university as we continue to evolve as an institution.

These are challenging times for everyone in higher education. But working together, we know UMass Lowell will continue to deliver a world-class education for our students and play a central role in driving innovation and opportunities in our region. Here at BCCS, we are proud to be a part of those efforts.

If you have any questions at all, please get in touch: Sarah_Corbett@uml.edu.

Sarah Corbett
Senior Executive Director, BCCS