- Emily Sinsabaugh named VP for Marketing and Communications
- Business students take their lessons learned into the community
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Emily Sinsabaugh named VP for Marketing and Communications
Emily F. Sinsabaugh, Ph.D., has been named the new vice president for marketing and communications at St. Bonaventure University.
She begins her duties on Feb. 1, said Sr. Margaret Carney, O.S.F., S.T.D., University president.
Dr. Sinsabaugh has worked at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania since 1988, for the last 11 years as the Executive to the President for University Communications and Administrative Initiatives. Before that, she served Edinboro as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Speech and Communication Studies and as a media technician in the Office of Television and Media Services.
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to work for a University with such a strong academic reputation and a national profile of excellence. Sr. Margaret Carney has outlined a clear path for success, and I am looking forward to working with her and the campus and surrounding communities to secure St. Bonaventure’s place as a major higher education player in Western New York and across the nation,” Dr. Sinsabaugh said.
“My professional and educational experiences at Edinboro University and the University at Buffalo have prepared me well for this important leadership role.”
Dr. Sinsabaugh has served for the past three years as co-chair of Edinboro’s 150th Anniversary Commission and has co-chaired a project with Carnegie Communications to engineer a comprehensive research effort that will inform Edinboro’s branding, marketing and communications processes.
“Dr. Sinsabaugh’s ability to communicate tradition through events is so valuable as we approach our 150th anniversary in 2008,” Sr. Margaret said. “We need someone to be able to expertly manage our communications and marketing initiatives, and her substantial history of working in upper-level administration will help us to implement those plans and ideas as we go forward.”
She is an eight-year board member and past chair of the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education, and has given several conference presentations on topics ranging from leadership and professional development to planning and special events.
A 1988 Edinboro University graduate, Dr. Sinsabaugh earned a master’s in Communication Studies from Edinboro and a doctorate in Higher Education from the University at Buffalo. She also has experience in television, working part-time from 1988 to 1995 at the ABC affiliate in Erie, Pa., as an assignment editor, reporter and news videographer.
The vice president
for marketing and communications is a cabinet-level position that provides
overall leadership, planning and program development and coordination
of the following units: marketing, public relations, media relations,
communications, alumni relations and advancement, including the capital
campaign under the direct supervision of the associate vice president
for development.
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Business students take lessons learned into the community
Children in third-world countries, victims of natural disasters, youth hockey players in Olean, and young professionals who can’t tell a Pinot Noir from Boone’s Farm.
The common thread?
They all benefited from the efforts of students in Dr. Mike Russell’s Event and Sponsorship Marketing class in the fall semester at St. Bonaventure University.
Led by MBA students taking the class for graduate credit, four groups in the class ventured into the community to organize events and solicit sponsors to support them.
Students in a previous MKT 310 course did similar projects, but Russell choreographed those projects.
“I left it up to the students this time,” said Russell, an associate professor of marketing in SBU’s School of Business. “My charge to them was to have each of their groups decide what they wanted to do for an event. The only criteria was that they would create the events and they would obtain sponsorships for them.”
The four MBA students reviewed resumes of the undergraduates in class, conducted interviews of the students, and “essentially held a round-robin draft” to choose marketing teams, Russell said.
Inspired by the suggestion of a former SBU club hockey player in her group, Ashley Borrelli’s team conducted a youth hockey clinic at the Olean Recreation Center rink for two hours early one Sunday morning. About two dozen youngsters attended with their parents and were treated to instruction from four SBU club players and a breakfast after the clinic.
Three sponsors helped defray the cost of ice time. The $5 admission for each player helped pay for breakfast and ensured that the youngsters who registered showed up for the clinic, Borrelli said.
“People were very happy with the way the clinic went,” said Borrelli, a Rochester native. “The parents wanted us to do it every weekend and were very impressed with it.”
Karyn Wolf’s team organized a cultural event for SBU campus graduate students at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in November, featuring wine-and-food pairing; the center’s art galleries stayed open until 11 p.m. Three dozen grad students attended, sampling several Johnson Estate wines and Cuba Cheese products.
“We realized that people leaving college going into the business world often have no idea what to order at business functions, or anything about wine etiquette,” said Wolf, who lauded the winery, cheese company and Quick Center staff for their support. “People can get apprehensive at business functions about what to order.”
Wolf said fellow team leader Marissa Sciarrino, who organized an ornament fundraiser for BonaResponds, was extremely helpful in coordinating the Quick Center event. Sciarrino works in her spare time at the winery in Westfield, N.Y., her hometown.
“Marissa was great,” said Wolf, a Rochester native. “She led the (wine tasting) with all the professionalism and knowledge we could have hoped for. … And my team could not have worked better together. They made it a pleasure to plan and attend.”
Sciarrino’s project was “very successful,” she said. “We honestly didn’t think we’d sell over a hundred ornaments, which was our goal. And we sold 160.”
After expenses to make the ornaments, the fundraiser made $497 to benefit BonaResponds, the student service organization that sent more than 200 students to the Gulf Coast in March and that made several trips to Buffalo in October and November to help victims of the freak October snowstorm.
“BonaResponds really helped (the sale) by getting the word out at their meetings and on their Web site,” Sciarrino said. “That’s the No. 1 thing I learned (from this project) about marketing: Networking is your best asset and can save you a lot of money.”
The ornaments hung on trees in Hickey Dining Hall on campus and at the Allegany Park ‘N’ Shop during the two-week sale, and were returned to the buyers after the sale in time for the holidays.
Mike Damiano’s team raised almost $1,000 for UNICEF, utilizing the worldwide relief agency’s long-running Trick-or-Treat program. Despite early difficulties getting the familiar orange donation boxes placed in the community, the students distributed 200 UNICEF boxes around campus and in several area businesses and churches; about 75 percent of the boxes had been returned through mid-December, with almost $952 in donations.
“I just happened to be looking through a magazine and I saw the orange boxes. It took me back to Catholic grade school when we did that as a fundraiser,” said Damiano, who lives in Dunkirk. “Our group talked about it and thought it was a good way to promote social responsibility on the campus and in the community, and we felt it really embodied our Franciscan values.”
All the money raised benefits UNICEF programs for water, food, education and vaccinations in 156 countries, Damiano said.
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