Katie Stompor has been named interim director of Strategic Communications and Public Relations in the Office of Marketing & Communications on July 1. Stompor is excited to have a position that allows her to communicate with the PNW community.

“I like this job, because every day is different,” Stompor said. “There is always a challenge.”

Stompor was born and raised in Crown Point and went to Crown Point High School, where she played the flute and piccolo. She graduated at Illinois Institute of Arts in 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Media Arts. She is a graduate of Leadership Northwest Indiana, which is a program at the South Shore Leadership Center that was housed at the Portage Facility in 2014. She is currently a graduate student in the communication department at PNW, but originally, she wanted to study video game design. She decided it was more technical than she had expected and found that she was good at visual communication.

“I was always really obsessed with video games. I thought about going to college to design them. Once I went to college, I then changed my outlook and goals,” Stompor said.

Stompor began her career at PNW a few years ago, when she worked as a graphic designer in the Office of Marketing & Communications. Today, she still works closely with the web designers and graphic designers and assists with marketing and communications for PNW.

Kris Falzone, associate vice chancellor of Marketing & Communications, said with Stompor’s past experiences as a graphic designer and her experience with websites and project management, she brings a broad, multimedia background to the newly reshaped position due to the retirements of two former staff members in Marketing & Communications.

“She has a high level of energy and ideas for telling the PNW story and sharing news about our students, faculty and staff in innovative ways, particularly in the digital media environment,” Falzone said. “Katie is the primary force behind the push to increase the university’s social media.”

In addition to Stompor’s background, Falzone believes that Stompor’s status as a student is beneficial.

“Experiencing life as a student does give Katie a perspective that benefits her role as a university communications professional. For example, in influence improvements to the website or helping some departments understand how students receive information,” Falzone said. “I admire Katie’s enthusiasm for continually learning.”

Stompor is happy that she has the opportunity to help PNW communicate to the faculty and staff. She said she always looks for fun and interesting ways to communicate when she sends out press releases or manages the university’s social media.

“I am proud of where I have gotten to at this point. I have worked really hard and I am thrilled that Kris gave me this opportunity to fulfill this position as interim,” Stompor said. “It is fun to work with students and to see all of their different perspectives.”

Since Stompor’s position is an interim position, it is temporary. The position will be posted again in the next upcoming months and filled through a recruitment process.

“I anticipate applying again for this position,” Stompor said.