The campus community welcomed Douglas Clark as the new director of Strategic Marketing and Communications on Feb. 23.

Clark said the unique dual-campus setup drew him to PNW. PNW has territory in rural, urban and metropolitan areas, which Clark said will enable him to market PNW in three different climates, reaching people all over northern Indiana.

Clark, who is originally from Winamac, Indiana, wanted to return to the area where he grew up to be close to home and to his daughter who attends DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Clark has a bachelor’s degree in advertising, public relations and political science from Valparaiso University. He has experience in website development and digital marketing in university setting spanning back to 1997. Clark worked in digital marketing at Butler University from 2001 to 2007, Earlham College from 2011 to 2016 and Rollins College from 2016 to 2017.

“Working in education is important to me because in education you never leave something behind. You are always moving forward,”

Clark said. In 2007, Clark founded Collegiate Web Solutions, a digital marketing and communication agency based in Indianapolis. Clark credits his success to being a professional at the dawn of the computer age and being able to handle challenges in marketing that occurred during this time.

“When big revolutions emerged that profoundly changed my profession — websites, email marketing, search engines, social media, video streaming, mobile — I was already there figuring out how to best leverage those new communication channels for the institutions I served,” Clark said.

Clark said he has a vision for a new PNW marketing campaign, which includes featuring student and faculty stories on the PNW website through “blurbs” and pictorials. He wants to expand the culture of PNW through digital marketing strategies and to tell the stories of the PNW community.

Kris Falzone, associate vice chancellor for Marketing and Communications, said Clark’s background in marketing and communications in higher education will benefit PNW.

“He is already making an impact with new strategic visioning for our website, updated processes and protocols for communications tools such as news releases and collaborative outreach across the institution as well as with the news media and our PNW partners,” Falzone said.

Clark said he is pleased to be at PNW and that it feels like home to him already.

“Purdue Northwest is an interesting challenge. It is really beginning to establish itself and what it is about,” Clark said. “It is a new institution with a strong and vibrant past, and I cannot wait to convey that in a lot of different ways.”