Vice Chancellor Robert Hill
Many Pittsburghers know Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Robert Hill as Pitt’s official spokesperson. Throughout his 37 years in higher education administration, Hill has inspired, established, supported, and sustained the highest standards of quality, innovation, and effectiveness in university communications.
Since arriving at the University of Pittsburgh in October 1999, Hill has completely reorganized the Office of Public Affairs, creating new units focused on marketing communications and executive communications; establishing the University’s first official newspaper, the award-winning Pitt Chronicle; expanding the University’s national and international media relations efforts; and overseeing a renovation of the University’s Web presence.
An administrator in higher education for more than 30 years, Hill has received some of the most prestigious awards that his peers and the community can bestow. In 2006, he was honored as the Renaissance Communicator of the Year by the Pittsburgh chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The previous year, Hill was recognized with the Trailblazer Award from Renaissance Publications, the Presidential Award of the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education, and the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh Racial Justice Award. He also has received awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania.
Boosting University’s goals
Hill is presently responsible for supervising the departments of Executive Communications, University Marketing Communications, National Media Relations, and University News and Magazines. In that role, he serves not only as the University’s spokesman, but also as publisher of its flagship publications, including the Pitt Chronicle and Pitt Magazine, a quarterly that is among the most-honored university publications in the United States. In addition, Hill oversees production of Pitt Med magazine—the quarterly of the School of Medicine—and the University Times newspaper.
During the past few years, Hill’s communications endeavors have bolstered the University’s admissions, research, and community and governmental relations efforts, as well as its record-breaking billion-dollar fund-raising campaign.
Under Hill’s direction, the Office of Public Affairs has received nearly 200 awards in just the last two years, among them the Telly award, which honors outstanding film, television, and video productions; and the MarCom Creative award, which recognizes excellence in marketing and communications.
Active in public service
Though his primary mission remains advancing the University’s message, Hill has also been extremely active in public service with community non-profit agencies.
In 2006, in cooperation with Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg and Office of Public Affairs staff, Hill produced an exhibit at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center that celebrated the 125th anniversary of Three Rivers Youth, the oldest agency in Allegheny County founded to serve Black children, and the second-oldest such agency in the nation. An accompanying 60-page publication, published by Hill and designed by University Marketing Communications, told the remarkable story of Three Rivers Youth in photos and text.
Hill recently conceived, executive produced, and narrated a documentary video on African American student heritage at the University of Pittsburgh; this video, titled A New Way of Thinking, is being used to reconnect Pitt’s Black alumni with the institution, and was cosponsored by the University’s Office of Alumni Relations and Office of Institutional Advancement.
And in 2001, when the Pittsburgh school district was faced with having to suspend thousands of students who did not have measles vaccination certification, Hill spearheaded a multi-institutional Pitt-based task force which mobilized a variety of media resources to successfully motivate thousands of families to comply with the certification requirements. This kept the affected students in class, rather than on suspension. For this work, the Office of Public Affairs received a national PSRA 2002 Silver Anvil Award of Excellence in the community relations category; and a CASE Gold Medal for community relations programs and projects in the Circle of Excellence Awards competition.
Reaching Out to Our Region
Hill is a member of the selection committee for the Pittsburgh Young Women’s Christian Association Racial Justice Award; a member of the corporate committee of the Pittsburgh Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; chair of the media and public relations committee of the Greater Pittsburgh Measles Immunization Task Force; a board member of Pittsburgh Action Against Rape; and an advisory board member for Pitt’s annual Jazz Seminar and Concert. In 2005, he also served on the marketing committee of the United Way of Allegheny County.
Additionally, Hill has performed community outreach work for the Kuntu Repertory Theatre, the Urban League of Pittsburgh, City Theater, Greater Pittsburgh Young Women’s Christian Association, the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education, the Pittsburgh Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. His efforts helped improve the effectiveness of their communications so that they could better reach their target audiences.
Experience in higher education
Before coming to Pitt, Hill had been an administrator for 21 years at Syracuse University, where he had served as vice president and special assistant to the chancellor for affirmative action from 1977 to 1988, vice president for program development from 1982 to 1988, and vice president for public relations from 1988 to 1998.
While at Syracuse, he created Coming Back Together, which reached out to African American and Latino alumni and attracted scholarship support from them for current students. This award-winning program has since become a model for similar efforts by other universities nationwide. In addition, he supervised a number of award-winning publications; as well as a video unit which won four Telly awards and produced a monthly television magazine, Leading Edge.
Hill’s work in creating and implementing a strategic communications plan for Syracuse led to a Gold Medal Award for Overall Institutional Relations Programs from the international Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In addition, he was a faculty member for eight years, serving as an assistant professor of retailing the university’s College for Human Development.
Immediately prior to joining the Pitt administration, Hill was vice president for university advancement at California University of Pennsylvania.
Hill earned the Associate in Applied Science in Business Technology degree with a concentration in marketing from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, which awarded him its Dean’s Prize; the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he was a William Prentice Ettinger Scholar and a Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar; the Master of Science in Management degree with honors from Manhattan College; and the Certificate in Management from Harvard University.
Hill has written articles for a variety of publications, including the Syracuse Herald-Journal, the New Pittsburgh Courier, the Pan African Studies Newsletter, and the American Association for Affirmative Action Newsletter. He has also given presentations for the annual international conferences of the Public Relations Society of America and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
Robert Hill
Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs
hillr@pitt.edu
412-624-8891