Mariellen Gallagher

Mariellen Gallagher, vice president of public affairs at Rockefeller University, will join the Columbia Office of Public Affairs as director of external affairs for the Columbia Earth Institute, Executive Vice Provost Michael Crow and Associate Vice President of Public Affairs Virgil Renzulli announced.

Under a recent reorganization, the communications effort for CEI and its constituent parts--Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, International Research Institute for Climate Forecasting, CIESIN, CERC, and Biosphere 2--will be coordinated through the University's Office of Public Affairs.

Renzulli also announced that senior public affairs officer Suzanne Trimel has been promoted to associate director for media relations and that Ileana Ferreras has joined the office as web coordinator.

As vice president for communications and public affairs at Rockefeller, Gallagher was responsible for media relations, publications, special events and community relations. Prior to that, she was assistant vice president for Public Affairs at Fordham University, associate director of public affairs at NYU, and director of public affairs in the Office of the Senior Vice President at the University of Pennsylvania.

Suzanne Trimel

She began her career as a radio reporter in Philadelphia and was a reporter and news anchor for WPVI-TV, the ABC network affiliate in Philadelphia. At CEI Gallagher will be responsible for strategic communications planning, media relations and publications.

Trimel has been in the Office of Public Affairs since 1991. During most of that time, she was responsible for covering the social sciences and humanities and the School of International and Public Affairs. Before coming to Columbia, Trimel worked for seven years with United Press International as economics correspondent, political desk editor, national weekend editor and national desk editor. She began her career as a reporter for the New London Day, a daily newspaper covering southeastern Connecticut.

In her new position, Trimel will assist with the management of the University's media relations effort and will continue to cover the sciences in the Graduate School of Arts and Science, the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, CME and CIE.

Ferreras is an honors student at Lehman College, with a dual concentration in Spanish and multilingual journalism. Prior to coming to Columbia she was employed by Univision and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since Jan.1998, she has worked for Columbia, starting in the URH Conference Housing Office and later being promoted to the Conference Services Office in Alfred Lerner Hall.

In her new position, Ferreras will be responsible for coordinating copy flow and editing news items for the University home page and the Public Affairs news web page. She will also assist with production of The Record. .