Ann Duffield has worked in higher education for 38 years, is the founding principal of Ann Duffield & Colleagues (ADAC), and formerly founded a joint practice, The Presidential Practice, in 2005.
Ann spent over 26 years at the University of Pennsylvania (1973-2000). From 1973-1980, she learned the field of public relations and communications, first as a speech writer and alumni coordinator at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, then as typesetting manager and publications coordinator for the University’s central publications office, and finally as publications manager and editor of the alumni magazine for The Wharton School. In 1980 she became Director of Penn’s Office of Publications and in 1982, she was promoted to chief communications officer, directing the Office of University Relations and Penn Medical Center’s Office of Communications. During this period of time, she was responsible for developing one of the first major admissions marketing programs in the country, which evolved into the University-wide identity program Penn continues to use to this day. In 1988, Ann formed a small internal marketing group, called the University Design Group, to design and produce the University’s major outreach communications, including Penn’s 250th Anniversary and its Billion Dollar Campaign, “Keeping Franklin’s Promise.” Ann served on numerous University planning, fundraising, marketing, and management committees and designed the communications plan for the Penn Plan, one of the first university-backed student loan programs in the country.
Also in 1988, Ann joined forces with her long-term colleague, Professor Robert Zemsky, Penn’s Chief Planning Officer and Director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education, to develop the national and international communications program for the Pew Higher Education Roundtable, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and later by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. As director of communications for the Institute for Research on Higher Education, she created both a media outreach program for the Roundtable and Policy Perspectives, one of the leading higher education periodicals in the United States. She directed the Pew Higher Education On-Campus Roundtable and The Knight Collaborative and was responsible for strategic planning roundtables on and collaborative projects between more than 100 colleges and universities across the country, many of which she personally facilitated. She also worked with the American Council on Education (ACE) to coordinate an international roundtable series, called the Transatlantic Dialogue, and with the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) to develop joint programs with boards. As part of the Institute’s development of and involvement in two national centers, she was communications director for EQW (the National Center for the Educational Quality of the Workforce) and NCPI (the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement). As such, she worked with research faculty from Penn, the University of Michigan, Cornell University, Stanford University, and Williams College.
In 2000, Ann joined the national fundraising consulting firm of Marts & Lundy, to establish and head a new practice in communications and planning. In 2005, she established with a colleague from Penn The Presidential Practice and in 2011, set up her own practice, Ann Duffield & Colleagues, which comprises a small group of former presidents and other experts in higher education research and media, who provide confidential and comprehensive counsel to presidents and chancellors, provosts and deans, senior officers, and boards of colleges and universities.
Ann is a member of the board of trustees at The Sage Colleges (Russell Sage College in Troy, NY and Sage College of Albany in Albany, NY) and is on the advisory board for Inside Track, a student advising and retention firm for higher education. She is also affiliated with The Learning Alliance through which she has an ongoing partnership with Robert Zemsky, chair of The Learning Alliance and founder of and current professor in Penn’s Executive Doctorate Program in Higher Education.
Ann grew up in Omaha, Nebraska where she graduated from the Brownell-Talbot School. She received her BA from Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and was a graduate teaching assistant in English at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She and her husband, Timothy, have four sons and two grandchildren. They live in Philadelphia, PA and Bluff, UT.
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