Doyle takes over vacant PR post

Onetime Penn Health System chief spokeswoman Lori Doyle was named Penn's new director of communications yesterday, capping off a six-month search. Doyle worked at Penn for eight years before she left last August to take a job as vice president of external affairs with the American Water Works Company in New Jersey. University President Judith Rodin praised Doyle's professional skills in a press release. "Lori is a superb communications professional who has extensive knowledge of the University and broad experience in all aspects of internal and external communications," Rodin said. The position had been vacant since last summer, following the resignation of Ken Wildes . According to Penn's statement, Doyle "will be responsible for the development and implementation of a long-term communications strategy for the University." The position of director of communications also oversees all of the University's communication operations and provides advisement to senior Penn administrators. Doyle said yesterday that she was very excited about returning to Penn. "With the quality of the student's and faculty and the ground-breaking research that goes on there everyday, there really is no better place to work," Doyle said. Before coming to UPHS in 1992, Doyle held several management positions with public relations firms in Philadelphia. Most notably, she became General Manager of Golin/Harris Communications' Philadelphia office. Phyllis Holtzman, who has been serving as interim director since Wildes' July resignation, will now serve with Doyle as deputy director of communications. "I look forward to working with her," Holtzman said. "I can't say enough how enthusiastic I am." Rebecca Harmon, a longtime Penn employee who was recently named to replace Doyle at UPHS had nothing but praise for her predecessor. "She and I worked together for eight years," Harmon said. "She is very smart, consistently fair, and she approaches every project with a positive, can-do attitude." Though excited about returning to Penn, Doyle said that she had no plans to make major changes in Penn's public relations machine. Wildes, the last person to hold Doyle's position, came to Penn after 14 years as the senior relations officer at Northwestern University. He had been at Penn since 1996. Wildes would not specify his reasons for leaving last summer, saying that his motives were "many and varied." He recently accepted a job as a marketing and communications executive at a California hospital.