Lisa M. Rudgers is co-founder and partner of Peterson Rudgers Group, and has more than 30 years experience in higher education, strategy, marketing, public affairs, issues management and leadership coaching. She has served as in-house counsel to seven university presidents. Previously, Rudgers was the University of Michigan’s vice president for global communications and strategic initiatives. She served a total of 12 years in that role, and was responsible for developing communication strategies to enhance U-M’s visibility locally, nationally and internationally.

As an executive officer at the University of Michigan, Rudgers was a member of the cabinet-level leadership team and served as senior counselor to the president and other executive officers. She directed and managed the global communications division, including marketing, public affairs, internal communications, news, social media, photography, and presidential communications as well as the university’s top-ranked public radio station, Michigan Radio.

Rudgers played a crucial role in leading the public outreach messaging and related strategies surrounding the university’s historic defense of its admissions lawsuits up to the U.S. Supreme Court. She directed communication supporting many presidential and university initiatives, including the president’s international delegations to China, Brazil and India. She was one of the creators of the University Research Corridor, aligning the three largest research-intensive universities in the state to spark greater collaboration and economic prosperity. Her communications strategies supported U-M initiatives in diversity and inclusion, entrepreneurship, library digitization, sustainability and the arts.

U-M efforts under her leadership also included revamping the university’s web presence called the Gateway, now with more than 20 million visits each year. She led the development of the Michigan Difference and Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign themes. She established the university’s first global communications initiative including the Global Michigan web portal in five languages and U-M’s Weibo presence. She launched the university’s first social media office and spearheaded a university-wide branding initiative and visual identity program recognized as best in class by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She has managed several presidential transitions, including the introduction of U-M’s Mary Sue Coleman and Mark S. Schlissel.

Rudgers established her own consulting firm from 2007 – 2011, Lisa Rudgers & Associates, working with university presidents and other key leaders to develop strategic communications plans including institutional positioning, messaging and branding, assessment of in-house communications resources, media relations and issues management. She also held an appointment as special counsel for communications at Michigan Law.

Previously, Rudgers has served as assistant vice president and director of public relations at Michigan State University, marketing director and director of news and communications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and account executive at Media Logic Inc., a marketing and public relations firm in Albany, N.Y.

Rudgers is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University.

Contact: lisa@petersonrudgersgroup.com