With over two decades of experience in higher education, Kristen Daily has served in communications positions at Stevens Institute of Technology, her alma mater Drew University and Rutgers University. (Photo courtesy of Lafayette Communications)

Less than a year and a half after naming the former vice president of communications, Lafayette College has a new person for the role: Kristen Daily, a communications and public relations leader at Stevens Institute of Technology, will officially take office on August 17.

“With such a strong liberal arts tradition — paired with that unique end of engineering, and this 200-year legacy founded on the principles of democracy and citizenship — it’s exciting to me because there’s a story to tell,” said Daily of what drew her to Lafayette. 

“I plan to hear those stories and figure out how to tell them in a way that differentiates Lafayette,” she continued.

College President Nicole Hurd announced Daily’s appointment in a campus-wide email in late June. Hurd’s selection was made at the recommendation of a search committee composed of administrators, trustees and faculty. Scott Morse, Lafayette’s chief of staff, filled the vacancy during the four-month candidate search.

“Whether it’s crisis, whether it’s brand, whether it’s communicating internally or communicating externally, she had compelling vision in all those areas,” Hurd said.

Morse, who also co-chaired the search committee, did not comment on the search process but said Daily’s “energy and excitement” were “wonderful.” Provost Laura McGrane, the other co-chair, did not respond to specific questions.

Before Morse’s temporary stint, the communications division was headed by Kathryn Meier, who resigned and left the college in February, just 11 months after arriving in March 2025. Meier’s short-lived tenure was the role’s first permanent hire since 2022; an outside consultant filled the position for nearly three years before stepping down.

For the past five years, Daily has managed a group in the Division of University Relations responsible for media relations and marketing through social media and multimedia content production. 

Daily also worked in strategy and communication roles at Drew University, her alma mater, and Rutgers University. She said her communications training at the dawn of the digital age gave her a “foot in both worlds,” allowing her to excel in both analog and digital branding strategies. 

“Lafayette is getting a gem of a colleague,” Beth McGrath, Stevens’ communication division head and chief of staff, wrote in an email. She also praised Daily’s creativity and utilization of data in her work.

Daily, a Pennsylvania native, joins Lafayette at the height of the college’s bicentennial buzz, a multi-year celebration of the college’s 200th anniversary and a time when marketing and branding have been a key priority for the college.

“Here we are at this inflection point in history, when all of these things are coming together,” Daily said. “It gives us things to talk about and helps us elucidate the value of the liberal arts education.”

Daily also inherits a communications division recently challenged by controversial Trump administration policies clashing with higher education, a successful faculty no-confidence vote against Hurd and a federal investigation into antisemitism at the college.

Along with pressures from the federal government, Daily noted the rise of artificial intelligence and an anticipated national decline in college enrollment as broad concerns to look out for in her new role.

Lafayette’s communications division, which has been headquartered in a downtown Easton office for more than a decade, will move back to the main campus by early fall, according to Hurd. The division will occupy the Wise House, a historic manor purchased by the college in 1986, located next to the college’s Feather House.