University selects new vice chancellor for communications

Pitt announced earlier this week that it has chosen a new vice chancellor for communications.

Kenneth P. Service, executive director of the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education,  will assume the position on Aug. 1. Service has formerly worked for Pitt as director for news and information, a position he held between 1994 and 2001.Ken Service will take over as Pitt’s vice chancellor for communications (Courtesy Pitt’s Department of News)

“It is my good fortune — and the good fortune of the University of Pittsburgh — that Ken Service has agreed to return to Pitt,” Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said in a statement Pitt released Wednesday.

In addition to his previous position at Pitt, Service has worked for public relations departments at several other area institutions of higher learning. Before his current position with PCHE, which he took in 2010, he was vice president for institutional relations at La Roche College in the North Hills, according to the same statement.

He has also worked in senior communications and institutional advancement positions at Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University and the University of Cincinnati. From 1987 to 1994, before Service took the position of director of news and information with Pitt, he held multiple public relations director positions with Duquesne Light Company.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said in an email that Service “will be reshaping the focus of this senior position to better serve the communications needs of the overall University, as well as the those of the schools and departments within the University,” in his role. 

Service sits on the boards of directors for United Cerebral Palsy-Community Living and Support Services of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, Bulgarian-Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center, Sisters Place, Holy Family Institute International Undergraduate Education Program and the Sister Thea Bowman Foundation.

He is also a member of the advisory boards of several other community organizations.

“Beyond respecting his professional stature, all those who know Ken recognize him to be a caring, capable, thoughtful and kind person,” Nordenberg said. “And I look forward to working with him