(Posted July 16, 2007)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Gabriel Welsch, assistant to the dean for advancement and manager of publications and public relations at Penn State\'s College of the Liberal Arts from 2005 to 2007, has been hired by Juniata College as assistant vice president of marketing, effective immediately. Welsch, a resident of State College, will oversee the college\'s marketing efforts, which encompass Web design and content, college publications such as viewbooks, enrollment and fund-raising brochures and other student recruitment material, publication design, media relations, Juniata\'s alumni magazine and market research. \"Gabe Welsch has extensive experience in all aspects of marketing, from creating development material to magazine writing to acting as spokesman for his college,\" says Thomas R. Kepple, president of Juniata. \"Gabe\'s eclectic background as a communicator, editor, poet and fiction writer will bring a unique set of skills to Juniata. Marketing a college to a variety of often very different audiences is a critical part of Juniata\'s progress.\" Welsch supervised alumni relations, event planning, public relations, development and alumni publications, Web development and donor stewardship. During his tenure, the college revamped its slate of development publications, created a series of outcome-based brochures and white papers for donors. He also created a new electronic magazine called LAzine, which complemented and later replaced the college\'s Liberal Arts printed alumni magazine. Welsch earned two degrees from Penn State: a bachelor\'s degree in English in 1993, and a master of fine arts degree in English in 1998. Welsch has spent his entire career at Penn State, starting as an editorial assistant in the College of Arts and Architecture in 1996. 1n 1998, Welsch was hired as assistant director of communications in the College of the Liberal Arts, where he edited Liberal Arts magazine and supervised print and electronic media. In addition to his primary duties in the College of Liberal Arts, Welsch also worked closely in official positions within the Department of English. For several years, he assisted the department head in developing projects, and in 2001, he became associate director of the Master of Fine Arts Program in the Department of English, a post he held for three years. In addition to his administrative career, Welsch has established himself as a poet and novelist, receiving a variety of awards and recognition in both art forms. He has received Kent State University\'s Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award in 1999 and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2002, 2005 and 2007. He received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship for fiction in 2003 and was a finalist for the 2003 Iowa Prize for Short Fiction. He has published the book \"Dirt and All Its Dense Labor: Poems\" and has published poems and fiction in scores of journals. Welsch also brings a wealth of teaching experience to Juniata. He worked as a lecturer in English from 1998 to 2005 and also taught creative writing at Penn State\'s Center for Arts and Crafts during those years. He continues to teach workshops, judge literary competitions and give invited readings, workshops and lectures. He is a member of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and the Emerging Writers Network.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.