Thrane Appointed VP of Public Affairs

You won’t find Linda Thrane, Rice’s new vice president for public affairs, listed in the Yellow Pages under “fabricators.”

“I have based my entire career on not spinning fairy tales,” says Thrane, whose 33 years in the communications profession includes experience in the corporate sector, academia, the world of Washington and news and opinion journalism. “I work with the real deal—stuff that’s important to people and that makes the world a better place.”

Linda Thrane

Since coming to Rice in January, Thrane has interviewed more than 100 Rice faculty, staff, trustees, students, alumni and others. “After all these conversations,” she says. “I can say Rice University is indeed the real deal and has many wonderful stories to tell.”

Formerly the vice president of university relations at the University of Minnesota, Thrane says her previous familiarity with Rice was pretty much limited to former Owls quarterback Tommy Kramer, who was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. While on a fact-finding mission to learn more about her potential new employer, Thrane was surprised to read that Rice researchers had done some of the pioneering work in nanotechnology, for which they received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She discovered that Rice is highly ranked in a number of other areas as well, and she came to Houston determined to put Rice at the top of people’s minds when the subject of top research universities comes up.

“Wherever I go, I am amazed by the quality of education and research that’s being done here,” she says. “An educational environment where students work side by side with leading researchers is extremely powerful. And that excellence ranges from art and architecture to music and the sciences—this small place is the real deal writ large. ”

So why is public affairs necessary? “First, educational institutions have an obligation to share knowledge within their university community and the community at large about how their teaching and research improves lives and livelihoods,” Thrane explains. “Second, in the competitive environment facing higher education today, if universities don’t communicate their distinctive value to a broader audience, they’ll lose the arms race for top students, faculty and resources.”

She is working with her public affairs staff, which includes the offices of Community and Government Relations, Minority Community Affairs, News and Media Relations and Web and Print Communications, to develop tools to improve communication about Rice internally and externally.

One new communication tool is “Dateline Rice,” an electronic daily report of print and broadcast media stories in which Rice is mentioned. “This helps the Rice community see in real time what’s being reported about us and better understand how the rest of the world is seeing us,” Thrane says. “People are pleasantly surprised about how often Rice is reported in the news, and on the whole, the coverage is very positive about the work our researchers, faculty and students are doing to solve some of the problems facing the world today.” (To sign up for Dateline Rice, visit mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/dateline-rice.)

She also wants to expand awareness of and enlist buy-in for Rice’s Vision for the Second Century. “The vision is the right thing to do and now is the right time to do it,” Thrane says. “Our aspirations are high but within our reach, and every member of the Rice community can contribute to this effort.”

Thrane also is undertaking an integrated brand-positioning and marketing initiative. “We will conduct some very intensive consultations within the Rice community to identify words and themes that capture the essence of the university and help define how we talk about ourselves and present ourselves to the larger world.”

She led a similar initiative at the University of Minnesota, home of the country’s third-largest campus. Prior to her VP role at Minnesota, Thrane spent four years as the executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information in Washington, D.C., where she led an innovative $135 million communications campaign to educate the North American public about biotech crops and foods.

From 1991 to 2000, Thrane served as vice president of public affairs for Cargill Inc., one of the world’s largest privately owned businesses that provides food, agricultural and risk-management products and services internationally.

As an editorial writer for the Star Tribune—the largest daily newspaper in Minnesota—from 1984 to 1991, Thrane covered agriculture, trade, financial services, Third World development, government and a host of other topical issues.

During the energy crisis triggered by the OPEC oil embargo of 1979, Thrane served as associate director of the Minnesota Petroleum Council. Prior to that, she was a reporter for United Press International in Minneapolis and St. Paul, where she covered breaking news, sports, state government and politics for print and broadcast news media.

The recipient of a four-year academic merit scholarship, Thrane graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and minors in English and Spanish. She attended one semester of World Campus Afloat on an outstanding achievement scholarship.

Thrane says she has acclimated to Houston quickly. “I owe President David Leebron a huge debt of gratitude for airlifting me from Minnesota during what had to be one of the worst winters in recent history.”

Thrane rescued her adopted Australian Shepherd, Moby, from Minnesota as well. Her husband, John, will follow later this year. Her son, Andrew, is a CPA and working on his MBA at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. Her daughter, Kari, is a law student at Kent in Chicago.