Ithaca College

The Office of College Relations and Communications is excited to share the following news about recent hires and shifting responsibilities for some of our team members. We also want to thank our partners across campus for their patience over the last year as we took the time to reshape the vacant positions we had accrued to be a stronger, more effective team. 

Melissa Gattine: Director of Advancement Marketing 

We are thrilled to announce that Melissa Gattine will be continuing her career at IC as the director of advancement marketing. She has worked at IC for 13 years and, for the past several years, has served as the primary marketing and communications liaison to our five schools. In this new role, Melissa will lead communications designed to engage our alumni, parents, and friends in the life of the college.

For projects or questions related to advancement communications, Melissa will continue to be the point of contact for our school partners. For enrollment communications-related projects and questions, we ask that our school partners contact our director of enrollment marketing, Kelly Stern. Any questions or concerns that don’t naturally fit into either of those two categories may be addressed to Molly Israel, executive director of marketing strategy. 

Amanda Decker: Assistant Director of Enrollment Marketing

 Amanda Decker is our new assistant director of enrollment marketing. She will play a crucial role as we continue to develop and implement marketing and communication strategies focused on enrollment. Amanda spent the past eight years working in the Division of Enrollment Management, as an admission counselor and as assistant director of admission. She has extensive experience communicating with school counselors and other prospective audiences. Her experience supervising more than 200 President’s Hosts and her extensive network of relationships with campus partners will help inform our ongoing efforts to enroll highly qualified students and effectively communicate the value of an IC education to family members, adult influencers, alumni, faculty, staff, and other community members.

 Kyle Hornyak: Assistant Director of Advancement Communications

 Please welcome Kyle to our IC community! He started at IC on Oct. 30 as the assistant director of advancement communications. He will work directly with Melissa Gattine to execute marketing and communication plans in support of the college’s advancement goals.

Kyle previously served as the director of communications at CancerCare in New York City, where he led internal and external communication efforts.

Jennifer King MacKenzie: Assistant Director of Academic and Enrichment Strategy

 Jennifer is also a new member of our IC community. Her first day as the assistant director of academic and enrichment strategy is Nov. 13. She will report directly to Molly Israel and tackle marketing communications campaigns that benefit our strategic partners.

Jennifer served as the Executive Vice President of Keegan Associates, a Cortland-based agency, providing advertising, marketing, and public relations services to a variety of clients including Jefferson Community College and Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, New York.