Kathy Pharr (Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)
On July 1, Kathy R. Pharr will assume the dual responsibility of chief of staff of the President’s Office and interim vice president for marketing and communications.
Pharr has risen through the ranks of the University of Georgia since joining the School of Law as its director of communications and public relations 27 years ago, following six years in broadcast news. She has served previously as assistant to the president, assistant vice president for finance and administration and director of Health Sciences Campus administration, and most recently as chief of staff and associate vice president for institutional affairs.
“I recognize that these additional responsibilities will be immense for Dr. Pharr, and I appreciate her stepping up to assume them in a time of budget crisis,” said University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead. “The consolidation of these two Cabinet-level positions will enable the institution to achieve administrative efficiencies while still maintaining strong leadership of an essential division during this interim period. I am confident that Dr. Pharr will handle this new assignment with exceptional performance and true professionalism.”
Responsibility for the day-to-day management of the President’s Office will be assumed by Kyle Tschepikow, special assistant to the president and director for strategy and innovation, who has served in the President’s Office since 2014.
Greg Trevor will become interim senior executive director of marketing and communications to oversee day-to-day management in that division. Trevor has served as UGA’s spokesperson and executive director of media communications since 2016.
Both Tschepikow and Trevor will report directly to Pharr.
Pharr holds three degrees from UGA, having earned her undergraduate degree in journalism summa cum laude from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, her master’s in public administration from the School of Public and International Affairs and her doctorate in higher education administration from the Institute of Higher Education.
Pharr succeeds Karri Hobson-Pape, who will be leaving the university after four and a half years on June 30 to accept a position as executive director of The Alliance, a national nonprofit in health care that focuses on the coordination of organ donation and transplantation