Updated Sept. 2022
Keith Paul joined Northern Essex Community College as Chief Marketing Officer in 2022 after serving as Director of Marketing and Communications at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). He considers marketing a “contact sport” and brings more than 25 years experience to NECC.
At STCC, he modernized campus marketing, where his team earned multiple National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) awards for their work. Keith was named the NCMPR District 1 Rising Star in 2021. At STCC, Keith co-chaired the campus’ first-ever LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group and was a founding member of the Anti-Racism and Inclusion Alliance, charting the college’s future culture. He also co-chaired the committee reviewing NECHE Standard 1: Mission and Purposes for STCC’s 2021 Accreditation Self Study.
Keith serves as chair of the Massachusetts Community College Campus Communicators (MC4) workgroup, whose members represent the 15 colleges, in partnership with the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges (MACC). He also serves on the NCMPR District 1 Executive Council, representing Massachusetts member colleges.
In roles recognized by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), Keith built UMass Amherst’s first professional digital marketing team before helping the campus integrate the marketing and advancement functions. As art director, he led the communications strategy for a $5.7 million building project, helping raise $1.5 million in small-dollar gifts, which remains a campus fundraising record to this day. He later led enrollment marketing for continuing and professional education at the university. An early adopter and advocate for online learning, Keith taught in the journalism program at UMass Amherst for 12 years.
In the private sector, Keith built digital marketing, social media, and digital transformation programs in Fortune 100 firms as well as startups in the financial services and technology industries. In these roles, he was named a Thought Leader by the Babson College Retail Supply Chain Institute in 2012, co-created the first-ever professional certification for social media professionals with the National Institute for Social Media (NISM) in 2011, and was honored as runner-up for EMC’s (now a part of Dell) marketer of the year award in 2010 and with a President’s Award for his role supporting social media as part of a global product launch.
Keith holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UMass Amherst and is a Life Member of their Alumni Association, serving on a number of networking and fundraising committees. In 2017, he was inducted into the UMass Minuteman Band Hall of Fame. Keith studied design theory at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), consumer marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and is currently finishing a master’s degree in management at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He resides in Sterling, Mass.