Dennis Nealon's portfolio

During a successful career in communications and public relations, Dennis Nealon has been a professional writer and editor, principal media and marketing communications advisor to senior administrators, a chief spokesperson and crisis response leader.

Dennis joined Harvard Medical School's Office of Communications and External Relations (OCER) in October 2021 as associate director for media relations.

Before accepting his position at HMS, Dennis served as director of public and media relations at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

He has worked as an independent communications and media consultant for institutions and firms from Bentley University to Affinity Marketing Group.

Mr. Nealon was previously associate director for Communications, Continuing Medical Education and Global Initiatives for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

He also worked as a communications executive at Brandeis University and as a writer and full-time communications and media consultant at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and UMass Medical School's Center for Health Care Financing (Commonwealth Medicine).

At the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass., Dennis wrote about and promoted researchers' work pertaining to Internet security and U.S. energy alternatives, among other areas. His strategic marketing communications work on behalf of the prestigious institution garnered national media attention in hundreds of news outlets and a major editorial in the Boston Globe for the induction of new Academy members.

He wrote and edited content for the Center for Health Care Financing's website, and worked closely with the Center’s director and senior researchers on press materials to promote their work.

At Brandeis, where he earned a master’s degree in politics and served as executive director for media and public affairs, Dennis worked at the highest levels of the organization, helped to raise the institution's image nationally and internationally, and led it through numerous communications challenges.

In higher education, he has promoted science research and social welfare initiatives, among many other areas. He assembled and led public affairs and media relations teams, and has counseled presidents and other senior executives. He directed all communications logistics and outreach for the visits of dozens of major leaders and celebrities, from Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, to the Dalai Lama, to actors Charlton Heston and Barbra Streisand.

As a lead spokesperson, Dennis was quoted in international and national publications, including the Jerusalem Post, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and appeared in regional radio and television news reports.

His work as a media relations and marketing communications professional has resulted in widespread media coverage in digital and traditional news outlets across the country and around the world. His duties as a press representative have included a terrorist bus bombing that killed a university student, a domestic bomb threat that shut down an elite university, the tragic deaths of several university undergraduates, and the impact of the historic financial crisis that began in 2008.

For almost a decade before working in higher education, Dennis was a reporter for award-winning daily newspapers in New England. He covered education, municipal government, and a wide range of major breaking stories. He has been an occasional contributor to the Associated Press while working in higher education and public policy.

Born in Arlington, Virginia, he currently resides in Medway, Massachusetts, with his wife. The couple has a son (Class of 2020, Sacred Heart University) who resides in South Boston, Mass.

See profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dennealon.