A&S Welcomes Back Alumna as Sr. Assoc. Dean and Chief Marketing Officer to Advance Strategic Efforts
The Dean’s Office welcomed a College alumna back last week as the newest member of its leadership team. Double Hoo Sara Sajadi, who earned her bachelor’s degree in history at the University of Virginia, as well as her MBA from the Darden School of Business, began work on Jan. 29 as Senior Associate Dean and Chief Marketing Officer for the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
This new position includes oversight of Arts & Sciences’ communications division as well as responsibility for the strategic direction and leadership of A&S’s brand, reputation, and official messaging. Sara has 20 years of marketing and brand management experience and will work with leaders across A&S and the University to align marketing, outreach, and communications with that strategic direction.
"Sara is a transformational addition to our senior leadership team,” A&S Dean Christa Acampora said. “Sara will be focused on expanding our external affairs capacity and our strategic outreach efforts to spread the message of A&S’s impact as a global leader in liberal arts education, discovery and creative activity. Her energy, creativity and deep well of experience will have a tremendous impact on our work.”
An accomplished business strategist with proven ability to transform organizations and build motivated, accountable teams, Sajadi spent a decade in traditional brand management and then global strategy roles at Johnson & Johnson, General Mills and McCormick. Most recently, Sajadi was working as head of Growth Marketing, Strategy and Operations for Katie Couric Media, a small New York-based media company launched by Couric, another notable College alumna. Before obtaining her Darden MBA, Sajadi worked at public relations agencies in Washington, D.C., and earned a master’s degree in communications from Johns Hopkins University, with a focus on public and media relations, and political communications.
One of her early priorities in the Dean’s Office will be to assess the current capacities of the Communications function and to devise a structure and staffing model that is functionally aligned with A&S needs, with a strategic, agile, data-informed approach. Other priorities include building out an executive communications function and working with partners to build engagement opportunities for A&S supporters. Zach Wheat, who has managed the Arts and Sciences network of websites since 2014 as the A&S Director of Digital Communications, is serving as interim Director of Communications.
Please welcome Sara to the A&S community when you see her in the halls of the fifth floor of New Cabell Hall or around UVA. She is eager to be back on Grounds to give back to the University in this new leadership role. Sara and her husband Andrew Faraone, also a graduate of the College as well as a former player on the UVA men’s lacrosse team, served together for several years as executive committee members of the UVA Club of Baltimore. The sports fans among you are likely to run into Sara, Andrew and their two young daughters at UVA athletics events, which are among their favorite family activities.