Associate Dean of Communications and Marketing
Kirsten Khire leads strategic communications at Sanford, the nationally-ranked public policy school at Duke. She empowers and works with an award-winning talented team of communications, marketing and events professionals. Together, they create and implement strategic communications initiatives, stories and events to advance strategic priorities of the school and the university. Khire serves as the communications/marketing strategist, lead editor and manager of the Communications Unit.
Khire brings more than 20 years of communications management and leadership experience to the Sanford School of Public Policy. She has significant experience in management, internal communications, external communications, media relations, marketing and event planning, with accomplishments in brand building, fundraising communications, student recruitment and donor relations.
Previously, Khire served as executive director of external relations of the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte. Before that role, Khire was Head of Communications for the research organization Bioversity International, based in Rome, Italy. She also served for 10 years at Michigan State University as Director of Communications for the College of Communication Arts & Sciences and Director of Communications for the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center. She was a former journalist at several newspapers in Florida and an editor for a New Zealand-based international magazine.
Khire holds bachelor's degrees in Journalism and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree in Technology and Communication (Digital Communication) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is Accredited in Public Relations (APR) by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has previously served on the boards of PRSA Charlotte and the PRSA Southeast District.
