Scott Hood's Retirement
To the Bowdoin community,
Our senior vice president for communications and public affairs, Scott Hood, has let me know that he will retire from his position on June 30, 2025, after more than thirty-six years at Bowdoin.
I am so grateful to have been able to work with Scott during my first years at Bowdoin and have relied on his vast and deep institutional knowledge. During a tenure in which he worked with five presidents, Scott has built a reputation for adaptability. Throughout his work, he has been a creative partner in celebration and a steadying presence through difficulty. I will miss his wise counsel, his sense of humor, and his deep preparation for every task.
I look forward to an opportunity to publicly thank Scott and to celebrate his long service to Bowdoin later this year, but for now I will share some highlights of his career.
Scott joined the College in August 1989 as news director, having previously served—and covered stories at Bowdoin—as a reporter and the news director for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN), where he was also a frequent contributor to National Public Radio programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He was promoted to associate vice president and director of public affairs at Bowdoin in February 1997 and to vice president for communications and public affairs in 2003. In April 2015, he became senior vice president for communications and public affairs and a senior officer of the College.
Scott has led the division of communications and public affairs of the College through enormous changes, with a direct hand in much of the office’s response. With the help of a single student worker, he launched Bowdoin’s first public website in 1996. He has led multiple large survey projects and the overhaul of communications material that followed, both for alumni relations and admissions. He developed a visual identity program, streamlining and unifying marks and materials ranging from stationery to the Bowdoin seal, and he led the first comprehensive visual design for athletics at the College.
He has had a hand in prominent Bowdoin events and moments for more than three decades, managing the Office of Events and Summer Programs for a time, overseeing Commencement, and leading communications for four campaigns and three presidential inaugurations. He has used his reporting skills as a frequent contributor to Bowdoin Magazine and in videos, interviewing luminaries from Bowdoin and beyond, including President George H. W. Bush H’82, US Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright H’13, James Baker, and Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen ’62, H’75, and US Senator George Mitchell ’54, H’83, among others.
And, like many who work here, Scott has done unseen and sometimes unheralded work, whether in community and government relations, hanging jumbos in the Smith Union hallway, driving a golf cart, or holding a parking space—or joining with his senior officer colleagues to manage the College through a pandemic and other emergencies.
As a first-generation college student, Scott has been open about his pride in working at Bowdoin and how seriously he has taken his role to protect and burnish the College’s reputation in every way. I know you join me in thanking him for this deeply important work and for his many other contributions.
We will soon launch a national search for Scott’s successor. In the meantime, let me close with my gratitude to him for his partnership and friendship, and for his insight, wisdom, and support.
All my best,
Safa
Our senior vice president for communications and public affairs, Scott Hood, has let me know that he will retire from his position on June 30, 2025, after more than thirty-six years at Bowdoin.
I am so grateful to have been able to work with Scott during my first years at Bowdoin and have relied on his vast and deep institutional knowledge. During a tenure in which he worked with five presidents, Scott has built a reputation for adaptability. Throughout his work, he has been a creative partner in celebration and a steadying presence through difficulty. I will miss his wise counsel, his sense of humor, and his deep preparation for every task.
I look forward to an opportunity to publicly thank Scott and to celebrate his long service to Bowdoin later this year, but for now I will share some highlights of his career.
Scott joined the College in August 1989 as news director, having previously served—and covered stories at Bowdoin—as a reporter and the news director for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN), where he was also a frequent contributor to National Public Radio programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He was promoted to associate vice president and director of public affairs at Bowdoin in February 1997 and to vice president for communications and public affairs in 2003. In April 2015, he became senior vice president for communications and public affairs and a senior officer of the College.
Scott has led the division of communications and public affairs of the College through enormous changes, with a direct hand in much of the office’s response. With the help of a single student worker, he launched Bowdoin’s first public website in 1996. He has led multiple large survey projects and the overhaul of communications material that followed, both for alumni relations and admissions. He developed a visual identity program, streamlining and unifying marks and materials ranging from stationery to the Bowdoin seal, and he led the first comprehensive visual design for athletics at the College.
He has had a hand in prominent Bowdoin events and moments for more than three decades, managing the Office of Events and Summer Programs for a time, overseeing Commencement, and leading communications for four campaigns and three presidential inaugurations. He has used his reporting skills as a frequent contributor to Bowdoin Magazine and in videos, interviewing luminaries from Bowdoin and beyond, including President George H. W. Bush H’82, US Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright H’13, James Baker, and Henry Kissinger, US Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen ’62, H’75, and US Senator George Mitchell ’54, H’83, among others.
And, like many who work here, Scott has done unseen and sometimes unheralded work, whether in community and government relations, hanging jumbos in the Smith Union hallway, driving a golf cart, or holding a parking space—or joining with his senior officer colleagues to manage the College through a pandemic and other emergencies.
As a first-generation college student, Scott has been open about his pride in working at Bowdoin and how seriously he has taken his role to protect and burnish the College’s reputation in every way. I know you join me in thanking him for this deeply important work and for his many other contributions.
We will soon launch a national search for Scott’s successor. In the meantime, let me close with my gratitude to him for his partnership and friendship, and for his insight, wisdom, and support.
All my best,
Safa