Linda Blakley became vice president for DePaul’s division of University Marketing and Communications in April 2016. She is responsible for strategic communications, including public relations, issues monitoring and management, media relations, external and internal communications, executive communications and crisis communications.

She joined the university’s communications staff in 2013 as assistant vice president of communications strategies, bringing more than 20 years’ experience in strategic communications planning and public relations, execution and evaluation in the higher education, retailing, manufacturing and public utility arenas. Prior to DePaul she was executive director for business development at Golin (formerly GolinHarris, International). She also was the senior director of PR and brand reputation for Walmart, where she led development and implementation of fully integrated, traffic-driving marketing PR programs. In addition, Linda spent 16 years at Sears, Roebuck and Co. in positions of increasing responsibility, including public relations manager, community relations manager, and director of corporate public relations and reputation management.

Linda received a BS in Journalism and an MS in Integrated Marketing Communication from Northwestern University. She serves on the board of Youth & Opportunity United, Inc. (Y.O.U.), a youth development agency that provides services and leadership to meet the emerging needs of young people and their families in Evanston and is a member of the board of trustees for Chicago Theological Union.​​