Appointment of Interim Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications & Public Affairs

I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Sherry Main as the interim vice chancellor for strategic communications and public affairs, effective February 4. She will lead enterprise-wide communications functions, including marketing, advertising, executive and digital communications, media, and community and government relations.

Sherry has more than 18 years of experience at UCI. She began her career at UCI as senior writer for the Office of Admission and Relations with Schools, then held increasingly important leadership roles in a number of our schools and with SCPA. She left UCI in 2015 to become assistant vice chancellor, communications and marketing, at our sister campus UC Santa Cruz. As UCSC’s chief communications and marketing officer, she played a major role in developing UCSC’s successful candidacy for admission to the Association of American Universities and increasing its presence in Silicon Valley. She returned to UCI in 2019 to serve as associate vice chancellor, public affairs, where she oversees SCPA’s day-to-day operations. In this role she initiated and leads the campus’s external relations efforts for the Division of Health Affairs, among other accomplishments.

Sherry served two terms as chairperson of the UCI Staff Assembly and led a number of staff initiatives, including the Staff Assembly scholarship program and the annual Staff Service Awards program. In 2017-19 she served as staff advisor to the UC Board of Regents, having direct input into the board’s deliberations impacting UC’s more than 200,000 staff employees. She is a board member of The CLUB Silicon Valley; an advisory forum member of Executive Women’s Forum International; and an executive member of HiPower/UPWARD Women. Among her honors, she received the 2018 Women of Influence award from the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the 2016 International Grand Gold-Special Events award from CASE.

Sherry earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, an MBA from UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business, and a certificate in crisis leadership from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Please join me in congratulating Sherry on her new role at UCI.

Chancellor Howard Gillman