Kevin Sullivan (born November 9, 1958) was the

White House Communications Director The White House communications director or White House director of communications, also known officially as Assistant to the President for Communications, is part of the senior staff of the president of the United States. The officeholder is resp ...

, also known as the Assistant to the President for Communications, from July 24, 2006 until January 20, 2009. From April 2005 he was the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Outreach at the

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

Biography

Education

Sullivan was born in

Evergreen Park, Illinois Evergreen Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. In 2020, the population was 19,943. History As early as 1828, a German farming family had settled in the area of what is now Evergreen Park. In the succeeding decades, other Ge ...

. He earned a bachelor of science in management from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and earned an MA in mass communication from

Iona College Iona University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Roman Catholic university with a main campus in New Rochelle, New York. It was founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and occupies a campus of in New Rochell ...

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

. He serves on the advisory boards of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and the Wayborn School of Journalism at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

Professional career

Before his role in the White House, Sullivan was assistant secretary for communications at the

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

. He had previously worked as a chief spokesperson and media relations executive at

NBC Universal The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. He has a background in sports

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

for NBC and prior to that for the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. Sullivan was recognized five times by the media as Outstanding Public Relations Director in the NBA's Western Conference and received the NBA's 2004 Splaver/McHugh Tribute to Excellence Award. In January 2009, he was replaced by Ellen Moran when President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

took office. Following his departure from the White House Sullivan founded Kevin Sullivan Communications, a strategic communications consulting firm. He was a frequent guest co-host of "Polioptics," during the political communications show's run on SiriusXM's POTUS channel.Polioptics
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Publications

*''Breaking Through: Communications Lessons From the Locker Room, the Board Room & the Oval Office'', digital book, 2015

Sources

White House press release, 11 July 2006 * https://www.ksullivancommunications.com/our-team

References

External links

Kevin Sullivan Communications
* 1958 births American civil servants Iona College (New York) alumni Living people People from Chicago People from Evergreen Park, Illinois American political commentators Purdue University alumni White House Communications Directors {{US-politician-stub