HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-20-2007 Mayor’s new assistant will promote City Plan efforts o�sou TH
F dx
:J b
W eFacE � �
y� a 1, a2
1865
Office of the Mayor
NEWS RELEASE
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
3:30 PM
Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications&Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564
Tom Price, Assistant to the Mayor, 574-235-5853 or 514-2169
Mayor's new assistant will promote City Plan efforts
SOUTH BEND -- Mayor Stephen J. Luecke has named a former newspaper reporter and
communications professional to his staff in response to priorities established through City
Plan, South Bend's 20-year master plan.
Tom Price, an award-winning reporter with The Elkhart Truth and the director of
communications and marketing efforts for a national Mennonite Church nonprofit, began
work Feb. 5 as Assistant to the Mayor with special responsibilities for communication
and promotion of the South Bend community.
Price, 45, succeeds Jack Reed as an assistant to the mayor, but the responsibilities of the
role for Price have changed significantly in the wake of City Plan.
"City Plan places strong emphasis on the need to promote community assets and city
programs; develop marketing materials and strategies; and form partnerships with
institutions, community organizations and businesses," Luecke said.
Luecke said the creation of this new assignment and Price's appointment represents an
essential follow-up to the city's reorientation of its Community and Economic
Development department.
"These new efforts will have a positive impact on economic development, on
neighborhoods, and on arts and culture,"the mayor said. "They will help us to achieve
City Plan goals in building South Bend as a vibrant, caring city."
Price has been a resident of South Bend's near northwest neighborhood since 1991,
although he has worked in Elkhart since 1986.
"I've witnessed dramatic changes in South Bend in the time I've lived here, and I'm
excited about joining a team dedicated to advancing the interests of the whole
community,"Price said. "With new developments already under way and more in the
works, South Bend will become known as a city that provides new economic
opportunities, enriching quality of life and attractive neighborhoods."
A Chicago native, Price is a 1983 graduate of Judson College in Elgin, Ill., where he
received a bachelor's degree in communications. After working as a
reporter/photographer for a weekly newspaper in Chicago's southwest suburbs, Price
received a master's degree in journalism from Indiana University in Bloomington, where
he was editor in chief of the Indiana Daily Student.
Price joined The Elkhart Truth as a reporter in 1986, covering a variety of beats including
city government, the state legislature, politics, the environment, health and human affairs,
and religion, receiving several statewide honors for his writing. He began significant
religion coverage for the newspaper, which at the time was the smallest circulation
newspaper in the country to devote full-time resources to religion coverage. Price
received four national honors for his work, including in 1989 being named the Religion
Writer of the Year for newspapers under 50,000 circulation by the Religion Newswriters
Association.
In 1995, he became director of communications for what was then Mennonite Board of
Missions, the binational mission and service agency of the Mennonite Church,
headquartered in Elkhart. Through his leadership in communication, the organization
reversed a decline in contributions that had resulted, in part, from a decline in awareness.
Price also visited 18 countries to report on mission activities.
When the former Mennonite Church merged in 2001 with the General Conference
Mennonite Church to form the 110,000-member Mennonite Church USA, Price was
named the director of communications for the U.S.-based Mennonite Mission Network,
itself resulting from the consolidation of three mission organizations. In that capacity,
Price led a communications staff of 17 for the $10.8-million non-profit.
Since 2003, Price has served as the first director of marketing for Mennonite Mission
Network. His responsibilities included research, direct-mail fund-raising, and market
planning and consultation.
Price has taken additional coursework at the University of Notre Dame and in 1993 was
selected among 29 journalists nationwide to participate in a Knight Fellowship in
Specialized Journalism at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is a member of
the American Marketing Association's Michiana chapter and a past vice president of the
Society for Professional Journalists, Michiana chapter.
He and his wife, Ann, have two daughters, Katherine and Emily, who are students in the
South Bend Community School Corp. They are members of Kern Road Mennonite
Church in South Bend.
- 30 -