Thomas E. Witte/ FOR THE POST Leesa Brown, the new Ohio University executive director of news services and periodicals, talks to an administration official on the phone while reviewing documents in her office. This is Brown's first week at the helm. She previously worked with the U.S. Justice department in Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign before coming back to Ohio.

Leesa Brown, Ohio University's new assistant vice-president for communication and executive director for news services, wants to promote OU's stories.

"OU has a lot of great stories to tell," she said. "The students here are smart, creative, inventive, gregarious and different that any other students in Ohio."

Brown is replacing Bryan McNulty, who left the university Spring Quarter to work at Bates College in Maine.

She will oversee the Office of News Services and Periodicals which distributes information, works with the media and publishes alumni, staff and faculty publications. Brown started Monday.

She said one of her goals is to develop a collaborative effort between OU and the city of Athens to create a better relationship between the two.

"The relations between the community and the university are not the greatest, and it is on everyone's mind," she said.

Brown said one of her goals is to begin media training for OU employees so they will know what to expect from reporters and will become better sources.

"I want to make those individuals who deal with reporters as responsive and professional as possible," she said.

Before coming to OU, Brown worked in California with the media relations department for the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign and with the United States Department of Justice. She was a media liaison during both the Oklahoma City bombing and the Ted Kaczynski prosecution cases.

Brown did not lose any friends or family in the Oklahoma City bombing, but she remembers the difficult emotion of the courtroom.

"You don't come out of it the same," she said. "It rocked my world in terms of what was important."

Hub Burton, vice-president for university relations, said Brown was selected to come to OU after an extensive interview process.

Her personality and level of experience made her stand apart from the other candidates, said OU President Robert Glidden in an email message.

"She is creative," Glidden said. "She has a lot of ideas about how to get stories out and get them noticed, and she has experience in handling delicate issues with the press from her days with the Justice Department."

OU advertised and accepted referrals of qualified candidates. Two finalists were chosen and extensively interviewed and interacted with people on campus, Burton said.

This advertising was what led to Brown's discovery of the open position. She found the opening for the position on the Internet site http://monster.com.

She said she wanted to move to Ohio to be closer to her family from Van Wert County, so she inquired about the job.

"There was a great interest in the position, and the pool was one of the strongest pools of qualified applicants," Burton said. "Choosing was extremely difficult, and we are fortunate to have Leesa."