CORVALLIS, Ore. – Former Portland, Seattle and national television news reporter and anchorwoman, current football sideline reporter and loyal OSU alumna Cathy Marshall has been hired to lead the Oregon State University Alumni Association’s efforts in the Portland and Seattle areas.

Marshall also has experience planning events and producing media for several charities. She will serve as the association’s regional director, leading efforts to serve and engage OSU’s largest concentration of alumni in Oregon and outside the state. More than 40,000 of the university’s approximately 145,000 alumni live in the Portland metropolitan area, and the Seattle region is home to more than 9,800 alums.

“This is a perfect fit for me, something that goes with everything I’ve done in the last 20-something years,” said Marshall, who recently completed her term on the alumni association’s board of directors.

Jeff Todd, executive director of the association, said that while Marshall has been an energetic and valuable board member, she will be able to provide even more service to her alma mater in her new position.

“I could not be more pleased about the addition of Cathy to our professional team,” Todd said. “Obviously she has great communication skills and possesses an engaging personality, but her organizational and creative talents are equally impressive. With Cathy we have someone to represent Oregon State and the alumni association who is already well known within the alumni community and who deeply loves OSU.

“We are looking forward to working with her to build even greater presence among alumni in Portland and Seattle.”

After graduating with honors from OSU in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in speech communications, Marshall began a six-city television career that started in Eugene and included five years with CNN, five years as host and anchor for KATU in Portland and three years as a reporter and anchor for KIRO in Seattle. In 2005 she started working as a sideline reporter for the Beaver Sports Network and Fox Sports Northwest.

In 2003, Marshall and her husband, John Marler, another veteran television journalist, started Marler Communications, serving non-profit organizations by producing fundraising videos, organizing auctions and planning other charity events.

Marshall will work out of the association’s office in OSU’s Portland Center, 707 S.W. Washington St., and will coordinate her efforts with OSU Foundation staff members and other university representatives who work out of the center.

A mother of four whose youngest will start kindergarten in the fall, Marshall said she plans to offer a wide variety of activities for OSU alumni in the Portland and Seattle areas, including events for recent graduates, family-oriented gatherings for alumni with children and connection-building opportunities for alumni in the Portland and Seattle business communities.

“Having a wider range of events for people will draw them in and let them hear about what’s going on campus, and that will get them excited about OSU,” she said.

She noted that she has long had trouble containing her enthusiasm for OSU.

“In my journalism career, when I was supposed to be dispassionate about things, one thing I could never hide my passion for was Oregon State,” she said. “Now, in this job, I won’t have to hide it. I won’t be above walking up to stranger wearing OSU garb and asking them to step up and get involved.”

 

Source: 

Jeff Todd,
541-737-7845

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