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| Lynn Tierney credits her Irish humor for getting her through tough times. |
As the new associate vice president of communications, Tierney arrived on Feb.2, just in time to see the launch of the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, a new financial aid initiative for lower-income students.
"The first week I get to UC is a time when they make significant outreach to low-income students," she said. "I started out as a community organizer years and years ago. So it was interesting to see my work come back to this."
Tierney began her career in Nebraska working with Native American and elderly populations on housing and anti-poverty programs. Between that job and arriving at UC, she has had more than a lifetime's share of crisis communication experience.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Tierney was the deputy fire commissioner of the New York City Fire Department. All of the firefighters she traveled to the World Trade Center with on that infamous day died in the tower collapses. Tierney sought refuge in the loading dock of one of the towers when the first tower fell. She had to crawl to safety through a blinding cloud of ash and debris, holding onto the belt of her assistant. She doesn't mind talking about those experiences because, she said, the more people learn about that day, the more they can understand it.
"At the very worst time in our history, I saw the very best in the people who responded," she said. "That whole day whether you lived or died was a matter of happenstance and a few feet. I have grasped how short life is and how precious and how you should live it purposefully every day."
Tierney helped immortalize the heroes of this national tragedy as president of the Tribute Center, a lower Manhattan visitor center that serves as both a tribute to the fallen and an educational center. Last week the center had its millionth visitor since opening in 2006.
Much of Tierney's time in New York revolved around the World Trade Center. She worked for 13 years in public affairs for the Port Authority, the owner and operator of the towers. That included communications for its police force in 1993 when the first terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center happened.
Most recently, she came to UCOP from the Federal Aviation Administration where she was assistant administrator of communications.
Tierney gives credit to her "Irish humor" for getting her through the crises she's had to deal with. She was born in Connecticut where her father was a newspaperman. Raised outside Boston, Tierney first came west to attend Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln.
"My father was a news guy," she said. "I grew up in news and public affairs. I had an early interest in crisis management."
Tierney said she feels lucky to have landed at UC where so much incredible research and education takes place. As associate vice president of communications, Tierney oversees the UCOP media relations, internal communications and marketing and communications groups.
"Human attention is the most precious resource there is," said Tierney. "Earning a piece of someone's attention to deliver your message is a great challenge. But if there's any system in the world that's poised to break through the din and deliver a relevant message, it's this system."