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Honoring Black History Month by celebrating Allison Otu as an Extraordinary Woman of Color

Posted at 8:22 AM, Feb 21, 2022
and last updated 2022-02-21 12:16:39-05

Allison Otu, a proven leader with 18 years of experience in strategic communications and brand management, serves as the first executive director of marketing and communications at the Cronkite School and Arizona PBS.

Otu leads a marketing and communications team that provides support for both the Cronkite School and Arizona PBS. Her responsibilities include leveraging the brands by promoting new initiatives; elevating the mission of public media and the role it plays within local communities; supervising internal and external communications for both organizations; developing paid and organic recruitment and marketing strategies; and organizing and implementing events for Cronkite and Arizona PBS.

Otu most recently served as the Health Sciences executive director for corporate and community relations in the Office of the Senior Vice President at the University of Arizona. She is credited with developing and organizing signature programs such as Connect2STEM, the largest youth STEM outreach event in Phoenix with 40,000 attendees over seven years.

Otu serves on the board of directors for Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Inc. and Arizona School for the Arts. She is the co-chair of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council Health Innovation Committee and was appointed by City of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego as chair to the Phoenix Women's Commission in 2021. She served on the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Institutional Advancement Steering Committee in various roles including vice chair of marketing, communications and public affairs as well as awards chair and marketing chair.

Prior to her work at the University of Arizona, Otu spent five years overseeing public relations at Phoenix Children's Hospital. She holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and an Executive MBA from the University of Arizona.

Otu was named one of the Phoenix Business Journal's 40 Under 40 recipients in 2007 and earned a Top 35 Under 35 Entrepreneur award from the Arizona Republic that same year.