After over 36 years at the College, Senior Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Scott Hood will retire on June 30, 2025. President Safa Zaki announced the news in an email to the campus community last Friday.

Hood’s first position at the College was as news director, beginning in 1989. He was promoted to associate vice president and director of public affairs and later to vice president for communications and public affairs before assuming his current position in 2015. In her email, Zaki described the vast extent of work Hood took on during his time at the College, from helping to launch Bowdoin’s website in 1996 to leading the development of the College’s visual brand identity.

“[Hood] has led the division of communications and public affairs of the College through enormous changes, with a direct hand in much of the office’s response,” Zaki wrote.

Additionally, Zaki highlighted Hood’s contributions to the College community that may go unnoticed.

“Like many who work here, [Hood] has done unseen and sometimes unheralded work, whether in community and government relations, hanging jumbos in the Smith Union hallway, driving a golf cart or holding a parking space—or joining with his senior officer colleagues to manage the College through a pandemic and other emergencies,” she wrote.

Zaki expressed her gratitude to Hood for his commitment to the College and the pride he’s taken in his work over the past 36-plus years.

“As a first-generation college student, [Hood] has been open about his pride in working at Bowdoin and how seriously he has taken his role to protect and burnish the College’s reputation in every way,” Zaki wrote. “I know you join me in thanking him for this deeply important work and for his many other contributions.”

The College will soon begin a national search for Hood’s successor, according to Zaki’s email.