GovernmentAthleticsEducation

I help institutions earn trust before they need it.

Senior communications and public relations leader with 20+ years directing media relations, brand reputation, and crisis communications for mission-driven institutions. Equal parts strategist and practitioner — comfortable advising executive leadership on positioning and response, and equally comfortable writing the speech, drafting the release, and making the call myself.

Portrait of Brian Wolff
20+

Years leading communications, public relations, and media strategy

17

Years directing communications for a Division I athletics program

22,000+

Residents of the Town of Bloomfield served through proactive communications and media relations

On camera

The spokesperson role isn't a job title. It's a relationship.

When the media covered Bloomfield, I was the one they called. This interview outside the municipal building was one of the more visible moments, but the readiness was the same every time a story came our way.

That comfort in front of a camera or on the phone with a reporter was built daily over 17 years in Division I athletics, working with media on a near-constant basis: know the reporter, know the story they're actually chasing, and give them something accurate and human before someone else fills the space.

Interviewed on site as the Town's Public Information Officer, Bloomfield, CT

Selected work

Three sectors, one discipline.

Municipal government, high-visibility college athletics, and mission-driven education all demand the same thing: a credible voice, built deliberately, that holds when the pressure arrives. The settings change; the discipline doesn't.

Government

Town of Bloomfield, Connecticut · 2022–2026

Town of Bloomfield, CT

Building a municipal communications department from scratch

The Town had no dedicated communications function prior to August 2022. Alongside a small, committed team, I helped start up the Office of Strategic Communications & Government Affairs, now known as Operations & Communications, and build its infrastructure from the ground up — the brand standards, the publications, the website, and the media operation that a community of 22,000+ residents needed.

  • Complete overhaul of the Town website, from vendor selection through launch
  • In Bloom, a quarterly newsletter mailed to every household and business
  • Town-wide branding and style guide adopted across every department
Read the case study
Athletics Brian Wolff at a University at Buffalo athletics press conference podium

University at Buffalo · Division of Athletics

Seventeen years telling Division I stories to a national audience

Directed strategic communications and brand storytelling for a high-profile Division I department — putting athletes in front of a national audience through NCAA Tournament runs, conference championships, and NFL Draft nights, several of whom compete professionally today.

  • Senior communications advisor to athletics and university leadership
  • Message frameworks for speeches, talking points, features, and releases
  • Four MAC and one NCAA Diversity & Inclusion Award; Emmy-winning production credit
Read the case study
Education · Strategy exercise

Charter network external affairs · Written strategy exercise

Connecticut charter network · External affairs

Aligning four boards without flattening four communities

A 60–90 day strategy for a charter network moving from centralized governance to a regionally anchored model across four boards, paired with a community partnership plan built around listening first. Written as a technical assignment for a Managing Director of External Affairs search — a thinking sample, not delivered work.

  • Shared message architecture that preserves each board's local voice
  • Trustee media toolkit: key messages, FAQs, elected-official guidance
  • Community open-house plan with named commitments on both sides
Read the case study

About

Effective communications isn't spin. It's earned trust.

I'm a communications and public relations leader who has spent a career translating complex institutional work into narratives that build trust, mobilize stakeholders, and protect reputation. Division I athletics taught me to do it at speed, in public, with a camera running. Municipal government taught me to do it across competing audiences and political complexity at once. Different fields, same instincts — which is exactly why I adapt quickly to a new one.

My approach is proactive first. I build the infrastructure, the relationships, and the playbooks before a crisis arrives. When one does, the principles hold: speed, accuracy, and empathy — stay close to leadership, coordinate across channels, and never let a vacuum form.

I'm comfortable in the room advising executive leadership, and just as comfortable doing the work myself when that's what the moment calls for — writing the speech, drafting the release, building the content calendar, working the media list. Both matter, and I've never wanted a role that only allows one.

Based in Connecticut. Looking for senior communications, public relations, and public affairs leadership work in mission-driven institutions.

  • Media relations
  • Brand & reputation management
  • Internal communications
  • Crisis communications
  • Executive communications
  • Speechwriting
  • Digital & website strategy
  • Publications & editorial
  • Vendor & budget management
  • Staff supervision
“We moved from crisis management to story leadership. The organization's voice became recognizable, credible, and trusted.”
On rebuilding a reactive communications function

How I work

Three things I return to, whatever the sector: earn trust with diverse audiences through consistent, honest communication; translate complex missions into narratives that move people; and build the systems before the crisis, not after it.

Team and staff on court after a championship game, holding commemorative jerseys
Championship night — the kind of moment that only lands publicly if the groundwork was laid months earlier.

Work samples

Open the actual documents.

Publications, press releases, brand standards, and internal communications I wrote, edited, designed, or directed. Every file below is the real thing — open it and read it.

Credentials

Education, honors, affiliations.

Twenty years of practice, plus the recognition and professional standards that come with working in public view.

Education

  • MS, Sports ManagementConcentration in Athletic Administration · Southern New Hampshire University
  • BA, CommunicationsUniversity at Buffalo

Honors & awards

  • Emmy AwardNew York Chapter, NATAS — assistant producer, UB Football Insider
  • Super 11 AwardFootball Writers Association of America
  • MAC Diversity & Inclusion AwardMid-American Conference (4×)
  • NCAA Diversity & Inclusion AwardNCAA

Certifications & affiliations

  • Certified Connecticut Municipal Official (CCMO)Connecticut Conference of Municipalities
  • PRSAPublic Relations Society of America
  • 3CMACity-County Communications & Marketing Association

The full record, on one page.

Twenty years across municipal government and higher education, plus core competencies.