Steven Mackay has been named communications director for the Virginia Tech College of Science.

As communications director, Mackay will lead the internal and external communications, media relations, and marketing programs for the nine departments of the College of Science, including biological sciences, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics, as well as the college’s Academy of Integrated Science and Neuroscience program, and the Arlington Innovation Center: Health Research

Mackay previously was communications manager with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering from September 2008 until September 2015, working on such stories as the Blind Driver Challenge and the introduction of CHARLI, the first full-sized humanoid robot built in the United States, as well as work by the Virginia Tech Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics to rate football and hockey helmet with new safety standards for athletes. He also helped spearhead communication efforts for the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute from spring 2013 until September 2015, writing about distracted driving and automated vehicle technology.  

Prior to coming to Virginia Tech, Mackay was managing editor of Tuscaloosa, Ala.-based Overdrive magazine, a 100,000-circulation business trade publication targeting owner-operator truck drivers. At the Birmingham (Alabama) Business Journal, he served as web editor from 2002 until 2003 before being promoted to special sections editor in 2004. From 2001 to 2002, he worked as managing editor of the Smyth County News & Messenger in Marion, Virginia., and from 1996 until 2001, he worked as a reporter for the Hickory (North Carolina) Daily Record.

Steven earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., in 1996.

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