BIO

Gillian Frew brings more than a decade of experience in higher education communications and media relations to the RW Jones Agency, which she joined in January 2023.

As an account director, she builds strategies that help clients refine their goals and reach new heights. Her skills include advising senior leadership and faculty experts on media outreach, and crafting pitches, press releases, talking points and op-eds that raise institutions’ profiles. She partners with clients on media training and interview support as well as internal and interdepartmental communications and alumni relations.

Prior to her work with the agency, Gillian served in a variety of communications roles at her alma mater, Whitman College, most recently as an associate director managing campuswide media relations and social media. Additional responsibilities spanned executive speechwriting, messaging and content strategy for the website and magazine, editing a daily newsletter and contributing to enrollment and advancement campaigns.

She has secured placements in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, NPR, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, The Christian Science Monitor, The Seattle Times, The Hechinger Report and other competitive news outlets.

Formerly, she trained as a journalist and freelanced for publications including The Oregonian, Seattle Met, HuffPost, Thought Catalog and Medium. During a few stints living in central and northwest Spain, she tried her hand at travel blogging, taught, and worked for a children’s book publishing company.

Gillian graduated cum laude from Whitman College with a bachelor’s in English and a minor in Spanish. She lives in Washington state with her husband and two sons and enjoys sightseeing, scuba diving, wine tasting, listening to podcasts and reading fiction.