Gabrielle Gambrell

Gabrielle Gambrell is a communications, branding and media expert. She’s currently serving industry leading and award-winning sports, media, entertainment, consumer, technology and lifestyle brands, as well as talent and influencers. As both the first Black woman to hold her title, as well as the youngest since the College’s founding in 1889, Gambrell made history as Vice President and Head of Marketing & Communications at Barnard College of Columbia University, the most selective institution in the U.S. devoted to empowering extraordinary women. Serving as chief communications and chief marketing officer, Gambrell spearheaded the creation and implementation of marketing and communications campaigns attracting the brightest applicants, recruiting the best faculty and staff, motivating alumnae and donors, and furthering the College’s mission. 

Executing sophisticated, robust and ambitious marketing communications tactics to promote and increase visibility and support strategic goals are Gambrell’s baseline strengths. She has led award-winning marketing, internal and external communications, events, and multimedia storytelling via digital, print, video, editorial, and creative design teams. Additionally, she has effectively led triumphant media relations and strategic crisis, news and issues communications. 

She’s also a NYU faculty professor, where she teaches graduate-level courses in integrated marketing, digital and social media, media relations, corporate communications and more. Her career spans tenures at many world-renowned media giants, including Comcast NBCUniversal, CBS Corporation and ABC, all by the age of 27. Gambrell is a speaker and authority on diversity, equity and inclusion and career development. She’s a Board of Trustees member and honors alumna of Iona College (M.A., Sports & Entertainment Public Relations and B.A., Television, Video Production & Film), and received their Rising Star Award in 2018 for early-career achievements. Gambrell has been named to PRNEWS' 2020 list of Top Women in PR and PRWeek’s 2019 Hall of Femme as a Woman To Watch. Originally from Los Angeles, she currently resides in New York with her husband, son, #BabyGambrell and daughter #GigiGambrell.