UCLI Speakers

Michael Reese
is Associate Vice President of Strategic Communications at the Office of the President. Reese has primary responsibility for planning and directing the implementation of strategic public affairs, issues management, market research, media and constituent relations, and public outreach programs for the University. In 1977, Reese began a 12-year career with Newsweek that included working as a New York-based National Affairs Writer and a Correspondent in San Francisco and Chicago. In 1986, he became the magazine's Los Angeles Bureau Chief, with responsibility for coverage of 11 Western states. From 1990 to 1994, Reese worked in Sacramento, first as press secretary to Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr., Later he became Director of Communications for the State Treasurer's Office. In 1994, he joined then-Treasurer Kathleen Brown's gubernatorial campaign as deputy campaign manager. After a 1995 Visiting Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Governmental Studies, Reese established a Southern California-based independent consulting service. And prior to accepting this position, he was the Vice President for Communications and Government Affairs for the Milliken Family Foundation. Reese received a bachelor s degree from the University of California, Riverside.