Denise Mattson
Associate Vice President for Public Relations

Trained as a journalist, Denise Mattson left the newspaper business for life in the academy in 1990 when she joined DePaul's media relations staff. As associate vice president for public relations, Mattson serves as the university's official spokesperson and is responsible for setting strategic direction for the media relations, special events and internal communication staffs. She and her team have earned several Gold and Silver Trumpets from the Publicity Club of Chicago, recognizing excellence in public relations.

A 1987 graduate of Illinois State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in mass communication with a sociology minor, Mattson also holds a master of arts in liberal studies degree from DePaul. She began her professional journalism career interning at the Archdiocese of Chicago's newspaper, The New World, and then moved on to the legendary City News Bureau of Chicago, before concluding her days as a reporter at the Daily Southtown. She is author of "The Rise of a Dynamic Urban Planner: The Living Biography of Elizabeth Hollander," the story of Chicago's first woman planning commissioner.