Serena Longley, BC ’06, will serve as Barnard’s new vice president and general counsel, and Natalie Raabe has been appointed vice president for strategic communications, according to a Friday email obtained by Spectator from Barnard President Laura Rosenbury to faculty and administrative staff.
Both will begin their tenures on June 3.
The announcement comes three months after Rosenbury announced widespread turnover in the college’s senior administration in a Feb. 8 email to administrative staff and faculty. In the email, she announced searches for a new vice president for strategic communications and a new general counsel, the departure of the executive director of communications, and a newly appointed vice president of development and alumnae relations.
Since the departure of former interim general counsel Kathleen Veteri on March 8, associate and assistant general counsels Melissa Rooker and Jasmin Izquierdo have filled in for the empty position while the college conducted the search, a Barnard spokesperson wrote to Spectator in March.
Longley currently serves as deputy general counsel for New York state Attorney General Letitia James.
“Serena has been a trusted in-house counsel who has handled a wide range of legal, ethical, and operational issues and high-profile special projects with sensitivity and impeccable judgment,” Rosenbury wrote in her Friday email.
Longley graduated from Barnard in 2006 before studying at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
“As Vice President and General Counsel at Barnard, Serena will advise the Office of the President, the Board of Trustees, and Senior Staff and oversee all legal matters affecting the College,” Rosenbury wrote.
Raabe has an extensive background in communications for news organizations, including ABC News, NBC News, and The Atlantic. She comes to Barnard after nearly a decade with the communications team at the New Yorker, becoming vice president of communications in August 2022. Raabe studied international relations at Georgetown University.
“As Vice President for Strategic Communications at Barnard, Natalie will bring deep expertise in strategy and media relations to the communications team and act as the official spokesperson for the College,” Rosenbury wrote.
The shifts in Rosenbury’s senior administrative staff continue as she comes under pressure from the Barnard community, having lost a faculty vote of no confidence on April 30—the first president in college history to do so. Rosenbury faces calls to resign following months of unilateral policy changes and additions, disciplinary actions against students, and mass suspensions and evictions of students allegedly involved in the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”