Since 1985 I've been employed by Calvin College, my alma mater. I graduated from Calvin in the spring of 1984 with an English major and a journalism minor. I then worked in Toronto for a year (I'm a native of Exeter, Ontario) before moving back to Grand Rapids to work as the sports information director at Calvin. I was SID for nine years, becoming the director of media relations in the summer of 1994.

I am married, to a fellow Calvin graduate, and we have two children, both of whom are from Korea. In the spring semester of 2002 I took a Calvin class on the history of the Korean War that included writing a term paper on the impact of the war on civilians.

Resume

• President of the West Michigan Public Relations Society of America chapter in 2001
• WMPRSA Newsletter editor, 2000-2002
• WMPRSA Board Member, 1998-2002
• Employed since the fall of 1985 by Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, first as sports information director and then as director of media relations
• 1984 graduate of Calvin College with a major in English and a minor in Journalism
• 1981 graduate of South Huron District High School in Exeter, Ontario (back when Ontario high schools still had grade 13!)

Career Highlights

• coordinated media relations efforts for Calvin's hosting of Petra: Lost City of Stone from April-August 2005
• coordinated pre-Commencement, Commencement Day and post-Commencement media coverage of Commencement 2005 which featured as speaker President George W. Bush
• coordinated coverage of Calvin's 2001 Commencement ceremony which included William Rehnquist as Commencement speaker
• coordinated coverage (before, during and after), media room set-up, press conferences and more for the January 2000 Republican Presidential debate at Calvin, an event that featured then-candidate George W. Bush
• committee member for the January 1997 Calvin-Hope men's basketball game at VanAndel Arena, a game which set a Division III attendance record of 11,000 fans
• coordinated media connections to the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Festival of Faith & Writing, events which featured such keynote speakers as John Updike and Maya Angelou
• sports information director during Calvin's 1992 men's basketball NCAA National Championship run

Contact Information

Phil de Haan
Director of Media Relations
Spoelhof College Center, Room 340
(616) 526-6475
(616) 526-8551 FAX
dehp@calvin.edu

Additional contact information »