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 and then director of communications and marketing in spring 2008.

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, then as director of media relations and now as director of communications and marketing
• 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 Communications and Marketing
Youngsma Center
(616) 526-6475
dehp@calvin.edu

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