MANHATTAN — Jackie Hartman, Kansas State University’s chief of staff and its first director of community relations, has announced her retirement, effective Feb. 1.

Appointed by President Kirk Schulz in 2010 as director of community relations and assistant to the president, Hartman was later named chief of staff. She currently reports directly to President Richard Myers and serves as a member of the cabinet. She leads and coordinates community affairs for the university, representing the president’s office on issues related to the city of Manhattan.

Hartman’s efforts as community relations director have helped K-State earn national recognition. The 2018 Princeton Review ranks the university as No. 1 in the nation for town-gown relations.

Hartman also provides leadership for the university’s prestigious Landon Lecture Series. She is involved with fundraising initiatives with McCain Auditorium and the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. She serves as liaison between the president’s office and the Kansas State University Foundation, K-State Athletics and K-State Alumni Association. McCain Auditorium and the Beach Museum of Art also report to Hartman.

In addition, Hartman coordinates special projects, working with the president and provost. She was chair of the university’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2013, and most recently helped organize KSUnite, a successful unity event in November 2017 for students, faculty, staff and community members to reaffirm who we are as a university community, what we value and what we stand for as the K-State family.

“I want to thank Jackie for her dedicated service to Kansas State University,” said President Myers. “She has truly made a difference for the university. Whether through her work with McCain Auditorium and the Beach Museum of Art, the relationships she built in the community and at the university, her leadership with Landon Lectures, or in a multitude of other roles, her professionalism was beyond reproach and she always represented us well.”

Under Hartman’s leadership, McCain expanded its performance schedule, bringing increased opportunities for students, faculty, staff and the community to experience first-rate Broadway performances and some of the nation’s top performers. She led the search for a new director for the Beach Museum of Art in 2011, and her leadership was vital to the museum’s expansion of programming that connects regional art, culture and interests with the larger world.

As chair of the Landon Lecture Series, Hartman helped arrange lectures by several notable government, business and media leaders, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Alan Simpson, Dr. Mehmood Khan and political pundits John Avlon and Margaret Hoover.

Before joining K-State, Hartman was a faculty member at Colorado State University — where she earned her doctorate in human resource development with an emphasis on organizational communication — from 1987-2010.

When Hartman came to K-State in 2010, she was returning home. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from K-State, and served as an instructor of management at the university from 1981-1986. Her Wildcat roots run deep as she is the daughter of Pat and Jack Hartman, the legendary basketball coach who led K-State to three Big Eight titles, two Big Eight Tourney titles and nine postseason appearances.