About
Director Bio
Caryn Nesmith, Director of Community Relations
"As director of Community Relations for the USF St. Petersburg campus, my goals include mobilizing USF resources to benefit key stakeholders on shared priorities; serving as a front door to the St. Petersburg campus and a conduit to ONEUSF resources; and representing USF in community, keeping the community informed and in dialogue with USF."
Caryn Nesmith is director of Community Relations at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, where she serves as a liaison between the campus and the community and aims to enhance access and collaborations with the campus.
Prior to this role, she was special assistant for strategic initiatives to the regional chancellor. In that capacity, she oversaw development and execution of new projects and programs on campus and in the community that advance the university’s mission and the regional chancellor’s priorities.
Before joining USF, Nesmith spent 13 years as a consultant creating and executing communications strategies for international policy on behalf of U.S. and foreign government clients, including overseas assignments as a media advisor and senior strategist in Iraq, Colombia, and the Philippines. In 2012, she moved to Tampa Bay to work at U.S. Special Operations Command on MacDill Airforce Base where she led a Strategic Engagement team in the International Liaison Division.
In her early career, Nesmith was a journalist in Puerto Rico at the San Juan Star and the Caribbean Bureau of The Associated Press. She has worked with non-profits focused on empowerment of communities: as a civil society coordinator in the mountains of Peru with the international non-profit CARE; as a teacher in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador with World Teach, and as an event coordinator throughout North America with Up With People.
Nesmith earned a Master’s Degree in International Relations with a concentration in Latin America and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland.
Contact
Caryn Nesmith
Director of Community Relations
USF St. Petersburg
carynn@usf.edu
Office: 727-873-4714
Key Community Stakeholders
