Roland King is Vice President for Public Affairs at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) in Washington, D.C., an organization representing nearly 1,000 private institutions and affiliated associations. His responsibilities include public relations, media relations, publications, and all of NAICU's communications with members, opinion leaders, and the general public. He also serves as the association's Web master, and in addition to overseeing the main NAICU site, has developed specialized Web sites on community service by colleges and universities, and on their accountability efforts. Before joining NAICU in 1998, Roland was Director of University Relations at the University of Maryland at College Park, where he served as university spokesperson and directed the university's internal and external communications efforts. Previously, he had similar responsibilities as Director of Media and External Relations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Earlier in his career, he was director of public relations and publications at Bucknell University, and held a similar position at Carnegie Mellon University. For seven years he was a full-time consultant to colleges and universities on marketing/ communications issues, and specialized in the evaluation and restructuring of public relations and publications programs as senior vice president with the Barton-Gillet Company and vice president with F.E. Worthington, Inc., both Baltimore-based communications firms. He continues to consult with selected institutions in his present position.

Roland frequently speaks on such topics as college and university identity; institutional marketing; and assessing, planning, and managing public relations programs. His articles have appeared in numerous professional periodicals, and include major features for CASE Currents, the monthly magazine of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Roland’s writing also includes a chapter on "Organizing the Communications Operation" for the CASE Handbook of Institutional Advancement, Third Edition (2000). With his wife Judy Phair, he contributed a chapter on "One Size Doesn't Fit All: Tailoring the Public Relations Organization to the University's Needs" for Public Relations and the Presidency, published by CASE in 2001.

He was elected to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) College of Fellows in 2005, is an accredited member of PRSA, and is a founding member of both the Counselors to Higher Education section of PRSA, and the College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania (CUPRAP). In 2005, CUPRAP honored Roland with its Arthur V. Ciervo Award in recognition of "his career accomplishments in raising awareness of the role and needs of higher education at a national level."

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