CRYSTAL LAKE – Columbia College has announced the addition of Patrick Snyder as the community and alumni relations coordinator for its campuses in Illinois. He will be working out of the Gurnee campus.

"We are extremely excited to welcome Patrick to our team," said Susan Davis, senior director of alumni relations for Columbia College. "We feel our four campuses in the state of Illinois will benefit greatly from Patrick's expertise in the areas of public, media and client relations."

Snyder is no stranger to organizational growth. As the former executive director of Visit Illinois, the Illinois travel and tourism association, he transformed what had been a 30-member club into a federation of tourism associations with membership in the hundreds of thousands, all while increasing the budget six-fold. Most recently, he served as vice president of operations for Steve Kaplan Live, is an adjunct professor in hospitality, marketing and operations at Kendall College and a distinguished lecturer at Roosevelt University. Snyder holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Eastern Illinois University and an IOM designation from the U.S. Chamber Institute Program at the University of Notre Dame.