Michael Hotchkiss is the assistant vice president for communications.

His previous role was as director of media relations, serving as Princeton’s point of contact to international, national, local, and student press. He has been a University spokesperson since 2018. He has represented the University to the media on issues of national interest in higher education, including academic freedom and the preservation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections; provided media relations counsel to senior University leadership; and managed international media attention for a range of situations, including announcements of numerous University-affiliated Nobel Prize winners. 

He joined the Office of Communications in 2010 as social sciences writer. In that role, he told a wide range of stories about the research and teaching missions of the University, with a special focus on the social sciences. He has written about research on everything from the history of alchemy to child health to the Chinese housing market. He collaborated with colleagues to tell stories through words, photos, video, infographics and animations. Regardless of the form, all his stories began with people — faculty and students with a passion for their work and for service.

Before joining Princeton, Michael worked as a U.S. news editor for the Wall Street Journal, but he got his start at his hometown weekly paper in Mississippi. Thanks to that experience, he can cover high school football, develop film and toss a newspaper from a speeding van with impressive accuracy. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri.