After a three month search for a new Director of New Haven Affairs, Vice President for New Haven and State Affairs and Campus Develompent Bruce Alexander ’65 selected Lauren Zucker to fill the post late last month.

Zucker, a business executive for two decades, is new to New Haven. She’ll be taking a new position that comprises one half of the job vacated by Mike Morand ’87 DIV ’93, the former associate vice president for New Haven and state affairs who will move next month to a new position managing state communications for Yale’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications. In an e-mail Sunday evening, Zucker said she is “excited to be a part of the Yale and New Haven communities.”

“She has excellent background on the real estate side and brings experience in urban development and urban improvement to the job,” University President Richard Levin said. “She is someone who is very committed at this point to trying to take on a new career challenge.”

Rich Jacob, who currently manages federal relations as Yale’s lobbyist, will take over the state relations portion of Morand’s old job as part of what Alexander said in October was part of an effort to “respond to the Officers’ emphasis on talent development.”

Zucker’s job will also require that she assist Alexander with the city’s economic development, an area that Alexander previously handled on his own. Zucker will also be working with the Office of Cooperative Research, the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and New Haven’s Economic Development Corporation as part of her effort to create jobs for residents, expand the city’s tax base, develop Science Park and increase the number of flights out of Tweed airport, Alexander said.

“She will be a great addition to the team that works to enhance the prosperity of our host community,” he wrote in an e-mail Sunday afternoon.

The search for a Director of New Haven Affairs began in late September, when Morand announced his move to the office of public affairs. Zucker began work Jan. 3.

She graduated magna cum laude from Brown, Alexander said, before receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School.