BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – West Virginia Wesleyan College announced Thursday that Talley Sergent, a veteran of The Coca-Cola Company and the U.S. Department of State, will serve as the college’s Chief Development and Marketing Officer. 

“Talley Sergent’s understanding of marketing and development is exceptional and her standards of excellence will enrich West Virginia Wesleyan’s efforts to reach and engage its students, alumni and friends,” said Joel Thierstein, President of the college.

“West Virginia Wesleyan is known for its tradition of excellence and I look forward to forging a new path that builds on those traditions and positions Wesleyan for sustained success in the future,” Sergent said. 

Sergent, a Huntington native, has built a career in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, she was Vice President of Communications at The Markham Group.  In 2018, she was the Democratic nominee in West Virginia’s Second Congressional District. Also, in 2018, Sergent was named one of FORTUNE’s Most Powerful Women – Next Generation and a West Virginia Wonder Woman by West Virginia Living magazine.

Previously, Sergent was an executive at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and a diplomat at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. She has worked at the national level on three U.S. presidential campaigns and got her start on Capitol Hill working for former U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller served as Wesleyan’s president from 1973-1975.

Her ties to the college date back to the 1950s. Sergent’s grandfather, the late Dr. M. Homer Cummings Jr., served on West Virginia Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees from 1959 until 1992 and was a recipient of the prestigious West Virginia Wesleyan Honors College’s Rhododendron Award. Her mother, Lillian Cummings Sergent (’75) and scores of aunts, uncles and cousins are all alumni of the college.

Sergent is a 2002 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She lives in Buckhannon with her partner, Patrick Jack, and their dog Chunk.