Savanna Wood joined Northwestern University in 2025 as the inaugural Chief Communications and Branding Officer (CCBO) for Northwestern Athletics. As CCBO, Wood leads communications, marketing, branding, digital and social strategy, in-venue presentation, creative services, fan engagement, ticket operations, broadcast operations, and is the athletics licensing liaison, ensuring a unified and consistent brand voice across all channels while driving the department's strategic revenue objectives for football and basketball through ticket marketing and storytelling.

A key strategic priority for Wood is leading the department's NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) executions. She collaborates daily with NUDAR General Manager on revenue-share cap allocations and NIL contracts with third-party partnerships for student-athletes. Wood also focuses heavily on brand relationships with apparel partners and licensing opportunities, and serves as external brand and storytelling representative for Kirkpatrick Stadium and Ryan Field—the best stadium in college football, opening in October 2026—helping to shape storytelling and brand design and implementation around these transformative venues as Northwestern enters this exciting new era. Wood is also critical in external and leadership communications on behalf of the athletic department.

Prior to Northwestern, Wood served as Executive Associate Athletic Director, Brand & Marketing Strategy at the University of Miami. During her time with the Hurricanes, Wood oversaw graphic design, video content and operations, broadcast, communications, digital strategy, consumer marketing, and event presentation. She was responsible for implementing a long-term digital roadmap strategy that drove innovation across multiple verticals to increase overall brand reach and achieve defined revenue goals and also designed and developed new wordmarks that led to an updated licensing guide, uniform set and significant increase in merchandise sales. Wood also served as ACC Senior External Strategy representative, overseeing all departmental uniform and licensing matters and managing the relationship between athletics and campus partnerships.

Before the University of Miami, Wood directed marketing, social, and digital partnerships at Thrill One Sports and Entertainment, a global action sports firm, where she managed events across 27 states and four continents with a platform exceeding 30-million-followers with a private equity focus. She also spent five seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars leading digital and consumer marketing, overseeing digital platforms and driving innovation for more than 110 partners. She was instrumental in launching mobile apps, websites, Daily's Place amphitheater, and All-Elite Wrestling (AEW), a venture by Jaguars owner Shad Khan and his son, Tony.

Wood's early career began with the Boston Red Sox in game presentation and marketing after graduating from the University of Florida at 19 with a degree in Public Relations and Sport Management. While at UF, Wood worked nearly full-time supporting both the baseball and men's basketball programs, gaining extensive hands-on experience in collegiate athletics operations. She also interned with the Cape Cod Baseball League, setting the stage for her dynamic career in sports and entertainment.