After spending well over a year away from the ad industry to indulge her artistic interests, it appears that Maria Scileppi is ready to get back into the mix. Sources tell us that Scileppi, who last we remember left her gig as director of the Chicago Portfolio School towards the end of 2011, is joining up with 72andSunny’s in-house “school” dubbed 72U. If you need a refresher, 72U was launched by the L.A.-based, MDC-owned 72andSunny nearly two years ago as an “intensive, one-of-a-kind learning experience designed to open people up to new ways of thinking, collaborating and tackling modern communication problems.”
From what sources who’ve heard from Scileppi herself via a recent memo tell us, she will take on the role of director come Feb. 1 at 72U, which was initially led by the likes of Geoff McGann (a W+K vet who you might also remember from this recent episode) and Kelly Schoeffel, who appears to still serve as strategy director at 72andSunny proper. As for the 72U director-to-be (so we believe), we’ve reached out to the agency folks to get some clarification on Scileppi’s status with the school, which we’ve been told will commence again in May, include just a handful of students and focus on creative projects ranging from videos to music to new media.