Institutional Advancement was first established as Information and Publications in 1968, three years after the college was founded. The department was primarily responsible for publishing the college catalog, class schedule, and program fliers; media relations; and promotion of local funding elections.

Larry Romine had helped Bert Dotson, the first assistant to president, with information and publications for the first three years of the college before the department was established. He was appointed as the first director of Information and Publications in 1968.

In the mid-1970s, responsibility for the coordination of local funding elections was transferred to Information and Publications, and the department changed its name to College/Community Relations in 1975. In addition, the department was given responsibility for Printings and Graphics, Grants, and Development Fund in the 1980s. The name was again changed to Public Relations/Foundation in 1984 and finally to Institutional Advancement in 1986. In 2000 the department was placed under the President's Office and was renamed Marketing and Public Relations.

The first director of the department, Larry Romine, served from 1968 until his retirement in 1992. Diane Dann, publications coordinator in the late 1970s, then publications manager and associate director in 1984, became Larry Romine's successor and served as director from 1992-2002.

Larry Romine was director of Institutional Advancement from 1968 to 1992.

Romine received his B.A from Midland University in Nebraska and his M.A in journalism from the University of Oregon. He worked as a reporter for The Eugene Register-Guard where he was a strong advocate for community colleges. He joined the staff of Lane Community College as a journalism instructor in 1966 and became the first director of Institutional Advancement in 1968. Until his retirement in 1992, he worked primarily in public relations, media relations, marketing, elections, and presidential communications.

Romine is the author of Lane Community College: The Parnell Years.

He served on the Lane Board of Education from 1997-2001 representing Zone 1 in the western part of the college district. He was later appointed to the Board from Zone 5 in 2002 and served until his resignation in 2007.

Diane Dann was director of Institutional Advancement from 1992 to 2002. Previously she was publications manager from 1979-1984 and associate director from 1984-1996.

Dann recieved her B.A. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1967 and her M.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1982. Before coming to Lane, she held positions in communications and public relations at the City of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of California at Los Angeles.