Responsibilities

• Develops and drives the overall School of Education marketing and communication strategy aligned with the School of Education’s goals and VCU brand standards.
• Leads, implements, and monitors cross-channel, multi-year marketing campaigns for academic programs, events, research initiatives, fundraising efforts, and other initiatives to ensure strategy alignment, audience growth, and overall return on investment for the School of Education.
• Develops and leads the School’s narrative strategy to ensure that the School and its auxiliary programs are aligned across all platforms.
• Partners with School deans, administrators, chairs, and support staff to ensure marketing strategy efforts are aligned with stakeholder needs.
• Identifies and drafts faculty research highlights and student success stories to pitch to internal and external media outlets.
• Serves as a valued member of SOE’s leadership council.
• Serves as the School’s brand steward, ensuring consistency in visual identity, tone, messaging, and accessibility across all platforms and materials while ensuring compliance with University standards and policies.
• Works closely with VCU’s Enterprise Marketing and Communications to elevate the School of Education’s priorities and other newsworthy initiatives.
• Leads speechwriting and presentation building initiatives and supports leadership communications as requested by the dean.
• Assists leadership in drafting internal memos and manages crisis communications messaging in coordination with VCU’s Enterprise Marketing and Communications.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, journalism, or related field
• 3 + years experience in marketing and communication fields
• Demonstrated success in managing complex projects, timelines, and multiple stakeholders
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Proficiency with digital content platforms, communications/marketing automation, and creative tools (e.g. CMS, Adobe Creative Suite, Slate, graphic design tools, email marketing tools, social media platforms, and Google Suite)
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, balancing competing priorities and deadlines
• Experience in creating long-term, comprehensive communications plans appropriate to specific strategic target stakeholder audiences
• Experience in developing and scaling marketing infrastructure

Preferred

• Advanced degree in marketing/communications or related field
• Experience in marketing, creative services, and communications within higher education or other highly-matrixed environments
• Experience working as a solo communicator for an organization.
• Experience with T4 and other content management systems
• Proven ability to draft executive-level communications, presentations and speeches
• Practical industry-based experience using AI tools
• Familiarity with the experiences of educators, both as students and as teachers/administrators.
• Experience in higher education student recruitment and retention
• Experience directing work and/or managing others

Benefits

• All full-time university staff are eligible for VCU’s robust benefits package that includes comprehensive health benefits, paid annual and holiday leave, generous tuition benefits, retirement planning and savings options, tax-deferred annuity and cash match programs, employee discounts, well-being resources, abundant opportunities for career development and advancement, and more.