Assistant Director for Communications & Outreach Services

This position leads and coordinates communications and outreach activities for the office, as well as provides assistance with processing and service areas. Duties may include supervision of permanent and/or temporary staff members.

Responsibilities

• Outreach
  • Designs, delivers, and refines outreach events and programming to ensure students, families, and colleagues are appropriately and sufficiently aware and informed of funding opportunities.
  • Uses training lens and consumer information lens for the design, content, and delivery of outreach events.
  • Collaborates effectively with campus partners for outreach events, including office representation at other offices' events and vice versa.
  • Ensures outreach events are scheduled/planned well and delivered with complete, accurate, timely, and informative content.
• Communications
  • Supervises a team of permanent and temporary staff who respond to application and program inquiries in a timely, accurate, and inclusive manner.
  • Maintains and updates the office website, ensuring content is informative, succinct, accurate, logically presented, navigable, consumable, and inclusive.
  • Provides technical and operational support for the office website.
  • Establishes, monitors, and maintains a communications calendar/plan in consultation with fellow managers.
  • Develops guidelines for outgoing office communications to ensure consistency, accuracy, completeness, succinctness, inclusivity, and effectiveness.
  • Serves as lead for developing communication content generated by system operations.
  • Develops and maintains an annual calendar of planned and strategic office communications.
  • Serves as liaison to marketing and communications teams within the university.
  • Communicates to the public using an effective, approved social media strategy.
  • Follows established protocol in media contacts.
  • Ensures consumer information disclosures are accurate, compliant, consumable, and timely.
  • Collaboratively establishes and manages a schedule to ensure office inquiries are fielded in a timely and effective manner.
  • Uses training lens and consumer information lens for the design, content, and delivery of office communications.
• Professionalism & Content Knowledge
  • Actively participates in professional meetings, conferences, and workshops; communicates clearly with colleagues in similar roles.
  • Researches industry practices and shares knowledge with management and staff.
  • Ensures area policies and procedures are current and accurate.
  • Provides clear and accurate documentation of transactions, conversations, interactions, and edits to records affecting student eligibility and/or compliance.
  • Maintains professional appearance and demeanor when engaging with students, families, colleagues, and the public.
  • Maintains access to and working knowledge of relevant internal and external systems.
• Management of Office; Supervision
  • Advances processing and service workloads, ensuring delivery of services according to scheduled and ad-hoc calendaring.
  • Adjusts workloads in collaboration with fellow managers to ensure balanced, timely, accurate, well-documented, equitable, and inclusive services.
  • Serves as a partner in monitoring and assuring overall office operations are functional, accessible, efficient, compliant, inclusive, and free of conflicts of interest.
  • Maintains a current detailed timeline and status of all ongoing and anticipated projects/tasks for the area.
  • Keeps fellow senior managers apprised on a schedule established by the Executive Director.
  • Follows established timelines/calendars for projects/tasks.
  • Effectively supervises and manages staff providing communications, outreach, and services.
  • Professionally addresses and works toward resolution of complex or novel situations.
  • Facilitates cooperative and collaborative community and institutional relationships.
  • Prepares and implements appropriate changes in policies, procedures, regulations, and technologies.
  • Serves on and/or oversees various office committees (e.g., communications plan, appeals processes, outreach, personnel, forms and publications).
  • Collaborates with other employees on office committees regarding policy, procedures, and training opportunities.
  • Advises fellow managers of anomalies, trends, or patterns affecting systems functionality and/or student and program eligibility.
  • Ensures clear and accurate documentation of transactions, conversations, and interactions affecting student eligibility and/or compliance.
  • Adheres to all statutory, regulatory, and policy guidance, including office policies and procedures.
  • Actively collaborates in and contributes to overall office effectiveness, including:
    • Monitoring systems and technology platforms to ensure appropriate and effective operation.
    • Ensuring appropriate records management procedures and compliance with recordkeeping and archival requirements.
    • Maintaining privacy and confidentiality of student and family data.
    • Maintaining security of student records and related information.
  • Contributes as needed in preparation of operating and program budgets, annual new year startup design, data/statistical reports, and complex funding applications.
  • Helps ensure professional, timely, accurate, and inclusive delivery of services and policies.
  • Performs other duties as assigned by supervisor and/or Executive Director.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Education, Communication, or a related area, or equivalency (one year of education can be substituted for two years of related work experience).
• Two years of related experience; in-depth knowledge of the specialty area as well as federal-state laws and regulations governing their procedures.
• Demonstrated organizational, communication, and human relation skills.
• Related experience includes: instructional design, teaching, instructional video/multi-media production, public speaking, compositional writing, and computer operation.
• Applicants must demonstrate the potential ability to perform the essential functions of the job.

Preferences

• Previous work experience within an office that administers scholarships and/or financial aid programs.
• Experience using computers for instructional and educational support, including familiarity with the Internet and training experience in an educational environment.

Pay

$57,000 - $62,000

Schedule

Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM, with some weekend and evening work as necessary.