Communications Strategist - Media and Public Relations

About the role

Develops and executes external communications and media strategies that position Gillette Children’s as a local, national, and global leader in delivering care to patients with brain, bone, and movement conditions. This person will develop Gillette’s external communications strategy, including oversight of media relations and thought leadership, and digital community management. The role also provides external communications support, strategy and content development for gillettechildrens.org and other digital platforms including social media, and supports internal stakeholders on communications initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Manages production of a variety of communications channels with a strong focus on earned media.
• Develops and implements an external communications strategy for generating media coverage that supports Gillette’s strategic objectives.
• Works with clinical care staff to identify and develop stories in target areas.
• Collaborates with colleagues to identify and evaluate media opportunities.
• Serves as a partner to team members, leaders, and other internal partners to coordinate multichannel communication strategies and tactics.
• Researches best practices and develops measurements to determine effectiveness of media efforts.
• Serves as the organization’s primary contact regarding public relations and media needs and provides leadership and guidance.
• Creates statements, serves as spokesperson and manages crisis communications planning.
• As needed, serves on incident command as public information officer (PIO).
• Manages press events and serves as on-site media escort.
• Supervises story development and recommends social and traditional media outlets to maximize story placement.
• Prepares clinicians, executives and other leaders for media interviews.
• Handles reactive media relations scenarios that may include sensitive situations.
• Monitors audience sentiment, including media monitoring and online community management.
• Oversees governance of Gillette Children’s social media monitoring.
• Crafts responses to audience messages across a variety of digital channels.
• Tracks audience sentiment and engagement, flagging emerging reputational risks and opportunities.
• Serves as a partner to team members and other internal stakeholders to coordinate communication strategies and tactics.
• Partners with team members, leaders, and other internal stakeholders to coordinate multichannel communications strategies and tactics, including content production.
• Actively brings forward ideas and innovations; researches best practices and benchmarks in external communications within industry and outside healthcare and leads implementation.
• Continuously reviews and reports on communications metrics and overall effectiveness of external communications efforts.

Qualifications

• Required: Bachelor’s degree (journalism, public relations, English or communications preferred)
• Required: Minimum of five (5) years of media relations or communications experience including writing in a variety of media to a variety of audiences
• Preferred: Healthcare experience
• Good presentation (both verbal and written) and public speaking skills
• Advanced writing, proofing, and editing ability (appropriate tone/style, clear and concise, well organized, complete and accurate)
• Demonstrate effective management of projects from concept to production
• Provide leadership in process and procedure development and implementation
• Advanced computer skills and demonstrated strong ability to use a variety of digital tools
• Independent problem solving/decision making
• Experience in developing strong working relationships with a wide range of staff within an organization
• Intuitive organizational skills
• Understands the evolving media landscape and can identify opportunities beyond traditional earned media, including digital, social and emerging platforms
• Understanding of legal issues around sharing stories
• Ability to translate complex, clinical information into compelling content that is appealing to broad audiences

Pay

The annual salary range for this opportunity is $77,313.60 to $115,918.40, with a median salary of $96,616.00. Pay is dependent on several factors including relevant work experience and internal equity.

Benefits

• Retirement saving match
• Tuition and certification reimbursement
• Paid time off
• Health and wellness benefits

Schedule

Hybrid opportunity for candidates in Minnesota or Wisconsin, who can come onsite to St. Paul, MN a minimum of 2x/week. Participate in a shared on-call rotation for media relations, serving as a media contact during incidents and responding to press inquiries as needed.