Executive Director of Strategic Communications & Content

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing, or a related field.
• Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in public relations, communications, or marketing, including at least five years supervising professional staff.
• Demonstrated success developing and executing multi-year strategic communications or marketing plans tied to measurable organizational goals.
• A record of placing stories in national media on behalf of a complex organization, and strong relationships with media organizations.
• Experience leading content teams across writing, design, video, and social media, including coaching and developing early-career staff.
• Experience with crisis communications.
• Exceptional writing, editing, and presentation skills; the ability to synthesize ideas quickly and perform under deadline.
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to lead multiple projects at once and build repeatable processes.
• Comfort using data and analytics to measure results and guide decisions.
• Commitment to collegiality, confidentiality, accuracy, and honesty, and the diplomacy to balance competing campus priorities.
• Interest in and support of John Carroll’s Jesuit Catholic mission to inspire individuals to excel in learning, leadership, and service in the region and in the world.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in communications, marketing, or a related field, or professional accreditation such as APR.
• Higher education experience, particularly in enrollment marketing or advancement communications, or at a Jesuit or Catholic institution.
• Familiarity with web content management systems, social media analytics, and media monitoring tools.
• Experience managing agency or freelance partners and departmental budgets.
• Knowledge of the Cleveland and Northeast Ohio media market.
• A creative problem solver who brings structure to fast-moving work.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the AVP and VP to develop and execute multi-year and annual strategic communications, PR, and established KPIs and performance dashboards tied directly to enrollment and reputation goals.
• Integrate brand, news, and enrollment storytelling across all channels and audiences, establishing editorial standards and maintaining brand consistency across all university colleges and departments.
• Provide strategic communications counsel for faculty for media appearances with tailored briefing materials and media training.
• Direct local, regional, and national media relations to secure placements in print, broadcast, digital, and podcast outlets, prioritizing key enrollment growth markets.
• Maintain and support the execution of the university crisis and issues communications plan alongside the AVP and Chief of Staff, leading media responses and serving on the Emergency Management and Weather Emergency teams as needed.
• Build and manage high-profile thought leadership initiatives, including a faculty speakers bureau, op-ed program, and expert source guide to elevate institutional visibility across higher education.
• Oversee the university newsroom, authoring, editing, and approving news releases, media advisories, pitches, and web stories, while leveraging rankings and awards into sustained earned-media campaigns.
• Supervise, coach, and evaluate a team of five content, editorial, multimedia, graphic design, and social media professionals, building clear career growth pathways and setting performance goals.
• Own end-to-end editorial and content strategy for news, social media, video, and the university magazine, while supplying high-quality content for web and enrollment communications.
• Establish streamlined processes for intake, prioritization, review, and approval to ensure projects across Enrollment, Advancement, Athletics, and academic colleges are delivered on schedule.
• Oversee social media strategy.
• Lead the integration of AI tools to scale content creation and workflows within ethical guardrails, developing Generative Engine Optimization strategies to maximize visibility in AI-powered search engines.
• Ensure all published content meets technical accessibility standards, best practices, and brand requirements across all email and print mediums.
• Manage campaigns with University Advancement with alumni, donor, campaign, and support the Editor-in-Chief of the Alumni magazine.
• Manage relationships with content, PR, and digital vendors and agencies; evaluate their performance and recommend vendor strategy to the AVP.
• Perform other related work as assigned.