Director of Media Relations and Communications

American University • Washington, DC

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

American University is a student-centered research institution located in Washington, DC, with highly-ranked schools and colleges, internationally-renowned faculty, and a reputation for creating meaningful change in the world. The Director of Media Relations and Communications is an integral member of the Communications team at UCM. They will report to and work directly with the Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief Communications Officer to develop, implement, and assess comprehensive communications initiatives to support American University’s strategic priorities and reputation goals. The Director will serve as a key leader on the Communications team and will have the ability to effectively manage people–three Associate Directors and a PR Specialist–projects, and lead partnerships with university leaders and UCM colleagues. The director works with the university’s schools and colleges and their communications teams, coordinating messages, audience engagement, and story promotion. The director creates and executes strategies for media engagement; develops strong relationships with reporters; engages university stakeholders to leverage and elevate university messages; trains faculty, staff, and administrators for media and public engagement; and conducts measurements of media activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree.
• 8 - 10 years of relevant experience.
• Superior written and oral communication skills with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute communication plans with measurable impact.
• Demonstrated experience writing various communications modalities, such as briefings, news releases, talking points, scripts, and general correspondence concerning the organizations initiatives, strategies, goals, and performance.
• Extensive relationships with key reporters and publications.
• Discretion and management experience working with executive stakeholders and handling confidential information and sensitive matters.
• Ability to manage projects and programs, which includes planning, developing timelines, determining resource requirements, evaluating progress, and reporting results.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree.

Responsibilities

• Develop creative implementation, and measurement of media relations and strategic communications strategies and programs that university goals and priorities, including reputation, student enrollment/retention, faculty research, and engagement.
• Manage the university's engagement with reporters and media outlets, draft statements and releases, coordinate internal review processes with stakeholders to ensure accuracy and message alignment, and report on outcomes.
• Foster and maintain strong relationships with key reporters and outlets to facilitate positive and responsible coverage of university messages, events, and programs.
• Respond to media inquiries regarding university policies, positions, programs, events, faculty, staff, and students.
• Support issues management activity and crisis communications in partnership with the Chief Communications Officer, Assistant Vice President and DCCO, and other university officials.
• Collaborate with UCM colleagues in digital and social media, marketing, and creative services to leverage skills and assets in support of comprehensive communications efforts.
• Serve as a key partner and leader to the communications team, cultivating a positive and productive environment.
• Provide a service model that delivers strategic communications counsel and tactical support to the schools, colleges, and administrative units that advance university priorities and constituent-specific goals. Ensure coordination of communications efforts and promote adherence to university messages and priorities.
• Serves as a thought partner to schools and other stakeholders as they explore external amplification strategies related to key media moments.
• Build strong relationships with academic leaders, faculty, administrative unit leaders, and other campus stakeholders to develop deep understanding of core issues and priorities. Utilize relationships to inform communications efforts and support priorities of university schools, colleges, and administrative units. Foster networks for efficient contributions to communications workstreams and review of materials.
• Evaluate and measure the effectiveness of the media relations function and report on progress of strategies that support university priorities for reputation, enrollment, and community engagement. Creates and manages an effective project management system to ensure that key media relations activities, milestones, and deliverables for priority media moments are being proactively tracked and managed, ensuring the team delivers timely and effective results.
• Manage and analyze news tracking tools in preparation of weekly, monthly, and yearly reports.

Benefits

• AU offers a competitive benefits package including a 200% matching retirement plan, tuition benefits for full-time staff and their families, several leadership development certificates, and has been recognized by the American Heart Association as a fit-friendly worksite.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees