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Vice President, Communications & Marketing

Employer
Union Theological Seminary
Location
New York, United States
Salary
Salary Not specified
Date posted
Jul 21, 2021

Union Theological Seminary of New York is an independent, progressive, ecumenical seminary with a deep commitment to interreligious engagement and reflecting the cooperative cultivation of spirituality, activism, leadership, and social justice. Today, UTS lives out its formative call to service by training people of all faiths and none who are called to the work of social justice in the world.

 

As we continue to grow, we seek a Vice President of Communications and Marketing to serve as a key member of the UTS leadership team. Through partnering with the President and Executive Team, the VP will advance the Seminary’s social justice and spiritual mission, cutting-edge reputation, and longstanding global visibility while bringing strategic and imaginative thought leadership to this dynamic and evolving historic institution. The VP will develop and lead all external and internal communications and marketing strategies and plans, with clear performance metrics. Knowledge of current social media communication tactics, particularly in progressive contexts, is critical to the success of this role.

 

Our ideal candidate must be agile, innovative, collaborative, proactive, highly creative, and passionately committed to the wide range of social justice issues central to UTS’s academic identity. Along with marketing and communications experience and the demonstrated ability to

develop and implement effective marketing strategies, especially in the content marketing and digital content space, we require candidates to have a demonstrated commitment to anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and diversity.

 

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

 

Thought Leadership and Management

  • Provide guiding leadership for the Board of Trustees’ Communications Committee and prepare agendas and presentations for the Committee and the Board.
  • Advise senior management regarding strategic planning, marketing, and communications, including execution of reputation management and crisis communications, as needed.
  • Work with Development leadership to identify and promote programs that drive constituency engagement and donor-development in fundraising and campaign execution.
  • Lead and manage Communications Department team consisting of several full-time and part-time staff members and highly motivated student interns.
  • Serve, when appropriate, as Union spokesperson

 

Communications/Marketing/Branding

  • Create and implement a comprehensive communications (external and internal), marketing/branding strategy and implementation plan that stretches across all platforms (marketing, media relations, social media, advertising) and aligns with Union’s academic, justice-driven mission and strategic goals.
  • Lead proactive efforts to promote thought leadership of Union’s president and faculty (as one example, our recent hiring of Dr. Cornel West), by identifying and actualizing high-value media engagements or public events.
  • Work with Admissions and Financial Aid Office to develop and manage metrics-driven marketing strategies to support recruitment and enrollment goals, leverage our Slate CRM platform, and evaluate effectiveness of marketing activities, including a growing digital marketing initiative for new online and in-person programs and their expanding constituent-base.
  • Promote Union events, outstanding students, alumni/ae, and stellar programmatic partners such as Episcopal Divinity School at Union, and work with affiliate initiatives such as Kairos Center (Poor People’s Campaign), Center for Earth Ethics, Rise Program (for women of color in ministry), Buddhism and Activism Network, Encore Program for vocational mentoring of people over 55, Visions Arts Imitative, and more, across all communications channels.
  • Advise on design, language and tone of Union branding and collateral across all departments. Ensure messaging is inclusive, diverse and equitable and reflective of Union’s social justice and multi-religious values.

Relationship Management

  • Lead engagement with professional associations and peer institutions in higher education and theological education for collaboration and real-time benchmarking.
  • Lead engagement with external governmental and community partners on joint initiatives that promote Seminary’s public profile.
  • Manage relationships with external pr/marketing consultants, photographers, video production crews, and editors.

 

Editorial

  • Prepare a range of written content - remarks, blog posts, media material (press releases, institutional statements, opinion pieces, etc.) print collateral, reports, presentations as needed.
  • Serve as editor-in-chief of Union Collective, the Seminary’s bi-annual magazine.
  • Schedule and manage stream of internal communications to the Union community.

Our ideal VP candidate can expect a salary commensurate with experience. In addition to the ability to work in a diverse community with a vision and passion for UTS’s unique educational calling, we offer generous benefits including: vacation allowance, employer contribution toward a retirement plan, group term life and AD&D insurance and dental and medical insurance plans where the cost is shared between the employee and Union. 

 

 

 

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