Director of Communications

Charlotte Latin School is seeking a Director of Communications. The Director of Communications, reporting to the Director of Philanthropy, is responsible for the strategic communications program and public relations of Charlotte Latin, ensuring a positive and consistent image of the Charlotte Latin school to the community and public. The Director is also responsible for overseeing Charlotte Latin School’s strategic marketing initiatives, including research, planning, creation of advertising and collateral, and constituent and demographic analysis. In addition, the director is responsible for shaping, planning, and executing messaging for the head of school.

The director oversees four full-time staff members to coordinate publications, advertising, website, visual identity, and branding across all divisions and departments. The director works in concert with admissions and philanthropy to ensure coordinated, timely, and strategic messaging. Responsibilities include but are not limited to producing print and electronic publications, internal communications to parents, faculty, and staff, crisis communication, and media relations. The director works with the technology on website design, content, and management as needed.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Communications and Public Relations

  • Lead a team of communications professionals responsible for executing approved strategy and vision; coach and encourage the professional development of department staff.

  • Serve as the school's primary writer and editor, school communications manual, and style guide author.

  • PR

    • Collaborate with the head of school and directors of admissions and philanthropy to foster integrated, strategic, targeted communications to build and expand relationships with all constituencies that contribute to the school’s success: students, faculty, parents, alums, parents of alums, prospective students and their parents, the media, and the wider community.

    • Support the communications needs of the head of school, the academic leadership team, and the board of trustees (may include speech/letter writing for the head of school). The Director is consistently responsive and attentive to all communication needs of all constituents, including faculty and staff.

    • Oversee and manage the production of publications and promotional materials, including semiannual magazines, annual reports, and fundraising materials.

    • Serve as the media contact for the school, strengthen relationships with various media outlets, and collaborate with the school community to determine appropriate opportunities for outreach.

    • Write and send press releases to appropriate media outlets.

  • Internal Communications

    • Streamline the look of communications across all divisions and departments of the school.

    • Develop an annual communications plan to ensure timely, error-free dissemination of school news and event information to constituents.

    • Educate campus community on crisis communications and serve as crisis communications point person.

    • Manage annual schedule and production of the school’s family e-mail newsletters, including Head of School communications.

  • Online Communications

    • Oversee the school's external and internal websites, as managed by the Website Manager, to ensure effective, state-of-the-art design and architecture and timely content production that supports key marketing messages.

    • Help research and implement new technology to communicate enrollment marketing messaging to target audiences effectively.

    • Writes, edits, and proofs information/news placed on the public portions of the website and school portals and has the authority to approve or reject content proposals.

• Marketing

  • Lead and prioritize the school’s integrated marketing efforts in collaboration with the Director of Philanthropy and Director of Admissions by developing and implementing digital and print marketing, communications, and social media plans; overseeing market research; producing print and electronic publications; media buying and implementation; creating an advertising strategy; supervising brand strategy; analyzing and assessing the effectiveness of the program;

  • Manage the school’s market position and identity to ensure effective messaging and compliance with graphic standards.

  • Conduct constituent research of parents, faculty/staff, donors, prospective families, and community influencers to determine strategic marketing practices and key brand attributes.

• Manage the selection of agency vendors for the production of materials.

• Develop and monitor the department’s annual budget

• Coordinate with outside vendors as needed, including but not limited to photography, videography, etc.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Marketing and Communications staff

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, master’s preferred.

• Ideal candidates have at least five to seven years of relevant experience in communications, marketing, or institutional advancement in an educational institution or non-profit organization.

• Proven management and interpersonal skills and familiarity with integrated marketing and communications principles are essential.

• Experience working with building new leadership teams is a plus.

• Or a combination of equivalent experience, education, and training.

Skills:

• The role requires a collaborative self-starter with initiative, decisiveness, and flexibility.

• This team leader would be self-confident, strategic, persevering, and creative.

• Strong written, oral, organizational, editorial, computer, and interpersonal skills.

• The ability to analyze needs and set priorities.

• Work effectively with families, faculty, and staff to accomplish the goals and objectives of the department.

• Be able to work independently to manage multiple projects and meet various deadlines.

• A team player with an attitude of service and the ability to motivate others

• Computer fluency in MS Office, web applications, Adobe Creative Suite, and knowledge about the role of technology and electronic communication in fundraising

• Committed to high service, high-touch interaction with the CLS community

• Performs work with a constant awareness of improving processes necessary for positive growth

• Adheres to the highest level of professionalism