West Virginia Wesleyan College seeks an energetic, creative, collaborative, and strategic communications professional to serve as its Director of Marketing & Communications. This position is responsible for developing, implementing, and continuously improving an integrated marketing and communications strategy that advances the College’s mission, strengthens its brand, supports institutional priorities, and enhances engagement with prospective students, current students, alumni, donors, employees, parents, and community partners.
Reporting to the Chief of Staff & Vice President for External Affairs, the Director provides leadership for the Office of Marketing & Communications and serves as the College’s chief storyteller, brand steward, and communications strategist. The Director works collaboratively with leaders across every area of the institution to identify opportunities, develop compelling narratives, and execute coordinated marketing and communications initiatives that elevate the College’s reputation and support enrollment, philanthropy, student success, academic excellence, athletics, and institutional visibility.
As the leader of a small, highly collaborative office, this position requires an individual who is equally comfortable establishing long-term communications strategy and personally producing high-quality marketing and communications deliverables. The successful candidate will lead projects and people while remaining actively engaged in writing, editing, content creation, photography, videography, digital communications, publications, and other creative work necessary to advance the College’s mission.
Primary Responsibilities
The Director provides strategic and operational leadership for the College’s marketing and communications efforts, including but not limited to:
-
Develop, implement, and evaluate comprehensive marketing, branding, communications, public relations, and storytelling strategies aligned with the College’s mission, strategic priorities, and institutional goals.
-
Lead the day-to-day operations of the Office of Marketing & Communications by establishing priorities, managing workflow, supervising staff and student employees, allocating resources, and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality work.
-
Serve as the College’s chief storyteller by proactively identifying, developing, and sharing compelling stories that highlight student success, faculty achievement, alumni engagement, academic excellence, athletics, campus life, institutional innovation, and community impact.
-
Personally create and oversee marketing and communications content across multiple platforms, including written communications, news stories, feature articles, web content, social media, photography, videography, publications, presentations, advertising, email communications, and other digital and print materials.
-
Partner with Enrollment Management, Advancement, Academic Affairs, Athletics, Student Affairs, and other campus departments to develop integrated marketing campaigns and communications initiatives that support institutional priorities.
-
Protect and strengthen the College’s brand by establishing and maintaining consistent messaging, editorial standards, visual identity, and communications guidelines across all internal and external communications.
-
Direct the College’s digital communications strategy, including website content, social media, email marketing, digital advertising, and emerging communications platforms while utilizing analytics and audience insights to improve effectiveness and engagement.
-
Serve as the College’s primary media relations contact by cultivating relationships with media partners, preparing news releases, coordinating interviews, responding to media inquiries, and promoting institutional accomplishments to regional and national audiences.
-
Provide strategic communications counsel to the President, senior leadership, and campus partners while assisting with executive communications, speeches, presentations, institutional announcements, and crisis communications.
-
Manage relationships with external vendors, consultants, photographers, designers, printers, advertising partners, and other service providers as appropriate.
-
Monitor communications trends, marketing performance, institutional visibility, and audience engagement, using data and analytics to measure outcomes and recommend continuous improvements.
-
Foster a collaborative, service-oriented culture within the Office of Marketing & Communications that emphasizes creativity, responsiveness, professionalism, accountability, and exceptional customer service.
-
Represent the College at institutional events, community functions, and other activities that support marketing, communications, and public engagement.
-
Perform other duties as assigned by the President or the Chief of Staff & Vice President for External Affairs.
Requirements
Required Qualifications
-
Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, journalism, public relations, or a related field.
-
Five or more years of progressively responsible professional experience in marketing, communications, public relations, higher education, or a related field.
-
Demonstrated success developing and executing integrated marketing and communications strategies.
-
Exceptional writing, editing, storytelling, and verbal communication skills.
-
Strong organizational and project management abilities with demonstrated success managing multiple priorities simultaneously.
-
Experience with digital marketing, website content management systems, photography, videography, social media management, graphic design coordination, and marketing analytics.
-
Experience supervising staff, managing projects, and working collaboratively across diverse organizations.
-
Ability to think strategically while maintaining a strong commitment to hands-on execution and attention to detail.
Preferred Qualifications
-
Master’s degree in a related discipline.
-
Experience working in higher education, nonprofit organizations, or other mission-driven environments.
-
Familiarity with contemporary creative software, content management systems, and digital marketing platforms.
