Sr Communications Specialist, Inclusive Excellence

99363BR

Campus: Tempe

Sr Communications Specialist

Job Description

The Office of Inclusive Excellence, a department within the Office of Executive Vice President and University Provost, is seeking candidates for the role of Sr. Communications Specialist, inclusive excellence communications.
The Sr. Communications Specialist  will be a seasoned communications professional with demonstrated career experience in designing and executing communications strategies reaching students, faculty and staff at college or university. The ideal candidate will be someone whose career interests and values align with the ASU Charter ideal of being a university that measures itself by whom it includes and how they succeed. As such, the Sr. Communications Specialist will be able to create communications via email, website content, social media content, and video scripting that portrays a clear, engaging and welcoming identity for the Office for  Inclusive Excellence that informs students, faculty and staff about the resources, programs and services available to students from all backgrounds and identities.
What is inclusive excellence at ASU?
Inclusive excellence at ASU is a university-wide value rooted in the ASU Charter commitment of being a broadly accessible university where faculty, staff and students from the broadest backgrounds and perspectives have the resources and community they need to thrive. As such, the Office of Inclusive Excellence serves as a hub for units across the university that enables best practices, provides training opportunities, builds community and organizes and promotes programming, resources and services that aim to advance equitable outcomes for ASU students, faculty and staff.
What will the Sr. Communications Specialist of Inclusive Excellence Communications do?
The Sr. Communications Specialist is responsible for translating the vision of the Office of Inclusive Excellence into an active communication strategy that motivates participation from the entire ASU community. The Sr. Communications Specialist will help build the identity and communications strategy for the office under the leadership of the vice provost for Inclusive Excellence and the university provost. Their portfolio may include, but is not limited to website development; social media strategy; digital branding, creation of print and digital communications journey for target audiences..

The Sr. Communications Specialist will serve as the office’s lead storyteller, creating persuasive and engaging communications so that the university community including faculty, staff and students become informed advocates for inclusive practices across ASU.
The Sr. Communications Specialist will operate in a matrix organizational design with a dual reporting structure to Academic Enterprise Communications and the Office of Inclusive Excellence – two teams within the Office of the University Provost.

The Academic Enterprise Communications team is responsible for shaping all communications strategies that relate to the academic experience at ASU. The team includes graphic and UX designers, web developers, communication project Communications Specialists, email/SMS strategists, writers, and multimedia producers. Embedding within this team ensures that the Sr. Communications Specialist has direct access to the creative teams that are needed to produce the work needed to advance the Inclusive Excellence portfolio.
With the Office of Inclusive Excellence team, the Sr. Communications Specialist will be the lead communicator charged with helping to advance the goals and objectives of the office and ts affiliated organizations through effective communications strategies. To that end, their work priorities and tasks will be set by the Vice Provost of Inclusive Excellence and they will be expected to collaborate with all team members on the Inclusive Excellence team to assist in developing communications for their specific portfolios.
What makes a candidate for this job stand out?
Motivated by the ASU Charter, the ideal candidate is someone who wants to contribute to work that helps ASU achieve its goal of being an inclusive university that advances equitable outcomes for students, faculty and staff from all backgrounds.
The ideal candidate will have experience in the process of design thinking and will understand that in order for communications strategies to be successful, they must be empathy-driven and informed by the lived experiences of the audiences we intend to engage. The Sr. Communications Specialist is someone who is a fast learner with an ability to run with ideas and transform vision into deliverable communications results.

It is imperative that the Sr. Communications Specialist be an intuitive, respectful communicator and natural collaborator, as inclusion programs and initiatives are present in departments across ASU. The distributed nature of the work requires a Sr. Communications Specialist who is patient, has a willingness to learn from different perspectives, and is motivated to build consensus and share successes.
They understand that in order to scale a portfolio of resources, strong partnerships must be forged. The Sr. Communications Specialist will have not just be a strategist, but also a doer, meaning that they will be willing to execute projects while also conceptualizing strategy. The ideal candidate will be someone who has the poise and situational awareness required to work with peers and senior executive leaders alike.

Job Family

Public Relations

Department Name

AE Communications

Full-Time/Part-Time

Full-Time

Grant Funded Position

This is not a grant funded position and is not contingent on future grant funding.

Salary Range

Depends on experience

Essential Duties

• Write, build, customize and launch creative and engaging communications campaigns that are informed by the experiences of audiences we intend to reach.
• Work collaboratively with university staff, academic leadership, and students in multiple departments to ensure that the office’s communications and engagement experiences meet goals and objectives.
• Execute visual projects (print, web, presentations and social media) that are aligned with ASU brand standards.
• Plan and execute websites, including site mapping, content writing, design and development, and/or managing relationships with contractors and/or ASU staff in pursuit of a website overhaul.
• Collaborate with creative teams across the ASU enterprise, Office of Inclusive Excellence staff and leadership, and ASU leadership in the Office of the Provost, among others.
• Develop a content calendar to ensure a consistent cadence of inclusion messaging originating from the Office of the University Provost.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, English, or other related field AND four (4) years of related experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or education from which comparable knowledge, skills, and abilities have been achieved.

Desired Qualifications

• Demonstrated knowledge of design thinking methodologies and experience applying those methods to communications projects.
• Experience in creative roles as a writer, designer, content strategist, and/or creative project Communications Specialist.
• Demonstrated experience leading teams through creative processes from ideation to execution.
• Demonstrated knowledge of data analysis and an ability to translate data insights into engagement strategies.
• Experience developing websites, either through direct technical expertise or technical project management skills.
• Experience in articulating how candidate’s career and goals align to the ASU Charter.
• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices in web-based and social media accessibility.

Working Environment

• The Sr. Communications Specialist will be part of the Academic Enterprise Communications team at ASU and report to the Senior Director of Strategic Communications. This team is a collaborative group that includes graphic designers, writers, web developers, email marketers, videographers and project Communications Specialists, who will help the Sr. Communications Specialist execute communication plans and campaigns.
• While reporting into AE Communications, the Sr. Communications Specialist will also work directly with the vice provost for inclusive excellence, meeting regularly with her and her team  to ensure that her priorities are advanced. In this arrangement, the vice provost is the “client” and the Sr. Communications Specialist serves as the point of contact for designing and executing creative communication projects.
• This role will be based in the Tempe campus, with the expectation that the candidate may sometimes need to work in multiple locations based on the needs of the office.
• When necessary, the Design and Communications Strategist will work with creative contractors/consultants to accelerate communication projects.
• Will need the use of own transportation to travel to all ASU campuses as needed.

Department Statement

Led by the Associate Vice President of Academic Enterprise Communications, the AE Communications team is charged with executing multi-channel communications strategies that help the university achieve its goals related to student enrollment and persistence to graduation; faculty excellence and engagement; and academic reputation.
The team is committed to the ASU Charter principles of broad access, academic excellence and global impact, and is passionate about the role it plays in helping advance the academic agenda of a National Service University.

We pride ourselves on being collaborative partners across the university and we value teammates who are creative, proactive problem-solvers, who work behind the scenes to tell ASU’s story through our students and leaders. We aim to accomplish our goals in a hard-working yet positive and flexible environment where everyone contributes and is appreciated. We are not afraid of experimentation and strive to bring inspiration from outside of higher education into our operations.
We value the role of data and use quantitative and qualitative testing to drive our decision-making. We operate under a results-focused work environment and we measure individual results equally by the progress each teammate makes toward their goals as well as the impact they make on the culture of the team.

ASU Statement

Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial energy and broad access. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses positively impacting the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 100,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's fifth largest city. ASU champions intellectual and cultural diversity, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations across the globe.

ASU is a tobacco-free university. For details visit https://wellness.asu.edu/explore-wellness/body/alcohol-and-drugs/tobacco

Arizona State University is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

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Employment Verification Statement

ASU conducts pre-employment screening which may include verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications.

Background Check Statement

ASU conducts pre-employment screening for all positions which includes a criminal background check, verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the background check.

Instructions to Apply

Application deadline is 3:00PM Arizona time on the date indicated.

Please include all employment information in month/year format (e.g., 6/88 to 8/94), job title, job duties and name of employer for each position.

Resume should clearly illustrate how prior knowledge and experience meets the Minimum and Desired qualifications of this position.

ASU does not pay for travel expenses associated with interviews, unless otherwise indicated.

Only electronic applications are accepted for this position.

IMPORTANT NOTE: What is the meaning of “equivalent combination” in the minimum qualifications? It means one year of higher education or 24 credit hours, is equal to one year of experience. For example, a four year Bachelor’s degree is equal to four years of experience.