The College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (CEHHS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, seeks applications and nominations for a full-time Director of Communications and Marketing to lead and execute the strategic direction, vision, and creative standards for communications and marketing efforts. The director serves as a key member of the CEHHS leadership team, provides leadership and direction for all communications and marketing efforts, and is responsible for promoting and advancing the College’s image and reputation within the community, the state, the nation, and the world.

This position provides strategic expertise and guidance on communications and marketing functions, ensuring that materials developed for the College support the College’s goals, reflect the highest quality, and meet expectations for return on investment, including recruitment and retention of high-quality students, faculty, and staff, enhancing alumni and donor relations, and creating a unified marketing and communications plan for the college. The director reports to the dean, serves as the College’s chief communications/marketing officer, and directly supervises two current staff members (Digital Communications Manager and Creative Content Manager), with a third position negotiated after six months in the director role. The director will also work directly with associate deans, department heads, directors, and other stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Education:

  • Bachelor’s Degree (communications field such as public relations or other related areas)

• Experience:

  • Five years of progressively responsible relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

  • Relevant experience in multiple specialty areas, including extensive experience working collaboratively with other communications professionals including writers, editors, print designers, web designers/developers, photographers, videographers, and video production professionals.

  • Significant experience working on a wide variety of communications projects including digital and print magazines, newsletters, and website development.

  • Experience with industry-standard publishing tools including Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, Microsoft Office suite, WordPress, etc.

  • Proficiency in directing and overseeing vendors, including printers, writers, photographers, media buyers, and multi-media teams.

• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

  • Exceptional and visionary leadership and management skills with the ability to bring together broad constituencies to build collaboration, teamwork, and synergies.

  • Exceptionally strong oral and written communications skills, including editing and writing experience across long- and short-form print, web, video, and social media pieces and platforms.

  • Strong understanding of video production and ability to apply it to enhance existing and future C&M efforts.

  • Strong understanding of social media’s power, including current and future trends that may impact our messaging.

  • High-level understanding of and experience with communications strategy and branding, especially as they relate to higher education.

  • Strong project management skills to direct and guide staff in a fast-paced environment with simultaneous complex projects and multiple deadlines to deliver excellence on time.

  • Excellent time management skills and ability to prioritize

Preferred Qualifications

• Education:

  • Master’s Degree (communications field such as public relations or other related areas.)

• Experience:

  • Ten years of progressively responsible relevant experience including supervisory experience of a team.

  • Expertise in multiple specialty communications areas (design, writing, media relations, marketing, communications strategy, etc.).

  • Experience conducting communications and marketing work at an institution of higher education, government agency, or company.

Work Location

• Location: Knoxville, TN
• Onsite

Compensation and Benefits

• UT market range: MR13
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
• Find more information on UT Benefits here

Application Instructions

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before February 16, 2026.

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• List of 5 Professional References
• Link to samples of their work/portfolio that supports their ability to perform the position's responsibilities

Strategic Communications and Marketing Leadership

• Develops, formalizes, and executes a holistic, long-term communications and marketing plan for the College aligned with the college's strategic vision and distinctive brand.
• Collaborates with campus and university-level communications officers and administrators to ensure the College proactively contributes to the university's brand and initiatives from a marketing perspective.
• Collaborates with departmental level communications staff to elevate the program areas and align messaging across the College.
• Collaborates with the College’s Director of Advancement to increase alumni, donor, and corporate relations.
• Develops a robust and data-driven understanding of the College’s target audiences and influencers relative to the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors that drive levels of positive engagement and revenue impact by core stakeholders.
• Creates marketing and communications programs and initiatives to address short- and long-term opportunities and needs within specified timelines and available college resources.
• Conducts ongoing research on higher ed trends to ensure communication and marketing efforts are aligned with industry standards and on par with or ahead of efforts by competitors.
• Serves as a liaison between the college and the university’s Office of Communications and Marketing, the UT Communications Council, and other key campus communications offices to ensure team efforts support UT strategic priorities and follow established guidelines.

Brand Identity

• Working with Creative and Content Manager, sets and oversees visual brand identity (within the UT brand) and messaging for all media across all print and digital platforms to ensure consistent uniformity.
• Establishes design theme and tone for the college’s website, publications, annual magazine, and other college and school publications related to recruitment, stewardship, and other major initiatives.
• Sets strategy for and supervises media pitching and placement with the goal of increasing externally earned media coverage by reputable regional and national media outlets.
• Reviews and edits all media releases, feature articles, video scripts, and blog posts for college publications and scripts for the dean.
• Works in partnership with the UT and the College Development Officer on the design/production of print and digital media during the regular year and campaign cycles.
• Supervises and advises management of College website design, redesign, content, and maintenance.
• Sets strategy for video production needs to enhance the digital presence of the College; writes, reviews, and approves all scripts, selects soundbites, and reviews/approves edits for video production.
• Facilitates the implementation of creative and project management tools to enhance the effectiveness of the communications team.

Multi-Platform Writing and Coordination

• Working with Creative Content Manager, works directly with the dean on communicating to constituents, including putting out an annual magazine, monthly newsletters to external audiences, and quarterly newsletters for internal communication; also, works directly with the dean on presentations, messaging, and speeches.
• Writes original material for publication via articles, reports, newsletters, promotional pieces, etc.
• Designs, writes, edits, creates and produces distinct communication objects for prospective and current students, alumni, donors, and other CEHHS stakeholders.
• Working with the Digital manager, actively manages all Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and similar existing and developing social media activities for the college and dean.
• Working with Digital manager, analyze social media trends, tracking new technologies and innovations to determine how they can be used to achieve the greatest return for COM.

Management & Supervision

• Provides expert guidance, assigns work, prioritizes projects, establishes deadlines, and approves work quality and accuracy to the CEHHS Communications and Marketing team.
• Hires, trains, supervises, evaluates, and mentors team members, including student staff members.
• Delegates work assignments and reviews for accuracy and quality.
• Ensures all work done by employees aligns with the college’s strategies and goals.
• Develops project budgets including personnel, production, vendor/freelance, and equipment costs as needed.
• Plans, maintains, and executes the office’s budget and requests funds for services and equipment related to College communications projects, including paid advertising/marketing campaigns, necessary office operational software, printing, photography, video and multi-media services, digital cameras, and computer hardware and software purchases.
• Oversees estimates and budgets for communications projects funded by the college.