Department Summary:

Drake University is a forward-thinking community of scholars with a focus on active, collaborative learning and applied scholarship. Drake is in Des Moines, Iowa—a vibrant city that is nationally recognized for its quality of life and a wealth of opportunities for professional, social and civic engagement.
A Drake education couples hands-on training in professional skills with a strong liberal arts education. We strive to create a community of scholars that represents the complexity of the human experience in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, gender identification, religion, age and physical abilities. We are committed to creating a welcoming and supportive environment for all our faculty, staff, students and visitors.
We develop and offer innovative programming serving a variety of audiences, including high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as community members, industry professionals, and retirees. The successful applicant will join a collegial, welcoming, energetic and supportive community.
This position will support various special programs across the University.

Job Summary:

We are looking for an innovative colleague to develop, promote, and execute conferences, programs, summer camps, and other special events of interest to high school students and other prospective Drake students as well as current students and other key stakeholders. The ideal candidate will be collaborative and comfortable working with multiple campus partners to meet and exceed strategic objectives and stakeholder expectations.
This position will be involved in all aspects of convenings, programming and events, from initial planning and budgeting to communication and marketing to on-site event logistics and participant management to post-event billing and analysis.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Professional experience in events planning, event marketing and communication
• Interest in working across academic units to plan, promote and execute special events, especially those that will attract high school students and other prospective Drake students to Drake’s campus.
• Demonstrated ability to utilize interpersonal skills to welcome and engage participants in a variety of on-campus experiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience planning, promoting, and executing programs and events specifically for high school students, college students, and/or the business community
• Demonstrated success in securing grants, corporate sponsorships, and other external funding sources for programming
• Evidence of the ability to build and maintain strategic partnerships with for-profit, non-profit, and governmental entities
• Experience managing multiple projects in a matrixed reporting structure

Job Duties:

• 30% - Play a leading role in the strategic planning process for events, summer camps and other programming activities. Plan, direct, facilitate and implement event initiatives and administrative management functions in coordination with academic dean(s), Office of Admission, University Communications & Marketing and Office of Conference and Event Services to ensure excellence and to meet and exceed strategic objectives and stakeholder expectations. - (Essential)
• 30% - Coordinate, facilitate and execute events in close collaboration with campus partners. Identify appropriate space, technology and set-up needs. Communicate event needs, coordinate event logistics and act as a liaison for Facilities, Public Safety, catering, parking, insurance/risk, Budget/Finance and other academic and non-academic departments, functions or groups within Drake University to ensure success. Manage student staff and others to ensure event implementation. Collaborate with partners in the Admission Office to provide on-site assistance to coordinate, schedule, and facilitate campus visits as well as welcome prospective students and families to campus. - (Essential)
• 20% - Create effective marketing materials and develop communications including email marketing, web updates, and other tasks as necessary to promote Drake programs to prospective students, potential attendees and other audiences to help achieve measured outcomes such as increasing applications and improving reputation. This includes managing web and video content to ensure it conveys up-to-date information in an effective, engaging manner consistent with Drake’s brand. Maintain a social media calendar, creating and scheduling social media content, posting online resources, creating and updating marketing materials, managing contact lists, executing event marketing plans, miscellaneous graphic design projects, and other tasks as necessary. Create communications content such as press releases, program sheets and event materials to grow awareness, increase attendance and ensure satisfaction with events and programming. - (Essential)
• 10% - Increase the financial sustainability of Drake University by building strategic partnerships, identifying grants, corporate sponsorships, and external funding sources and developing new programming. Assist in the preparation of program budgets prior to events and implement appropriate billing procedures post-events to achieve the mission of the organization. Provide strategic and financial analysis to the dean(s). - (Essential)
• 5% - Stay current on standards and trends in event planning and student programming. Draft and update policies and procedures to reflect best practice. - (Essential)
• 5% - Other duties as assigned. - (Essential)

Salary & Benefits 

The salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications of the selected candidate. This is a full-time, 10-month (non-working months: August and mid-December to mid-January), exempt (salaried) position.

At Drake, we are proud to offer our employees, their spouses, and eligible dependents a comprehensive benefits package, which includes a wide range of core benefits, perks, and discounts. If you are exploring a job with Drake University, we invite you to spend a little time with our digital benefits guide: Drake Benefits Guide (Plan Year 2025).

One of our very popular policies provides a tuition waiver for Drake employees, their spouses, and eligible dependents. Drake also participates in not one, but two tuition exchange programs available to dependent children. You can learn about both the tuition waiver policy and tuition exchange programs here: Tuition Benefits.