| Job Description: |
The Director of Communications and Marketing provides strategic leadership and direction for all communications and marketing activities for the UF College of Nursing. This role is responsible for enhancing the college’s visibility, reputation, and strategic priorities through integrated, high‑impact communications that support education, research, clinical practice, and community engagement.
Reporting to the Executive Director of Operations & Strategic Initiatives, with a dotted‑line relationship to the UF Health Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, the Director serves as a trusted strategic advisor to college leadership. The position leads the development and execution of comprehensive internal and external communications strategies that position the College of Nursing as a thought leader in academic nursing and health care, while ensuring messaging aligns with university and UF Health priorities.
The Director collaborates closely with college leadership, faculty, and staff, as well as UF Health Communications and university partners, to deliver coordinated, consistent, and compelling messaging across academic and health system audiences. This role oversees a team of communications professionals, sets standards for brand integrity and effectiveness, and proactively identifies emerging issues and opportunities in a complex academic health environment.
Strategic Leadership and Planning
• Leads the development, implementation and continuous refinement of the College of Nursing’s integrated communications and marketing strategy, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and long term goals.
• Sets the vision, priorities and measurable outcomes for all internal and external communications, strengthening the College’s reputation, visibility and influence within academic, clinical and public arenas.
• Oversees communications budgets and resource allocation, ensuring strategic investment decisions that maximize impact, efficiency and return across initiatives and programs. Leads alignment with university and UF Health communications partners, advancing cohesive messaging and strategic positioning within the broader academic health system.
• Serves as a strategic advisor to college leadership on communications approaches for major initiatives, emerging opportunities, reputational considerations and complex or sensitive issues.
• Anticipates and evaluates emerging trends, risks and opportunities in higher education, health care and communications to proactively position the College of Nursing as a national leader and in innovation and thought leadership.
Marketing, Communications and Brand Management
• Leads the integration of marketing, communications and public relations functions to deliver cohesive, high impact messaging that advances the College of Nursing’s strategic priorities.
• Oversees the development of core narratives and storytelling strategies that elevate the College’s academic excellence, research impact, clinical innovation and community engagement.
• Directs brand strategy and governance, ensuring consistent application of university, UF Health and College brand standards across all print, digital and interactive communications.
• Ensures communications efforts intentionally support recruitment, retention, partnerships, fundraising and public visibility goals.
Digital, Creative and Media Oversight
• Provides strategic leadership for digital, creative and visual communications strategies, ensuring excellence and effectiveness across websites, electronic media and print channels.
• Leads governance of web and digital content to ensure accuracy, accessibility, brand alignment and user focused design, in alignment with the UF Health web platform and UF Health web services brand standards.
• Directs the use of analytics, metrics and performance data to evaluate communications outcomes and inform continuous strategic improvement.
Internal Communications and Engagement
• Shapes the strategy for internal communications, fostering transparency, alignment and engagement among faculty, staff and students.
• Leads communications planning to support institutional change initiatives, major announcements and strategic transformations in partnership with college, UF Health and university leadership.
• Ensures internal messaging reinforces shared purpose, organizational priorities and a cohesive College identity.
Team Leadership and Collaboration
• Provides leadership and development for a high performing communications team, setting clear direction, expectations and accountability while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and service excellence.
• Builds and sustains trusted partnerships across academic, clinical, research and administrative units to ensure coordinated and effective communications efforts.
• Serves as the primary liaison to university and UF Health Communications, ensuring strategic alignment, message cohesion and collaborative execution across the academic health enterprise.
Crisis and Issues Communications
• Directs communications strategy and response during sensitive, high profile and/or crisis situations, advising college leadership on messaging, risks and response approach.
• Coordinates closely with university and UF Health communications partners to ensure timely, accurate and unified messaging during complex or rapidly evolving situations.
• Ensures crisis communications readiness through planning, protocols and alignment with institutional crisis communications frameworks.
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