Description
The Alumni Affairs and Communications Specialist will expand our current efforts in alumni affairs from capturing and documenting alumni success stories to deepening our connections with our 160,000+ graduates to better activate them as part of the extended PMI brand/family.
Are you a communications expert with a passion for translating ideas into action? Do you function best as part of a larger mission, one that provides a major benefit to society? Pima Medical Institute (PMI) is looking for a go-getter to join us in a new role, leading our internal communications function and being the primary point of contact for our 160,000+ graduates.
The Company
Pima Medical Institute (PMI) is a proprietary school offering allied health training. Operating for over 50 years and headquartered in Tucson AZ, we have grown to 16 campuses in seven states plus a robust Online offering, with accredited programs in the Medical, Dental and Veterinary fields. PMI has a proud history of excellent student outcomes with a clear focus on career placements that allow our students to gain a head start or progress their careers in healthcare. Our founder (Dick Luebke, Sr.) gifted 30% of the company to his employees in 2002, creating an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) and our employees now own almost 70% of PMI (with a goal to reach 100% employee owned) – this is an integral part of our culture and is unique in our space.
The Opportunity
The Alumni Affairs and Communications Specialist will expand our current efforts in alumni affairs from capturing and documenting alumni success stories to deepening our connections with our 160,000+ graduates to better activate them as part of the extended PMI brand/family.
For the last 20 years, PMI has done an exceptional job of telling alumni success stories and sharing them internally, in company milestone anniversary books and digitally. Our goal is to enhance these processes and develop ways for us to connect more deeply with more of our alums.
This role also includes responsibilities for internal communications with PMI's 1,000+ employee-owners – our senior team has increasingly prioritized improved employee communications over the last 3 years but would like this to be a more intentional and coordinated effort. Our communications are more ad hoc, providing updates on key strategic priorities at timely points throughout the year. With a dedicated resource responsible for coordinating these efforts, we can increase the impact of these communications, improving connectivity with all employees across a broader range of subjects and ultimately increasing our employees' connection to our student-driven mission and building upon their ownership mindset.
This new position's responsibilities will include the following:
- Primary lead for all outreach with alumni, including leading alumni events, communication strategy, and activation. Be the primary point of contact for our alumni.
- A key part of the responsibilities will be to connect with alumni and capture and ‘tell' their stories – this will require significant networking with them, identifying which stories to tell, capturing those stories, and sharing them (via written stories, video sharing, or otherwise).
- Enhancing digital story-telling via audio/video capture. Ability to innovate and use engaging connection and communication methods (especially with our target students) are highly desirable.
- Planning and executing our internal communications strategy – increasing employee engagement through more timely and relevant updates via enhanced communications vehicles, e.g., blogs, podcasts, town halls, etc. As an ESOP-owned company, we practice ‘open book management' and this communications strategy will leverage that to lean in on and improve on our employees' ownership mindset.
- This position will be a key resource, working in collaboration with the senior team on communications vehicles like: quarterly board meeting materials, ESOP newsletters, annual employee ‘road shows', and others as needed.
Key Attributes
- The ideal candidate has a nose for a story and the ability to translate it into a compelling connection point with the target audience.
- The candidate can be an ‘up and comer', who may not have years of experience but has drive and executive presence. Must be a self-starter with a passion for results.
- This role will have access to highly sensitive information around key organizational priorities. This means discretion will be key, as well as the ability to synthesize disparate information to distill it into concise, meaningful communications.
- This role will work with all areas of the organization, though most closely with Marketing, Regional Directors of Operations, and the CEO.
- The role is based at either the Home Office in Tucson or our Marketing Offices in Mesa. Wherever the role is based, it will be in-office most days, requiring regular presence in the two locations, and occasionally travel to campuses or other locations for alumni events and other activities as needed.
Specific Job Duties
- Alumni outreach and connectivity
- Support communication strategies to foster alumni relationships through targeted messaging and content
- Coordinate alumni website content updates, manage graduate/employer inquiries.
- Support campus collateral needs and other administrative support, including graduation packets, campus posters, custom textbooks, transcript request routing, and anniversary storybooks
- Collection and distribution of alumni success stories
- Respond to stories submitted via the alumni site, faculty recommendations, etc.
- Monitor graduate employment updates for potential stories
- Interview, document and record alumni for potential stories
- Develop stories into shareable collateral and media sources, including editing
- Follow submission and consent guidelines
- Manage content of alumni stories in company CRM and other storage systems
- Share a weekly inspirational “Chicken Soup” story via email to internal teams
- Create an Alumni Success Story book every 5 years
- Monthly coordination of alumni marketing/outreach plan
- Plan and execute internal communications plan
- Create and maintain a plan for internal communications that increases employee engagement, especially leveraging ESOP to increase our employees' ownership mindset
- Work with senior management, Marketing and others to ensure topics are relevant and relayed in a compelling manner (using a variety of vehicles).
- Support development of materials for key communications opportunities, including: quarterly board meeting materials, ESOP newsletters, employee ‘road shows', annual sustainability reports, and others as needed.
- Provide input on key strategic organizational initiatives with an eye toward how we will communicate them and how they will be interpreted and accepted by the organization.
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, or related field.
Experience in developing or collaborating with community interest groups or networks.
Proven technical expertise in creating video content, working with audio production tools, and managing social media platforms effectively.
The future is bright for PMI and we're excited to have a new team member join us to help fuel and guide our growth.
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Compensation:
- Hiring Range: $64,490 - $80,610 annual salary
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