Vice President Communications

The U-M Office of the Vice President for Communications (OVPC) is a strategic communications and marketing team that is dedicated to supporting the university's mission and vision, while advancing and amplifying its strategic priorities broadly. The Vice President for Communications (VPC) is an executive officer of the institution charged with fostering long-term, positive relationships with all university constituents; working to position and differentiate U-M among leading institutions in higher education;

developing and implementing strategic and crisis communications plans; stewarding the university's formal relationships and communications with journalists and news organizations; and providing leadership to expand the university's digital communications and social media engagement. From helping recruit the next generation of Wolverines to providing media coverage of the faculty's latest research discoveries to building U-M's brand around the world, they partner with departments on all three U-M campuses to develop and share the Michigan story.

OVPC serves the U-M community through six collaborating areas:

• Lead strategic communications, issues management, and crisis response efforts, providing clear, credible, and timely counsel to campus leadership while effectively engaging internal and external stakeholders during periods of heightened visibility or reputational risk.
• Develop and execute strategies to lead effectively within a non-hierarchical, decentralized, and highly collaborative campus environment.
• Navigate complex stakeholder dynamics and build productive alliances with strong political acumen and a keen sense of when and how to engage different constituencies.
• Build trusted relationships across the campus community and foster a culture of openness and transparency, integrity, trust, mutual respect, and collaborative problem solving.
• Advance and champion the academic, research, and service missions of a leading, residential, public university through informed leadership and strategic partnership.
• Develop and implement innovative programs and initiatives informed by national best practices, leveraging research, data, and assessment to drive strategic decision-making and measure impact, with a high degree of energy, initiative, and organization.
• Mentor, coach, and develop talent, fostering leadership capability, professional growth, and strong, collaborative teams. Work alongside colleagues at all levels to craft a positive environment that promotes employee engagement, trust, and satisfaction, while recognizing their contributions.
• Lead with resilience, optimism, and intellectual curiosity, building credibility and trust while effectively navigating challenges, competing perspectives, and periods of heightened scrutiny.
• Provide sound judgement and principled leadership grounded in the highest standards of personal and professional integrity and promote an inclusive community where all feel a sense of belonging.

• Serve as chief counselor to the President and other university leaders, including the Board of Regents, on internal and external strategic communications, branding, marketing, and messaging.
• Work with senior university leaders to shape and communicate key messages related to the institution's highest priorities and key initiatives.
• Herald and illuminate faculty, staff, and student accomplishments; deliver messages that advance university priorities; effect coherent institutional branding; and ensure the university is consistently portrayed as a high-caliber, high-integrity academic institution with global impact.
• Collaborate actively with faculty and other leaders on campus mechanisms to encourage faculty engagement with the media, and to promote a spirit among those employees of contributing to the university's national and global public reputation beyond the reputations of their campus units.
• Create and develop strategic, integrated communications plans combining public relations, marketing, digital communications, and issues management elements.
• Design strategic communications plans that will function in a large, complex, decentralized organization with varied priorities and stakeholders.
• Collaborate across U-M's three campuses and with unit leadership to advance a cohesive university-wide brand and reputation, ensuring consistency in core institutional messaging while preserving the distinct identities, priorities, and voices of each campus.
• Ensure that university marketing and communications…