Vice President, Marketing & Communications

GEEARS is seeking a creative, strategic, and collaborative
Vice President, Marketing & Communications to lead the organization's integrated marketing, communications, and public relations strategy. We are looking for a strategic leader who can help GEEARS and PAACTthink bigger, communicate more clearly, work smarter, and build greater visibility and influence across Georgia. The right candidate will bring both the strategic perspective to shape where GEEARS goes and the practical experience to figure out how to get there.

This is an externally visible leadership role responsible for telling the GEEARS story in compelling ways that elevate our brand, deepen engagement with key audiences, build support for our work, and ultimately, inspire action to shift public systems and investments to better support improved outcomes for children from birth to age five.

As a member of the leadership team and reporting to the CEO, this person will partner with the CEO and help GEEARS build the systems, processes, team capacity, and external relationships necessary to communicate with greater clarity, consistency, creativity, and impact.

• Develop and implement a comprehensive, integrated marketing and communications strategy aligned with GEEARS' mission, strategic plan, and organizational priorities.
• Build integrated marketing and communications plans that increase awareness of GEEARS, its initiatives, strengthen its brand, engage key audiences, attract and retain donors, and advance organizational goals.
• Serve as a strategic communications partner to GEEARS leadership and teams, helping colleagues identify the right audiences, messages, channels, and opportunities to advance their work.
• Establish clear communications priorities and a proactive editorial and campaign calendar across the organization.
• Lead crisis communications and issues management, developing protocols and response plans that enable GEEARS to respond quickly, thoughtfully, and consistently to emerging issues, reputational risks, and unexpected events. Serve as a trusted advisor to CEO and leadership on communications strategy, messaging, media response, and stakeholder engagement during times of crisis.
• Monitor trends, audience engagement, and communications performance and use data and insights to continuously improve strategy.

• Strengthen and steward the GEEARS brand across all communications, ensuring consistency in voice, visual identity, messaging, and positioning, including exploring the need to rebrand/rename to best achieve our mission.

• Translate complex research, policy, and advocacy work into clear, compelling communications and campaigns that motivate audiences to engage and act.
• Bring a campaign mindset to communications-connecting strategy, storytelling, audiences, creative content, media, digital channels, and calls to action.

• Lead GEEARS' media relations strategy, building and maintaining strong relationships with reporters, editors, producers, and other media professionals across Georgia and relevant national outlets.
• Identify opportunities to proactively position GEEARS, its leaders, research, policy priorities, and partners in the news.
• Write, edit, and approve high-level messaging, including press releases, media pitches, opinion pieces, briefing materials, and similar.
• Create and execute media event opportunities, including press conferences, press briefings, and editorial round tables. Manage day-of event logistics, including audio-visual setups, prepping subject matter experts and media Q&A.

• Build and improve internal communications systems, processes, workflows, and tools that make the organization more efficient and effective.
• Establish clear processes for planning, prioritizing, requesting, reviewing, approving, and executing communications work.
• Help colleagues across GEEARS become stronger communicators while ensuring the communications team is focused on the highest-value work.
• Support internal communications and uphold confidentiality, ensuring staff have timely, clear, and consistent information about organizational priorities, decisions, initiatives, and changes.
• Lead, manage, mentor, and inspire a high-performing communications team currently consisting of a Staff Writer and Digital Media Manager, fostering a collaborative, inclusive, creative, and high-performing…