Director of Marketing and Communications

Description

Position:    Director of Marketing and Communications 

Reports to:   Interim Head of School

FLSA Classification: Exempt (Salary)

Job Type:   Full-Time (12-month)

Work Schedule:   Monday-Friday, 8AM to 4PM, occasional evening and/or weekends

Start Date:   Immediately

About McGehee

Founded in 1912, Louise S. McGehee School is an independent all-girls Pre-K–12 school in New Orleans. For more than a century, McGehee has educated girls to lead with purpose and confidence — and today, we are shaping our next chapter.

Our Vision is a world shaped by purposeful women who lead with clarity, courage, and conviction. From Pre-K through 12th grade, each McGehee student is empowered to develop her unique strengths and aspirations in an environment designed specifically for girls.

Our Mission challenges each girl to discover her strengths and reach her full potential as an independent learner, a critical thinker, and a confident leader. Academic depth, intellectual ambition, creativity, and self-direction define the McGehee experience from the earliest years through graduation.

Our work is guided by the values that shape our community and decisions:

• Commitment to Excellence grounded in high expectations and continuous improvement
• Empowering Leadership that elevates others and builds strong teams
• Honorable Action rooted in integrity and alignment between values and choices
• Independent Thought balanced by curiosity and courage
• Joyful Engagement that recognizes girls thrive when they feel valued, challenged, and connected

We hold high expectations for our faculty and our students, and we align our work with our values.

McGehee advances a distinctive, individualized approach to girls’ education built on close relationships between students and faculty and grounded in research-informed practice. Located on a historic Garden District campus, we embrace New Orleans as an extended classroom, connecting learning to service, internships, and real-world leadership. With more than 2,200 alumnae worldwide, McGehee is both a rigorous academic institution and a lifelong community committed to excellence and impact.

About This Position

Primary Responsibilities

Develop Vision, Strategy, and Metrics

• Create and implement an annual comprehensive marketing and communications plan, including long- and short-term goals and metrics, working closely with the Head of School and the Director of Admissions to ensure the plan supports critical schoolwide functions and initiatives
• Clearly define the audiences for McGehee’s marketing and communication efforts, probing to understand their needs and motivations to most effectively tailor and distribute messages
• Develop metrics to evaluate and analyze the success of marketing and communications initiatives in supporting schoolwide goals, continuously refining strategy and execution to be more effective
• Generate strategic opportunities for McGehee to engage most meaningfully with its core audiences and to elevate institutional visibility within the broader landscape
• Serve as the project manager for all marketing and communications initiatives, establishing and maintaining systems for moving multiple initiatives forward concurrently and for cross-departmental collaboration
• Establish successful working relationships with external vendors, such as web designers and professional photographers, including securing competitive bids, evaluating value-add, and managing deliverables, timeline, and budget
• Oversee the departmental budget, employing mechanisms to understand and demonstrate how marketing dollars are generating results and adjusting course when necessary

Steward and Advance McGehee’s Brand 

• Develop strategy and tactics to introduce McGehee’s updated brand elements to its audiences, ensure McGehee’s brand identity reflects current institutional priorities, mission, and tone
• Lead a website redesign, overseeing the visual and editorial direction, soliciting and managing external vendor support, and collaborating closely with internal and external teams to ensure the website represents McGehee’s mission, vision, and tone ongoing
• Create content for digital and print production and manage the Community Engagement Manager/Social Media Specialist to leverage social media as a key strategic tool
• Ensure that McGehee’s Style Guide is regularly updated and that all aspects of the brand identity are consistently applied
• Educate stakeholders, such as school Leadership Team,, teachers and coaches, on the importance of brand identity, the appropriate use cases, and the necessary safeguards to protect the brand
• Create and maintain systems and resources, such as stock language and visual templates, to support teammates in upholding the brand identity and to ensure communications reflect consistent voice and tone
• Develop a comprehensive vision and implementation plan for the production of marketing collateral and merchandise, overseeing inventory and sales
• Manage the school’s relationship with the press, including but not limited to the production of press releases

Drive and Implement Enrollment Marketing Strategy 

• Work closely with the Admissions Team to align communications and marketing efforts to meet their strategic enrollment goals, including a shared vision of success, detailed campaign plans, and ongoing collaboration protocols
• Ensure that McGehee is reaching its target audiences by optimizing the website for discovery and by exploring traditional and nontraditional channels
• Serve as a strategic partner on enrollment collateral, tour scripts, and events

Support Development Marketing and Communications Strategy

• Support the Development Team to meet its goals through advising on campaign planning, donor communications, and collateral production
• Inform and guide selection of annual giving campaign themes and core messages
• Provide feedback to the Director of Development, Annual Giving Manager, and Capital Campaign Manager on campaign content and design

School-wide Support and Consultation

• Serve as the school’s chief storyteller through written and visual media
• Manage the creation of regular communications packages (newsletters, annual school magazine, etc.), while collaborating closely with the Community Engagement Manager to create content
• Serve as a strategic advisor to Head of School, Division Heads, and other Leadership Team members to support internal messaging and strategy during times of change
• Manage crisis communications and public-facing messaging during urgent or sensitive situations
• Support Head of School and Division Heads in designing communication strategy and materials for current families, ensuring they have ongoing access to pertinent and meaningful information
• Support the Head of School and Chief Operations Officer to prepare and organize information for board members
• Advise on the production for various school events, ensuring the look and feel is in alignment with McGehee brand standards
• Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to strengthen engagement, recognition, and community pride

Manage Marketing and Communication Assets with Integrity:

• Ensure compliance with privacy, accessibility, and brand standards across all communications
• Manage the school’s database of images, videos, logos, and other electronic and print assets
• Oversee the photo release process and questions related to the right to use student images

Who Should Apply for this Role?

We are most likely to hire a candidate with the following knowledge, skills, abilities, and mindsets:

• Successful experience leading a marketing, communications, and/or public relations function
• Ability to establish long-term marketing and communications strategy, metrics,  and corresponding tactics
• Exceptional writing, editing, and communication skills, with the ability to coach and support school leaders to  ensure consistency in messaging, formatting, and brand standards across the school.
• Ability to collaborate and coordinate with multiple stakeholders and groups to inform strategy and to move multiple tasks forward concurrently
• Ability to communicate clearly and compellingly across various media and tactics
• Desire and capability to deeply understand various audiences and to utilize those insights to craft motivating communication strategies, messages, and collateral
• Ability to diagnose and/or anticipate specific challenges and opportunities and to design/adjust plans in response; understands the right moment to act
• Operates with the highest level of professionalism and attentiveness to details, deadlines, and dynamics
• Is eager to be a strategic partner in driving McGehee’s current and future success

In addition, the following qualifications are a bonus:

• Bachelor’s degree, especially if in a related field
• Experience maintaining or editing websites
• Understanding of and familiarity with electronic media, social media algorithms (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn), digital analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Meta Ads), and design tools (e.g., Canva, Adobe Creative Suite)
• Experience working at independent or all-girls’ schools and/or a nonprofit organization
• Knowledge of and appreciation for the cultural richness of New Orleans
• A positive outlook, a sense of humor

Salary and Benefits 

• Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience and internal equity at McGehee
• McGehee offers a benefits package that includes comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance; employer-paid life and AD&D insurance; voluntary life and AD&D; long-term disability; critical illness and accident insurance; identity protection services; and access to an Employee Assistance Program
• Additional benefits include participation in a 403(b) retirement plan with employer contributions after one year of service
• All employees have access to a full-service, free lunch daily in our cafeteria
• Employees receive 10 days of paid time off, 20 days of annual vacation, and paid holidays
• The McGehee team places a high value on the day-to-day experiences of our students and staff, and as a member of this team, you will join a warm, caring, collaborative, joyful team

Interview Process and How to Apply for This Role

If your resume and responses are in strong alignment with our hiring criteria, we will reach out to you to begin the interview process, which will include several rounds of interviews, culminating in an on-campus interview at McGehee. During the process, applicants may be asked to submit additional materials, including references. The final candidate will be required to complete a background check prior to starting work with McGehee. 

McGehee is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is open to all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, veteran status, or other applicable protected classification. 

All job requirements are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities.