Associate Director, Events & Communications, ELA

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Under the direction of the Dean of Emerson Los Angeles (ELA), the Associate Director, Events & Communications provides strategic leadership, coordination, and execution of all events and public-facing programs across the ELA campus. The Associate Director is responsible for overseeing the planning, scheduling, and delivery of a wide range of on-campus and off-campus events, including industry facing programs, student showcases, alumni engagement events, masterclasses, lectures, selected student-life programs. In addition, the Associate Director oversees ELA's communications and social media presence, ensuring that all events and initiatives are supported by strong digital storytelling, marketing, and public visibility. The Associate Director manages ELA's Marketing and Communications staff member coordinating closely with Emerson's Marketing and Communications division to ensure brand alignment and strategic integration across campuses.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES

• Provide leadership and oversight for all ELA events, both on-campus and off-campus, ensuring high-quality execution and alignment with institutional goals.
• Plan, execute, and manage large-scale events for students, alumni, and the public, ensuring high-quality experiences and logistics.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive events calendar, coordinating timing, sequencing, and resource allocation across departments.
• Establish clear processes and workflows for event planning, approval, and execution across ELA.
• Oversee the planning and delivery of key event categories, including Alumni and industry networking events, Student showcases and screenings, Masterclasses, lecture series, and guest talks, Public-facing programs and partnerships and Select student life and community-building events.
• Delegate and coordinate event responsibilities across staff, ensuring efficient and professional execution.
• Monitor booking, space reservations and requests, to ensure coordination of space use with events programming.
• Oversee ELA's communications strategy across social media, digital platforms, and event-related publicity.
• Manage and supervise the ELA Marketing and Communications staff member, providing direction, prioritization, and oversight.
• Coordinate with Emerson's central Marketing and Communications team to align messaging, branding, and institutional priorities.
• Support recruitment, advancement, alumni relations, and institutional visibility through strategic communications tied to events and programming.
• Supervise a team of staff supporting events and communications, including roles focused on coordination, logistics, talent booking, and communications.
• Provide clear direction, delegation, and accountability across the team to ensure effective execution of all initiatives.
• Manage event-related budgets, accounts, vendors, service providers, and external partners.
• Serve as the central point of coordination across academic, administrative, and external stakeholders for event-related activity.
• Use the college's event management system and/or third-party systems such as Eventbrite or Mailchimp to run invitations, track events, monitor attendance, and improve future attendance and communication.
• Contribute to major institutional initiatives and cross-campus collaborations as needed.
• Serve as a visible representative of ELA at events and public programs.
• Other Duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Education or Social Sciences or 7-10 years' equivalent experience working with students in higher ed, specifically in the areas of programming, events management or customer service required.
• In addition to the above, at least 5 years of demonstrated experience managing both large-scale events and communications strategies required.