Commonwealth Academy – 150 students, grades 3-12 in Alexandria, VA – is seeking a Director of Communications and Community Engagement who will use a full array of tools to transform the communications culture and advance the school’s vision for the next stage of its growth. Commonwealth Academy, a 24-year-old college preparatory day school for average to gifted students with ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and mild learning differences is at a pivotal time in the school’s growth. The school is redesigning its communications ecosystem.

The Director of Communications and Community Engagement (DCCE) will be central to this new effort. While the role will include some traditional communications work, it will also focus on building community through conversation and experiential exchanges with all constituents. A member of the Leadership Team, the Director will be a relentless advocate for promoting C/A’s brand and message and for the translation of the school’s mission and vision into action.

The position presents a unique opportunity for a highly creative professional who is also detail-oriented. The DCCE will play a central role in shaping the near-term future of one of the leading national programs in differentiated instruction for average to gifted students with ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and mild learning differences.

Outgoing and empathetic, the DCCE brings a personal and experiential approach to marketing and communications. He/she/they designs content and experiences that invite constituents to live, touch, feel, understand, and enjoy membership in the C/A community, and in the process become passionate word-of-mouth ambassadors.

This is a 100% full-time, exempt, 12-month administrative position. Salary is commensurate with experience, and benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, flexible spending, life, disability and 403(b). 

Commonwealth Academy is a national leader in differentiated instruction for average to gifted students with ADHD, executive functioning challenges, and mild learning differences. Through the deployment of best practices in education, and the cultivation of strong relationships in an atmosphere of respect and joyful seriousness of purpose, we inspire excellence, allow students to fully explore their intellectual passion, and foster the personal growth needed to allow our students to excel in college and beyond.

The charge:

• Provide leadership, education, and advocacy for a strategic shift in the way C/A engages in communications, marketing, and brand-building.

• Play a lead role in building awareness, commitment, and momentum for C/A’s new strategic plan, culminating in the launch of C/A’s first fundraising campaign.

• Be a visible presence in the C/A community, forging strong relationships with faculty/staff, students, parents, alumni, and key volunteers that will facilitate an exchange of information across the community.

• Integrate compelling stories across all channels, including website, social media, magazine, print and electronic news, invitations, and announcements.

• Work with the Admissions Office in support of enrollment objectives, including creation of print and electronic collateral and the design of impactful experiences for prospective families.

• Work with the Development Office in support of fundraising objectives, including creation of print and electronic collateral.

• Maintain a dialogue within our community and with wider audiences that reflects C/A’s mission, vision, and belief statements. 

The ideal DCCE is:

• A communicator with a breadth of skills and knowledge across various marketing disciplines who possesses both “left-“ and “right-brain” abilities. A professional who understands, brands, storytelling and experiential marketing, and who is also datadriven.

• A master storyteller and writer; a lover of words and brevity; can listen to someone talk for 30 minutes and distill their message into a single perfect sentence.

• A systems thinker and creative strategist; capable not only of seeing patterns in the big picture, but also of rearranging existing parts into a new whole that reflects an intentional pattern.

• A digital native; knows the ins and outs of social media and enjoys attaining rapid fluency in new systems and software; capacity to work across multiple communications platforms, including print, web, video and social media; strong computer skills, including with design/website software.

• A deliberate and detail-oriented executor with strong project management skills; recognizes that real change depends on as much on relentless focus as it does on an explosion of new ideas.