Vice President for Communications and Marketing

Lafayette College invites nominations and applications for the position of Vice President for Communications and Marketing.

Lafayette College, currently celebrating its historic bicentennial, is a highly selective, private, coeducational undergraduate college in Easton, Pennsylvania with strengths in the liberal arts and engineering. With a diverse student population of more than 2,700 students, Lafayette College is dedicated to excellence in undergraduate education. Students are engaged in a transformative, residential educational experience that bridges the liberal arts, engineering, and interdisciplinary study. The College fosters intellectual inquiry, artistic exploration, scholarship, and personal growth in a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive community. Lafayette students become critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and responsible citizens of the world.

The Vice President for Communications and Marketing (VP) will be a highly skilled and deeply experienced communications and marketing leader with a proven ability to identify and seize opportunities to elevate the College’s profile and advance its mission while anticipating issues and threats to its brand, reputation, and outreach effectiveness. The VP will be adept at managing and mentoring an award-winning staff to maximize their contributions to the team and at setting and achieving key objectives that deepen the division’s contributions to the College’s visibility and engagement with its on- and off-campus constituencies. The Vice President will be a leader of vision and integrity, a change agent of demonstrated expertise and conscientiousness, and will provide the creativity and energy to advance Lafayette’s institutional strategy, admissions goals, fundraising initiatives, community standing, and crisis management capabilities.

Collaborating with the President and other leadership partners, the VP will sharpen and strengthen the College’s overall brand, guide it through strategic marketing activities, and oversee consistent and

authentic brand and messaging standards throughout the organization to foster prospective and current student and family connection, celebrate student, faculty, and staff achievements, foster alumni and donor engagement, and bring the College community together with a shared vision toward Lafayette’s ambitious strategic goals.

The successful candidate will have an earned Bachelor’s degree in English, journalism, communications, marketing, or related field with preference for an advanced degree. They will have demonstrated success in higher education or higher education-cognate areas with deep knowledge of brand and performance marketing with at least 10 years of leadership experience and a career showing progressive responsibility, and experience in higher education or transferrable skills that demonstrate a readiness to lead effectively in a higher education and shared governance environment. This leadership position requires a deep and engaged presence on campus and the successful candidate will be expected to relocate to the Easton, PA. area.

Additional infotainment on the College and the search can be found at: https://www.lafayette.edu/

To express interest in this role please submit a compelling cover letter and resume directly through our Talent Profile. If you wish to nominate a prospective candidate or have questions regarding this role, please direct them to LafayetteVPCM@dsgco.com. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.

Susan VanGilder, Managing Director
Daneille Mebert, Managing Associate

For more information, please visit Lafayette College’s home page at www.lafayette.edu.

Lafayette College does not discriminate, or permit discrimination, on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, disability, religion, age, military or veteran status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or familial status, pregnancy, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law in any educational programs and activities it operations, including admissions or employment, as required by Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (which requires that the College not discriminate on the basis of sex); the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (which requires that the College not discriminate on the basis of disability); Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which requires that the College not discriminate on the basis of race, color, or national origin); Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which requires that the College not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin); the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (which requires that the College not discriminate on the basis of age); and other applicable laws and College policies. Individuals may report concerns or questions to the Director of Educational Equity/Title IX Coordinator. Copies of relevant policies and procedures can be found at https://sash.lafayette.edu/get-informed/policies-laws/.