Assistant Vice President for Advancement Marketing and Communications

The Aspen Leadership Group is proud to partner with Stony Brook University in the search for an Assistant Vice President for Advancement Marketing and Communications.

Reporting to the Vice President for Advancement, the Assistant Vice President for Advancement Marketing and Communications is the University's senior advancement marketing and communications leader. The Assistant Vice President will create, lead, and direct a comprehensive content and multi-platform communications strategy and direct marketing plan that supports Advancement priorities and objectives. The Assistant Vice President will serve as a senior leader, strategist, and partner with the Vice President and Senior Management Team and ensure integration and alignment both among Advancement units and in collaboration with University Marketing and Communications’ goals, policies, and protocols. The Assistant Vice President will inspire creativity, collaboration, and positivity with key constituencies and ensure the highest standard of marketing and communications outcomes that support the University's philanthropic activities and engagement efforts. The Assistant Vice President will oversee internal and external communications for the division with the goal of enhancing and optimizing Advancement’s visibility and reinforcing its mission and strategic priorities. As an integral member of the Senior Management Team, the Assistant Vice President will develop and promote a comprehensive communications and marketing strategy for Advancement and ensure the groundwork is laid for a successful comprehensive campaign to be launched in the near future. 

Stony Brook University, widely regarded as a SUNY flagship, was established in 1957 as a college for the preparation of secondary school teachers of mathematics and science. The first campus was in Oyster Bay, Long Island, on the grounds of a former Gold Coast estate. In 1962, a new campus was built near the historic village of Stony Brook on land donated by local philanthropist Ward Melville. Stony Brook University currently provides comprehensive undergraduate, graduate, and professional education of the highest quality while carrying out research and intellectual endeavors of the highest international standards that advance knowledge and have immediate or long-range practical significance. The University provides leadership for economic growth, technology, and culture for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region including state-of-the-art innovative health care, while serving as a resource to a regional healthcare network and the traditionally underserved.

Part of the State University of New York system, the University has grown tremendously and is now recognized as one of the nation’s important centers of learning and scholarship — carrying out the mandate given by the State Board of Regents in 1960 to become a university that would “stand with the finest in the country.” USA Today ranked Stony Brook the ninth most diverse institution in the nation with a student population that identifies as 23.8% Asian, 10.3% Black or African American, 9.9% Hispanic or Latino, and 0.3% American Indian or Alaskan Native. Stony Brook ranked #17 among educational institutions in Forbes' list America’s 500 Best Employers for Diversity 2021. Stony Brook is also the home away from home for 4,436 international students from 103 countries.

Having a more diverse community of students, faculty, and staff directly connects to Stony Brook University's mission, which states that it must strive to fulfill its objectives of high-quality comprehensive education at all levels while providing leadership in economic growth and state-of-the-art healthcare for the region, and do so in the context of celebrating diversity and positioning the University in the global community.

A bachelor's degree is required for this position as is ten years of equivalent progressively responsible professional experience including five to seven years of direct development, gift planning, fundraising, marketing, strategic planning, and coordinating special events, preferably in a higher education environment. All applications must be accompanied by a cover letter and résumé. Cover letters should be responsive to the mission of Stony Brook University as well as the responsibilities and qualifications presented in the prospectus.