Public Affairs Strategist

WHEDA

The Wisconsin Legislature created the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) in 1972 to meet an increasing need for affordable housing financing. The Legislature broadened WHEDA’s purpose in 1983 to include financing for the expansion of business and agricultural activity in Wisconsin. WHEDA works closely with lenders, developers, local government, nonprofits, community groups and others to implement its low-cost financing programs. Since 1972, WHEDA has financed more than 77,000 affordable rental units, helped more than 118,000 families purchase a home and made more than 29,000 small business and agricultural loan guarantees.WHEDA is an independent authority, not a state agency, and receives no tax dollars for its programs and operations. As a lender, WHEDA has over $3 billion in assets.

http://www.wheda.com


Position Details

Public Affairs Strategist
Job
Full-time
7/23/2019
Southwest Wisconsin
Madison, WI

For over 45 years, WHEDA has been a leader in advancing affordable housing and economic development in Wisconsin. We are looking for an ambitious, results-driven public relations professional to join our Marketing and Communications team in our Madison office!

The Public Affairs Strategist role is responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring strategic communication plans that support WHEDA’s mission and business objectives. Candidates for this position must have a passion for public relations as well as seasoned experience in media relations, social media, strategic planning, writing and event logistics. The successful candidate should also have the ability to work will with a team, be a creative problem solver and an excellent communicator as well as have an extreme attention to detail.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

  • Develops and executes strategic communications goals and campaigns internally and externally;
  • Develops and implements a targeted, integrated delivery strategy across media outlets, wheda.com and social; utilizes SEO techniques to ensure WHEDA visibility;
  • Evaluates effectiveness of WHEDA’s public messaging, develops recommendations for improvements and implements updated communication strategies to enhance WHEDA’s public image;
  • Serves as the primary point of contact for media; develops and implements a media outreach plan, manages media contact database; tracks, reports and analyzes media coverage;
  • Writes compelling content, stories, backgrounders, scripts and technical pieces;
  • Chief point of contact for WHEDA press conferences and public events and manages all event logistics including speech writing, briefing materials, onsite setup, media, photography, and videography;
  • Assists with monitoring, testing and updating WHEDA’s Crisis Communication Plan; deploys new approaches to difficult and complex public affairs situations.

TRAINING, EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Bachelor’s Degree in a public relations, communications, media relations or closely related field with demonstrated 6+ years of progressively responsible experience related to the area of assignment, including a minimum of three years of public relations; or, an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the job such as those listed above.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

Knowledge required for this position includes:

  • Public relations principles and practices;
  • Communications policies, principles, practices, and procedures;
  • Authority programs and practices;
  • Project management principles and practices;
  • Problem solving and analytical methods;
  • Crisis communications policies, principles, practices and procedures.

Skills required for this position include:

  • Ability to evaluate the effectiveness of communications programs, analyzing feedback and improve communications to advance WHEDA’s mission and brand;
  • Understanding and experience in using traditional and social media to communicate programs, policies and activities;
  • Ability to create photography, video and graphic assets to complement communications programs and activities;
  • Advanced understanding of Microsoft Office and Adobe Suite;
  • Developing and implementing public relations campaigns for internal and external consumption;
  • Forming and maintaining positive relationships with WHEDA’s Board, industry partners and clients;
  • Researching, writing, editing, and scripting documents, includes ability to understand and explain complex information to the public;
  • Negotiating;
  • Managing multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines;
  • Identifying, analyzing, and resolving problems;
  • Ability to use sound judgement to provide media relations advice to leadership about newsworthy, sensitive, and/or controversial issues;
  • Communication, interpersonal skills as applied to interaction with coworkers, supervisor, the general public, etc. sufficient to exchange or convey information and to receive work direction.

WHEDA provides a competitive salary and employees participate in the State of Wisconsin benefit package which includes retirement, health insurance and deferred compensation programs.



« Back