Public Relations Specialist

We resettle refugees, reunite families, and rekindle dreams.

- Implement and evaluate public relations strategies to advance brand and thought leadership, including creating and maintaining related press resources. - Identify opportunities to publicize expertise of CEO, senior leadership, and key program staff, coaching and supporting these persons for interviews, press conferences, speaking engagements, and other opportunities. - Cultivate and coach staff and non-staff experts for opportunities to publicly promote LIRS and its mission; provide ongoing media training to colleagues as needed. - Collaborate closely with communications staff to align efforts and identify opportunities to further leverage messaging and development staff to publicly highlight special events, grants, and other strategically-appropriate items. - Manage the press pages on the LIRS website, posting and curating content. - Develop and implement media campaigns for specific initiatives and events. - Develop and leverage positive, proactive working relationships with key members of the national, regional, and local media and other third party influencers including but not limited to bloggers, social media outlets, and church media partners. - Manage media at on-the-record events. - Manage media contact database and develop/implement system for press release tracking and analytics. - Draft and disseminate external press releases, statements, op-eds, articles, and media briefs consistent with LIRS messaging priorities and thought leadership goals, ensuring they are appropriate for target audiences. - In coordination with Director for Communications, manage media inquiries, discerning when to pursue/accept and when to decline, leveraging staff and non-staff expertise to fulfill requests. - Cultivate relationships with members of mainstream, Lutheran, and language-specific media. - Develop media strategies to garner earned media and make pitches. - Cultivate relationships with relevant staff of service partners, church bodies, government partners, and peer organizations. - Collaborate on issues management and communication strategy, including crisis information. - Monitor and distribute relevant news stories to senior leadership and other key staff. - Maintain media protocols, crisis communications protocols, and best practices on messaging. - Provide occasional support for service partners on crisis communications.

- Undergraduate degree in communications, journalism, or related field required; graduate degree preferred. - At least five years of experience in journalism and/or public relations, preferably with a focus on issues related to immigration, refugees, international issues or related fields. - Exemplary writing and editing skills, including the ability to draft and edit text from different sources or brief notes. Demonstrated ability to write and pitch persuasively for different audiences and for different forms of media. - Familiarity with journalistic priorities and protocols and with editorial processes at print, broadcast and news media outlets; demonstrated professional relationships with members of the local, regional and national working press. - Experience advising senior leadership on media strategy, pitfalls, and opportunities. - Experience in advocacy-based communications. - Demonstrated proficiency in Microsoft Office and other web-based applications related to media management. - Ability to conceptualize, oversee, and analyze market research and trends. - Demonstrated ability to assess priorities, manage many activities simultaneously and meet deadlines with particular attention to detail and quality. - Ability to work independently and as part of a team with strong problem-solving skills, as well as commitment to timely achievement of deliverables and outcomes. - Experience with and commitment to working in a very diverse workforce. - Commitment to LIRS’s core mission and values and an ability to model those values in relationship with colleagues and partners; commitment to refugees and immigrants.