What you will do:

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is a pioneer of purpose-driven science and home to Cornell University’s second largest population of students, faculty and staff. The Senior Writer, within the CALS office of Marketing and Communications, will research and write primary documents that will support college-wide internal and external communications, including speeches, talking points, reports, letters, columns, news articles and promotional and website copy, along with other materials. The incumbent will be a highly collaborative, regularly contributing member of the CALS MarComm editorial team and will work with a broad cross-section of college and university leadership and faculty, staff and students. They will be called upon to assist with a variety of projects to support the goals of the Office of Marketing and Communications and the college.

The primary work location for this position is on the Ithaca, NY,  campus with the occasional ability to work remotely.

Key Responsibilities

• Draft and edit critical communications for a wide variety of audiences including speeches, statements, email announcements, remarks, presentations, briefings, handouts, reports, op-eds, high-level correspondence, and website content on behalf of the Dean and senior leadership of CALS, targeting both internal and external audiences (such as faculty, alumni, prospective students, staff, and industry leaders) and ensure college media successes, pride points, and recent scientific achievements are referenced.

• Assist with development of strategy to elevate priority leadership internal and external communications; proactively propose profile-raising activities for Dean and senior leadership; proactively propose, develop, write and archive dean and CALS senior leadership communications consistent with the college’s strategic plan and the strategic communications and marketing plan; plan and develop calendar for recurring leadership communications.

• Write stories highlighting institutional or personnel achievement(s) for use in college or university-owned channels; assist with content creation and strategy for college-wide newsletters and announcements; collaborate with digital strategy team to write/edit website copy and messaging based on strategic communications priorities and in reaction to website analytical data.

• Serve as point of contact to research and suggest faculty and staff subject matter experts for external service requests from journalists.

• Support Associate Dean, Associate Director and the Associate Dean for Land-Grant Affairs by assisting with strategic messaging and asset development, including talking points, presentations and handouts to convey priority projects and initiatives for key Land-Grant stakeholder groups and events.

• Participate in Office of Marketing and Communications planning meetings, including morning and quarterly editorial meetings, and contribute ideas to strengthen and improve effectiveness of the college's and university's internal and external communications.

• Maintain relationships with CALS administrative and academic departments and units to understand subject matter expertise, inform communications strategy and leverage CALS news for execution of Office of Marketing and Communication strategic goals. Seek out methods of staying up to date on college and university news generated by team colleagues; research trends and policy highlights in our areas of expertise as they’re happening beyond Cornell, specifically in the in climate change, sustainability, environment, food systems and agriculture spaces.