Director of Publications, Communications and Marketing

The Entomological Society of America (ESA) is a scholarly membership society founded in 1889 that serves the professional needs of entomologists and related disciplines. ESA has over 7,000 members and an annual meeting that attracts more than 3,500 attendees.

The ESA is seeking a Director of Publications, Communications, and Marketing to inspire, lead, and set the strategic direction for a 5-person team that is core to the Society’s overall success. The Director will oversee the strategy, finances, development, production and peer review of ESA’s scholarly publications and books, as well as ESA’s communications, marketing, and social media efforts. The society’s publications include five subscription-based, peer-reviewed journals; two open access, peer-reviewed journals; one quarterly membership magazine; one open access, editor-reviewed technical reference journal; and books aimed at scientists, pest management professionals, and other users impacted by insect pests.

NOTE: ESA has exclusively retained Jack Farrell & Associates (www.jackfarrell.com) to find the winning candidate for this position. Interested candidates should contact Henry Greene (henry@jackfarrell.com). Thank you.  

This senior staff position plays a central role in protecting and building the society’s primary revenue line. This position reports to the executive director of the Society.  Though the winning candidate is preferably in proximity to ESA’s Annapolis, MD headquarters, highly-qualified candidates in a remote, work-from-home situation will be considered.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The primary duties of this senior staff position include:

• Developing the overall strategy for ESA’s publications program and overseeing its execution in cooperation with ESA’s Governing Board, Publications Council, publishing partner (Oxford University Press), and editors-in-chief.
• Overseeing the quality control process for submissions to ESA’s journals and book lines and to ensure that new and revised manuscripts meet ESA’s author guidelines and quality control requirements before being sent into review, and that the quality control process is managed efficiently and in a timely manner.
• Overseeing the work of ESA’s publishing partner to ensure the timely production and publication of accepted articles, accurate and timely reporting, and overall coordination of effort.
• Overseeing ESA’s communications activities, including internal communication and external communication, which includes ESA’s two e-newsletters, media relations, social media, board governance reporting, and crisis communication efforts.
• Overseeing ESA’s marketing projects, programs, reporting, and campaigns to ensure improved member and stakeholder experience as well as the alignment of marketing of programs with ESA’s strategic plans.
• Overseeing the marketing and communications team’s reporting and analysis of campaign, website, and email activity to identify problems and opportunities.
• Overseeing overall strategy and management of ESA’s website, including oversight for website maintenance and upgrades, and managing contracts and agreements with vendors who support ESA website.
• Managing the production of new ESA books to ensure their timely and high-quality publication.
• Overseeing the marketing and promotion of ESA’s journals and books to maximize awareness, submissions, readership, citation, and sales.
• Developing and managing budgets for publications, communications, marketing and web areas.
• Serving as primary liaison to ESA’s Publications Council, editorial boards, and Common Names Committee.
• Serving as a member of ESA’s senior management team.
• Supervising ESA’s deputy managing editor, manager of communications, and marketing and web manager.
• Staying abreast of developments in scholarly publishing and identifying and responding to future challenges and opportunities facing ESA’s publications program.
• Staying abreast of developments in association marketing and communications and ensuring that new technology and strategic opportunities are incorporated into ESA’s marketing, branding, and communications efforts.
• Overseeing response to author inquiries and ensuring that assistance is provided to them in a timely and helpful manner.
• Overseeing response to inquiries from ESA’s editors-in-chief, volunteer subject/section editors, and reviewers, and ensuring that assistance is provided to them in a timely and helpful manner.
• Attending ESA’s Annual Meeting and providing support to any publications-related meetings, including the Publications Council, as well as general support for the meeting as needed.
• Attending ESA’s in-person and virtual board meetings.
• Attending ESA branch meetings as assigned to provide support for registration and to promote ESA’s publications.
• Other duties as assigned.

ESA provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. 

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.