LEA DEFOREST
ABOUT ME
COREÂ STRENGTHS
STRATEGY
Initiative | Responsibility | Branding | Data Management
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Leadership | Planning | Coordination | Execution
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CREATIVITY
Design Thinking | Content Creation | Ideation | Empathy
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HIGHLIGHTS
* 9+ years coordinating multi-channel communications for marketing and outreach
* Award-winning communications professional with 10+ years in UT Austin development
* Skilled writer of federal, foundation, and corporate grants with 7+ years experience
* At ease with IT concepts pertaining to libraries, archives, and higher education
* 17+ years administrative experience; 20+ years customer service experience
PROFESSIONAL FOCUS
Connecting people and their passion with my organization's mission is what I do best. I've been building and executing communication strategies with nonprofits and higher ed for over a decade. I can help you develop communication strategies for social media, e-marketing, fundraising, events, conferences, and content marketing.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Texas Digital Library
June 2017Â - Present
I coordinate recruitment of new members and collaborate with member librarians of our consortium of 24Â academic libraries. I manage marketing efforts for TDL, which is housed at UT Austin, including building a marketing roadmap and communications calendar; managing web content; assisting with board relations; creating and curating content for social media and e-marketing platforms; grant-writing; annual reports; and coordinating communications for our annual conference, the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries.
FUNDRAISING & COMMUNICATION COORDINATOR
Literacy First, University of Texas at Austin
August 2012 - June 2017
I had the opportunity to lead our organization's rebrand implementation in 2016 - a first-time rebrand for me. The rebrand rollout was a project that required tracking the work of external vendors, timing updates for digital and physical collateral, and, most importantly, clearly communicating progress and expectations with our staff.
GIFT & DATA COORDINATOR
University Development Office, University of Texas at Austin
February 2010 - August 2012
I increased gift processing efficiencies across campus by developing reports for the University Development Office using reporting tools in Cognos and VIP (UT's CRM); creating training and documentation; and delivering customized consultation and training. I researched and prepared giving and biographical reports to departments across UT Austin; increased automated processes and reduced paper reporting; and served as a liaison and representative of Gift and Data Services to IT, Development, KUT Radio, and development teams campus-wide for online data capture tools.
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Masters of Science in Information Studies, School of Information
MAINE COLLEGE OF ART
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Furniture Design
SKILLS &Â PROJECTS
LEADERSHIP
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DESIGN
VOLUNTEER
SPEAKER
Literacy First AmeriCorps Members
2019 - present
FUNDRAISING CONSULTANT
Barbara Wand James Homeless Student Support Scholarship
Texas Homeless Education Office
July 2017 - August 2019
BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR
Information & Culture: A Journal of History
School of Information, UT Austin
May 2016 - June 2017
COPY EDITOR
Information & Culture: A Journal of History
School of Information, UT Austin
January 2013 - May 2016
