Deedie Dowdle is executive director of the communications and marketing office at Auburn University, a public institution in Alabama enrolling more than 24,000 students. She leads a team of 24 professionals, including writers and editors, graphic designers, Web developers and photographers. Before joining Auburn, Dowdle was director of marketing for Kennesaw State University, in Kennesaw, Ga. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama and a master's degree at Kennesaw State. She serves on the CASE District III Board of Directors and can be reached at dowdldk@auburn.edu.

How is your communications operation organized?

In 2003, we began to reorganize the office so we could work more as a creative "agency." For example, our writers and designers began to work with assigned clients in creative teams, working with those internal clients to get to know them well. We also merged news and Web services, a fairly unusual move that has worked well in helping us integrate messages across mediums and do complete story packages combining new and traditional media.

We reoriented and broadened our focus to meet more communication needs on campus, leading the campus communicators group and campus designers group. We meet with our 13 deans a couple of times a year to touch base and update them on new resources available. We also produce work for smaller colleges that have no in-house communications but great stories to tell.

What are some of the major issues and projects you've worked on?

Our office has worked with three different presidents since 2003-all different in terms of style and priorities. Soon after I arrived, Auburn was in a period of transition as a president resigned, amid controversy, and the university was put on probation by its accrediting body.

An interim president was named, and under his leadership, that probation was lifted the next year as we helped prepare for a new president. We worked with the media statewide as AU did an unflinching public evaluation of itself, led by our Board of Trustees. Eventually, after an extensive national search, Jay Gogue became our president in 2007. Dr. Gogue's priority has been strategic planning, informed by statewide participation. AU's formal strategic plan, the first in more than a decade, should be finalized this summer.

Adjusting to so many transitions requires a nimble team that can quickly respond to change. As we reorganized, we focused on creating more openness with the news media and on being more inclusive of and involved with campus leaders-especially the deans and faculty leaders-who provided consistency and academic leadership amid the other changes.

How do you use new or social media to highlight AU programs?

One area is in international offerings. Due to a lack of budget, our international office was at one point relying on flyers to promote innovative programs. This did not reflect well on the quality of these initiatives. Our marketing and media team created videos and visually aligned publications, bus banners, exciting photography and more. We overhauled the International Presence Web page, which is now a regular destination for prospective parents and students as well as current ones. We've since expanded the videos to YouTube and linked to them through Wire Eagle, our newswire subscription.

We've sent small teams to rural China, Sicily, Italy, Spain and Uganda to showcase unique research and learning. It has not been as costly as one might imagine because we usually stay in dorms or with the students as part of a group rate. One time we stayed in tents! So, for only the cost of airfare, we end up with complete marketing and media packages, which we use for several years to recruit students and promote academic and international experiences internally and externally.

Finally, we were among the first universities to take advantage of YouTube by having our own dedicated YouTube channel. At last count, we had about 150 videos. A favorite is a clip from the "Today" show in which Matt Lauer called our student help desk to find out Barbie's real name. Capturing things like that is tremendous in terms of connecting with audiences.

What's your biggest challenge?

I can only pick one? The biggest challenge for us is to constantly remind ourselves to have a "whole team" approach. Our entire team meets every week so everybody knows what everybody else is doing. For example, the lead designer on a development publication knows what's happening with television spots and is welcome to come observe production; broadcast is plugged into design. That way our people are contributing to something bigger than their individual job function.

This article is from the June 2008 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.