Communicator Current Winner

Erin Edlund
Director of Institutional Advancement
Dakota County Technical College
Rosemount, Minnesota

Erin Edlund’s colleagues agree that when she takes on a project, it will be done well – with a work ethic and imagination second to none. She’s described as “detail oriented, deadline driven, strategic, creative and passionate.” The accolades don’t stop there, which explains why she is NCMPR’s 2012 National Communicator of the Year.

Edlund is director of institutional advancement at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC). She recently was promoted to this position after six years as marketing and communications director. In her new role, she oversees the college’s marketing and communications department, the DCTC Foundation, alumni relations, grants, sustainability and legislative affairs. Her expanded responsibilities are a natural result of her accomplishments on campus, in the community and at the state level.

During her tenure at DCTC, Edlund has focused on increasing public awareness of the college, building the college’s image, embracing social media as a new communications tool, and improving internal support for marketing and public relations.

To increase public awareness, Edlund and her team breathed new life into two annual college events. For “Showcase,” she created live game shows – “Flaminko Plinko” and “Gold or No Gold” – featuring emcees, student contestants and thousands of dollars in scholarship giveaways. For another annual event, “Septemberfest,” Edlund invented “Scholarship in a Haystack,” in which students searched for scholarship medallions in a mammoth mound of fresh-cut hay. Under Edlund’s leadership, other new special events – “True Blue Gala,” “Winter Wonder” and “DCTC Night at Canterbury Park” – have succeeded in raising funds for the DCTC Foundation and enhancing alumni relations.

To build the college’s image, Edlund implemented a brand update that included a refreshed college logo, a brighter color palette and new message points. She established a video library with more than 50 videos highlighting DCTC’s academic programs and services. She spearheaded a campus-wide aesthetics campaign with professional wall photography, new interior directional signage and exterior banners. She directed a top-to-bottom overhaul of the college’s website, a project that earned her department a gold Paragon from NCMPR. She turned DCTC’s course schedule into a full-color magazine with feature stories and departmental news – an endeavor that also won a gold Paragon.

Early on, Edlund set her sights on social media as a way to engage students, creating a sizable following for DCTC on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flickr. She shifted the president’s print newsletter to an online blog, and she created and launched “YouBlue,” the college’s first news blog. She also established program and department blogs as do-it-yourself marketing tools for faculty and staff.

Edlund also has worked to improve internal communication and support for marketing and PR. She attends monthly faculty department chair meetings to exchange ideas; she established an Institutional Advancement Steering Committee to focus on external relations; and she created a marketing and communications department page on the DCTC intranet to give faculty and staff access to various resources, including market research, images, logos and Web update request forms.

At the state level, Edlund has been active with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Two-Year College Marketing Association, serving as co-president for the last two years and previously as secretary/treasurer and as chair of the association’s annual conference. She also played a key role in the research for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system’s “Single Search” project, which involved a Web-based search tool that allows students and parents to easily locate course information at the system’s 31 colleges and universities.

Edlund has also made a name for herself within the ranks of NCMPR. She has been a member for seven years, has attended a regional or national conference every one of those years, has made presentations at the local and national levels, and is finishing the last year of a three-year stint as the District 5 Medallions coordinator.

Edlund originally hails from Burt, Iowa, and holds a bachelor's degree from Drake University and a master's degree from the University of St. Thomas.