Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

ASCENSION seeks an experienced Communications Specialist – Intermediate to develop clear, accurate, accessible, and audience-appropriate communications supporting FEMA grant programs, initiatives, stakeholders, and leadership.

The ideal candidate combines strong writing and editing ability with practical experience producing federal program communications, stakeholder correspondence, outreach materials, web content, briefing products, and meeting or conference materials. This individual understands that effective government communication requires more than polished writing—it requires accuracy, consistency, responsiveness, appropriate clearance, records discipline, and the ability to translate complex program information into useful messages for different audiences.

This position is well suited for a detail-oriented communications professional who works effectively in a deadline-driven environment, manages multiple assignments, anticipates stakeholder information needs, and remains productive when priorities or requirements evolve. The successful candidate is comfortable coordinating with program managers, grants professionals, technical specialists, leadership, and other stakeholders while protecting sensitive information and maintaining an organized review and approval process.

Position Summary

The Communications Specialist supports the planning, drafting, editing, coordination, and delivery of internal and external communications for FEMA grant-related programs and initiatives. The role develops rollout and awareness materials; prepares letters, memoranda, stakeholder registries, and inquiry responses; supports outreach campaigns; and creates SharePoint or web content, newsletters, town hall materials, fact sheets, toolkits, briefings, presentation slides, meeting materials, and conference resources.

The specialist helps FEMA communicate consistently across multiple channels and stakeholder groups. Responsibilities include transforming technical, grants-related, policy, operational, or program information into clear content; coordinating reviews and approvals; maintaining version control; validating facts and references; and preparing final products that meet Government formatting, accessibility, records-management, and quality requirements.

The role maps to ASCENSION’s Documentation/Media Specialist I GSA labor category, which includes digital content coordination, website and collateral development, visual communications, proofreading, document editing, approval-chain coordination, and preparation of reports, memoranda, briefing papers, presentations, and other communication products.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop rollout, awareness, and socialization materials for FEMA grant programs, policies, initiatives, and operational changes.
• Draft letters, memoranda, announcements, stakeholder notifications, talking points, executive messages, and other official correspondence.
• Maintain stakeholder contact lists, distribution lists, communication calendars, correspondence trackers, and stakeholder registries.
• Prepare clear, responsive, and properly coordinated answers to public, stakeholder, leadership, or program inquiries.
• Create outreach materials, newsletters, fact sheets, one-page summaries, frequently asked questions, toolkits, and informational resources.
• Develop SharePoint and web content that is current, clearly structured, searchable, accessible, and appropriate for the intended audience.
• Produce briefing decks, presentation slides, meeting agendas, read-ahead packages, speaker notes, decision papers, and executive-level materials.
• Support virtual and in-person town halls, stakeholder meetings, working sessions, conferences, webinars, and outreach events.
• Compile conference and meeting toolkits, including agendas, participant materials, presentation files, biographies, logistical information, and post-event resources.
• Edit program documents, policies, reports, correspondence, presentations, and outreach products for clarity, grammar, tone, consistency, and completeness.
• Translate complex grants-management, policy, operational, or technical information into understandable content for executive, program, recipient, partner, and public audiences.
• Coordinate content reviews with program staff, subject matter experts, leadership, legal counsel, public affairs personnel, and other designated reviewers.
• Track comments, revisions, approvals, deadlines, dependencies, and outstanding actions through the complete content-development lifecycle.
• Apply Government templates, editorial standards, branding requirements, plain-language principles, and Section 508 accessibility practices.
• Validate names, dates, program references, links, citations, data points, and other factual information before releasing communication products for approval.
• Manage document versions, file naming, approval records, source materials, and final communication products in SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, or other approved repositories.
• Monitor communication activities and available engagement information to identify recurring questions, content gaps, or opportunities to improve stakeholder awareness.
• Recommend improvements to communication workflows, templates, content calendars, review processes, and information-sharing methods.
• Collaborate with program managers, grants analysts, trainers, data analysts, SharePoint specialists, and administrative staff to develop integrated communication products.
• Protect sensitive, controlled, pre-decisional, and personally identifiable information in accordance with FEMA and DHS requirements.
• Complete assignments within established timelines while maintaining accuracy, responsiveness, and professional quality.