Marketer of the Year
Jim Berscheidt Chief, Creighton University
Since 2015, when Jim Berscheidt took the helm of the Creighton University Communications and Marketing (UCOM) department, he has greatly elevated the Creighton brand—on campus, in Omaha and on a national level. Under his leadership, the department has earned 27 industry awards, including an international CASE award for a newly relaunched annual report and redesigned alumni magazine. A fervent advocate for the brand, Jim represents UCOM as a member of the President’s Cabinet, an exclusive group of the president’s closest advisors. And, as a member of the Critical Incident Report Response Team, Jim has helped refine crisis communication efforts in response to several Creighton incidents.
In 2018, he created and executed two high-profile, inaugural events at Creighton, which were also open to the Omaha community. He initiated Creighton’s first-ever TEDx event, called TEDxCreightonU, featuring talks and performances by 15 students, faculty and alumni speaking on the topic of leadership. As executive producer of the event, Jim oversaw licensing, speaker auditions and rehearsals, and day-of implementation, which included managing an on-campus crowd of 500 and live streaming.
Jim successfully encouraged the University to celebrate its 140th anniversary with multiple events throughout 2018 that would bring national attention to Creighton. The celebration’s signature event was a moderated discussion with former Secretaries of State Dr. Madeleine Albright and Gen. Colin Powell as part of the Creighton 140 Presidential Lecture Series. Jim oversaw all marketing, communication and strategic efforts for the event, which sold out within 24 hours and helped raise Creighton’s national prominence through advertising and social media. The lecture, the third in the series, was held before a capacity crowd of nearly 2,500 in an arena on campus.
Jim actively aligns marketing and communications projects with the University’s new Strategic Plan, which outlines an expanded alliance with health care partners in Omaha and Phoenix. In fact, he co-led the launch and public announcement of Creighton’s coming health sciences campus in Phoenix.
In his role, Jim supervises a staff of 41, including mentoring nine direct reports, in a dynamic department comprising marketing, creative services, photography and video production, events, public relations, communications, community and government relations, and web strategy. A proponent of Creighton’s academic mission and values, he encourages all staff to take part in educational opportunities through the University, online tutorials and publications, national conferences and more. A member of AMA Omaha for several years, Jim Berscheidt is a diligent, innovative and thoughtful marketer of Creighton to both the Creighton community and beyond.
