Duke Leadership Academy Scholars Profile

DeShelia Spann

Title: Assistant Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Location:
Senior Management Area: Marketing, Communications and Stewardship, AED
Class Year: 2025

Bio:
DeShelia Spann is an award-winning marketing and communications strategist, documentary photographer, entrepreneur and certified professional coach. As Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Duke University Alumni Engagement and Development, she is a strategic partner in inspiring Duke University's diverse community of alumni and friends to support Duke's global mission. She provides communications planning, operations oversight, and budget management across the Marketing, Communications, and Stewardship team. Most recently, as the Associate Director of Marketing Communications at Align Technology, the makers of Invisalign, DeShelia led a team of innovative and forward-thinking marketers leveraging best-in-class technology to deploy results-driven customer experiences. Her responsibilities included planning and implementing integrated marketing communications strategies, paid media oversight, internal communications, and marketing operations management across the Americas (US, CAN, LATAM). Before her time at Align Technology, she led a team of energetic marketers focused on driving end-to-end global brand campaigns as Senior Manager, Worldwide Brand and Demand Marketing at Lenovo in the Infrastructure Solutions Group. DeShelia holds a master's degree in liberal studies from North Carolina State University and a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. A committed community volunteer, DeShelia is an active member of the Raleigh Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Junior League of Raleigh and serves on the media team at her church, Now Church NC. She has served various non-profit boards and dedicates her time to mentoring young professionals.