Job Title: Director, Coalition for Community Schools, and Vice President of Place-Based
Strategies
Reports To: Kwesi Rollins, Chief Programs Officer
Position Type: Full-time
Who we are: The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) is a national nonprofit in service to lifting underserved leaders and equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to transform their communities through education, with collaborative, equity-driven solutions. By cultivating strong capacity across all levels, we help local leaders to drive meaningful change for communities, families, and children. Our mission is to develop and connect adults and youth leaders who strengthen communities and education systems in pursuit of equity. Our vision is an equitable society in which shared leadership effectively uses all available resources for the betterment of their communities. Learn more at iel.org.
Position Overview: We are seeking a passionate, visionary, and strategic leader with the ability to translate vision into action and drive organizational change, to serve as the Director of the Coalition for Community Schools, which is an initiative of IEL. The Director will lead a national coalition involving many national, state, and local partners that advocate for the community school strategy. The Director is a leader in the community schools’ field and is responsible for managing a team of professionals and partners in the implementation of the Coalition for Community School’s strategy of ‘every school, a Community School’ with the goal of uniting family, school, and community to grow more, and effective Community Schools. The Director reports to the Chief Programs Officer and consults with a subset of the Coalition’s Steering Committee. If you are deeply committed to making a positive impact at the national, state and community level, and possesses strong leadership, strategic thinking, fundraising and program development skills, and a have a proven record of accomplishment in the nonprofit sector, we invite you to apply for consideration.
Essential Duties: The Director is responsible for leading the Coalition’s adaptive strategy, managing the Coalition team, a growing network of dedicated volunteers and partners, and driving the Coalition’s impact. This work is organized into two domains: an external-facing focus on the field and an internal-facing focus on management of the initiative. Within these domains, all essential duties are concentrated into the following strategic priority areas:
Leadership and Strategy
- Develop and implement the Coalition’s strategic goals and objectives in alignment with the overall IEL mission, vision, and strategy.
- Provide visionary leadership and inspire stakeholders and critical partners towards common goals.
- Foster a collaborative culture that encourages teamwork and innovation.
- Provide critical leadership to speak to the needs and interests of the community school movement.
- Grow and advance coalitions at both grass tops and grassroots levels.
Capacity Building and Technical Assistance
- Guide and participate in the development of tools and resources designed to assist local leaders to grow community schools and community leadership structures to develop and sustain them.
- Develop plan to share capacity building tools and resources with the field.
- Partner with other volunteers and organizations in expediting the rapid growth of the Community School movement.
Broad Community Engagement
- Serve as a national spokesperson for community schools.
- Guide the Coalition’s communications strategy, media outreach, website, newsletters, social media, special projects, and tool development.
- Ensure the Coalition’s materials are consistent with its core message.
- Track and assess the Coalition’s impact addressing national issues that local initiatives have identified.
- Grow the number of individuals, agencies, and groups that are advocating for Community Schools.
- Partnering with trusted messengers to advance the Community Schools agenda and broaden the Coalition.
Collaborative Leadership
- Develop strong working relationships with leaders of major national partners.
- Work with partners to facilitate joint efforts to promote community schools and the work of partners across multiple sectors.
- Oversee a set of learning and action networks (e.g., community school leaders, United Ways, Community School Coordinators).
- Establish organized opportunities to meet, facilitate discussions, develop relationships and plans, and provide continuous opportunities for feedback and reflection with leaders of national partners.
Advocacy and Supportive Policy
- Have a deep understanding of policy and the different political levers to leverage for advancing state and federal policy.
- Implement policy strategies at the federal level in collaboration with lead policy staff.
- Promote community schools to realize the Coalition’s and IEL’s Policy by the People agenda.
- Support networks of local advocates pursuing community schools’ policy at the state and local levels.
- Build close relationships with senior policy staff in Congress, the Department of Education, and other federal agencies.
- Represent the Coalition in public forums, media interviews, and with policymakers.
- Mobilize supporters and stakeholders to act on key issues.
Research, Data, and Evaluation
- Support fundraising and visibility of Coalition’s research and evaluation projects and efforts to advance the community school’s field.
- Elevate Coalition’s visibility as the hub of the movement through diverse communication and visibility strategies.
Finance and Resource Development
- Oversee fundraising efforts and track the diversification of funding for the core components of the Coalitions’ work.
- Develop and maintain contacts with foundations, corporations, and other potential funders to ensure financial stability of the Coalition.
- Develop financial plans for additional key activities for the advancement of Community Schools and alignment with IEL.
- Develop grant proposals, sponsorship packages, and manage fee-for-services opportunities.
- Commit to meeting finance, resource goals, and seek alternative funding streams as needed.
Organizational Effectiveness
- Manage Coalition staff, including leading the team in goal setting with an eye toward accountability, measuring success, and tracking progress toward goals.
- Build a strong team culture that emphasizes inclusion and engagement.
- Ensure that all systems and operations function effectively and efficiently.
Qualifications
- At least 10 years of experience in the public or private sector managing high-profile local collaborative initiatives.
- Deep knowledge of community schools’ policy and practice, experience with coalition building, and cross-sector collective impact approaches.
- Experience with community schools at the local, state and/or regional levels.
- Demonstrated ability to manage, lead, and act as spokesperson for the Coalition and IEL.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective relationships with partners and collaborators at all levels.
- Deep knowledge and understanding of equity challenges, and a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, with experience advancing these principles in organizational practices.
- Demonstrated ability to build and sustain movements.
- Strong fiscal management skills, including budgeting, generating diverse resources, and grant management.
- Excellent project management and ability to multi-task
- Ability to plan and organize large and small cross-sector meetings, convenings, and conferences.
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to engage and inspire diverse audiences.
- Ability to balance listening and speaking.
- Approaches work with a sense of humility and collaboration.
- Willing to travel up to 50% of the time.
Compensation: Salary in the range of $165,000-$200,000 depending on experience with comprehensive health, vision and dental, life insurance, retirement, education, and professional development benefits.
Duty Station: IEL is a Washington-based organization. This position is fully remote.
How to apply:
If you are interested in this role and believe you have the qualifications and passion to lead, please submit a resume and cover letter outlining your background, experience, and why you are excited about the opportunity to serve as the Director, Coalition for Community Schools and Vice President of Place-Based Strategies. Applications should be emailed to jobs@iel.org and will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
IEL is an Equal Opportunity Employer that does not discriminate based on race, color, sex, creed, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, or disabled veterans’ status. IEL is implementing a diversity and supported inclusion strategy and is actively and intentionally encouraging applicants of color and of diverse backgrounds to apply.