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Teach For America

Vice President, The Collective (Flexible; NYC, Chicago, or LA Preferred)

The Role

As the Vice President, The Collective you will lead the efforts to advance the sustainable operations and impact of The Collective, which is Teach For America’s national alumni of color association. The Collective’s work encompasses national programming and events that support alumni of color across the country as well as Regional Collective chapters, comprised of local bodies of alumni of color driving impact at the community and region level. The Collective team is responsible for creating the conditions and opportunities for unleashing the collective impact that alumni of color can and should have in the movement toward educational equity. The Collective team is responsible for advancing the esprit de corps among alumni of color, advancing systems and platforms to promote the development of communities among our alumni of color, programming that advances the leadership of alumni of color, connecting alumni of color with each other and to opportunities, and advancing the organized leadership of The Collective.

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As the VP, The Collective, you will be responsible with the team to partner with and support The Collective National Advisory Board (NAB) to advance their strategic priorities, which include: Leadership Development, Community and Network-Building, and Collective Action. You will also be responsible for setting vision and direction for The Collective team in alignment with the CLE Theory of action and charge.

In close partnership with the leadership of Collectives, the CLE Engagement team and other teams across the organization, a critical focus of the team is to strategize the cultural experience of our people of color across the continuum including but not limited to bringing clarity and consistency to our traditions, rituals, and celebrations. The team will also create opportunities for more of our alumni of color to find each other and connect in meaningful ways and communities, with a focus on enabling self-organizing among our people with valuable frameworks and resources.

As the VP, The Collective you will lead a team responsible for forging strong relationships and fostering collaboration with other TFA teams. In this role, you are responsible for setting vision and charge for The Collective Team and developing and leading the execution of the team’s strategic plan. Excellence in this role requires knowledge and perspective on the unique value add of Teach For America in fueling the movement for educational equity with extraordinary and diverse talent. To lead this work well, you must be a visionary and energetic leader with strong skills in visioning, planning, and executing. You are very interested and curious on how to best leverage technology to connect our people and create movement and have passion for ensuring that many more of our alumni of color are ready to help catalyze the movement to end educational inequity. We strive to have our programming and systems provide experiences, conversations, and connections among diverse participants, ultimately shaping the individual and collective commitments of the participants to ensure the day when all children can attain an excellent education.

You will report to the SVP, Collective Leadership & Engagement.

The Team

The Collective Leadership & Engagement (CLE) Team is responsible for inspiring and supporting corps members and alumni to fulfill their potential and contribute to One Day over the course of their lifetime. We do this by:

  • Advancing an empowering and affirming culture and esprit de corps,
  • Enabling breakthrough individual and collective leadership experiences that crystallize pathways for impact for our people,
  • Designing and sustaining systems and platforms that empower our people to connect with each other and to opportunities for impact in career pathways critical for the movement,
  • Create experiences that leverage the assets of diversity and promote the coalitions across lines of difference that are required to drive systemic change, and
  • Bringing to bear a transparent focus on catalytic issues for educational equity such as the assets of diversity, dismantling systems of oppression and discrimination, and social entrepreneurship.

In the Collective Leadership & Engagement Team we believe that if Teach For America creates the conditions for our people to self-direct, self-organize and focus on issues and career pathways of catalytic importance for the movement toward education equity, then we will have a thriving 2nd Phase of our Theory of Change, fulfilled by a network of diverse, remarkable, powerful, and convicted leaders taking on the massive and complex challenges of educational inequity. We strategize our work and measure our impact on culture metrics of values, mindsets and behaviors such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Corps & Alumni Learning Index (CALI).

Qualifications:

Primary Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

Relationship Building & Stewardship

  • Lead efforts to build a strong network of leaders among our alumni of color
  • Build and sustain strong, trusting relationships with leaders among our alumni of color to ensure they are engaged, connected to each other, and experience Teach For America as a critical partner in advancing and sustaining their impact
  • Steward and build opportunities for the voices and perspectives of alumni of color to inform and influence the Teach For America organizational priorities and operations
  • Serve as a critical liaison to leaders in the movement and trusted partner to TFA national leadership on the issues that matter and impact the experience of our alumni of color

Team Leadership

  • Set a compelling team vision and charge for The Collective team that is aligned with TFA’s strategic direction, priorities and breakthrough results, and with the vision/charge and theory of action of the Collective Leadership & Engagement Team.
  • Lead the development and continuous assessment of progress of The Collective team’s annual strategic plan with clear priorities, goals, and metrics for success. Ensure that this work is done in partnership with relevant teams across the organization.
  • Engage and empower The Collective team members so that ownership for the common vision, charge, and strategic plan are evident and there is clear accountability for collective and individual outcomes across the team.

Collaboration and Partnership Across Teams and with the Constituency of Alumni of Color

  • Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, including other CLE teams as well as other Program Continuum and TFA teams in order to effectively lead and manage cross-team projects. For example, The Collective team will strategize efforts to advance the cultural experience of our alumni of color, establishing big bets that needs to be integrated into strategies and tactics by other teams across the organization such as Marketing, Recruitment, and CM development events led by TLD.
  • The person in this role needs to be an organizational model for our Team core value: “We value and care about each other, operate with a generosity of spirit, and have fun in the process of working together. To maximize our collective impact, we inspire, challenge, and support each other to be our best and sustain our effort.”
  • Lead in inclusive ways, consciously engaging, communicating, and collaborating across the organization and with the constituency of our alumni of color.

Team Management

  • Manage a team of movement making experts and specialists, whose roles are inherently interdependent to other teams and people across the organization, therefore leading a team that excels in relationships and partnerships.
  • Manage the portfolio of programming that the team will lead and will contribute to in collaboration with other teams across the organization.
  • Create and lead a team culture that is empowering, supportive, and encourages leadership so that at every level of the team our people are consciously advancing the organization toward breakthrough outcomes with our constituents.
  • Provide the team with clear expectations for accountability and motivate team members to achieve goals, individually and collectively.
  • Monitor the team’s execution of the team’s strategic plan, celebrate milestones and accomplishments and correct course as needed to ensure the team’s effectiveness and impact.
  • Manage the team’s budget and ensure that we are making fiscally responsible decisions.
  • Demonstrate a commitment to diversity and support and develop the people in the team and the team as a whole.

Expertise in Diversity and Collective Leadership & Engagement

  • Design, build, and continuously improve the systems and protocols to execute programming for alumni of color with excellence. The person in this role will provide leadership and inspiration to the team to deliver optimal experiences for our constituents.
  • Partner closely with the CLE Engagement team to ensure we have platforms and systems that are optimally utilized by our people of color and substantially increase and improve the connectivity among our people both one to one and in small communities around common issues and interests.
  • Continuously build your expertise and that of your team in movement making, diversity, inclusiveness, adult learning, excellence community building, optimal learning experiences, and leadership development so that team efforts are informed by best practices, research and are creative and innovative.

Contributions to Organizational Leadership

  • Build a strong team culture rooted in the organizational core values.
  • Steward the organizational strategy, priorities, and advance impact toward breakthrough results.
  • Provide change management leadership as the organization, team, and The Collective continue to evolve.
  • Ensure the voice and perspective of The Collective is visible, present, and influential within the organization.

Requirements

Prior Experience

  • 10 + years of professional experience
  • Teach for America Alumni
  • Ability to build strong relationships and credibility with diverse stakeholders
  • Proven track record of success in setting vision and direction
  • Demonstrates and understanding of race, diversity and inequity
  • Ability to navigate complex conversations about race and class with a diverse set of people
  • Experience navigating nuanced partnerships and establishing positive relationships with peer organizations
  • Proven track record of success as a manager
  • Knowledge of adult learning, leadership development and community building frameworks strongly preferred
  • Knowledge of situational leadership framework preferred

Work Demands

  • Ability to travel to in-person meetings in various U.S. cities [4x/quarter].
  • Occasional weekend or evening work is required.

Apply Now

To be considered for this role, you must submit an online application that includes a resume and cover letter. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the link to the online application. For more information, please contact staffing@teachforamerica.org or visit www.teachforamerica.org/about-us/careers. PLEASE NOTE: While we are still accepting applications, the search is being relaunched by the Offor Walker Group in the coming weeks. They will be in touch once the role has relaunched.

Benefits and Salary

Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package is included. Learn more at www.teachforamerica.org/about-us/careers/employee-benefits.

Commitment to Diversity and Equal Opportunity Employment Policy

Teach For America encourages individuals of all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds to apply for this position. We are committed to maximizing the diversity of our organization, as we want to engage all those who can contribute to this effort. Learn more about our diversity on staff: www.teachforamerica.org/about-us/careers/life-at-tfa/workforce-diversity-and-inclusiveness.

Teach For America is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics (or those of a family member) or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

This job description reflects Teach For America’s assignment of essential functions and qualifications of the role. Nothing in this herein restricts management’s right to assign, reassign or eliminate duties and responsibilities to this role at any time.

Job ID: 8821ceefd194cd19381ed6f8932407ca
Employment Type: Other

This job is no longer available.

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