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Education and Outreach Program Director

The Quivira Coalition (www.quiviracoaltion.org) is a Santa Fe-based nonprofit that builds resilience on arid working lands. We foster ecological, economic, and social health through education, innovation, and collaboration. The Quivira Coalition aims to shift current practices of agriculture and land stewardship to those that produce good food, support meaningful livelihoods in rural places, sustain biodiversity, and remedy the impacts of climate change. We do this work through agricultural apprenticeship, land and water restoration, and rancher- and farmer-led knowledge exchange. Knowing that it is critical to the success of our work, Quivira Coalition is committed to diversity and inclusion, and we aspire to build a diverse staff team and community, including groups that are traditionally under-represented among stewardship and agricultural support services.

Quivira’s Education and Outreach program aims to create, share, and amplify knowledge and resources that strengthen and connect healthy working lands, food systems, and communities. We aim to empower communities to pursue regenerative land conservation and agricultural practices through peer-to-peer, participatory knowledge exchange and production by uplifting all voices in the pursuit of ecological and economic resilience and equity.  In this program we believe that a strong community of practice among agrarians and those who support them translates into more effective land stewardship. 

The Quivira Coalition is seeking an Education and Outreach Director. This position will oversee activities pertaining to: the New Mexico and Colorado Coalitions to Enhance Working Lands; the REGENERATE Conference; producer driven education and outreach; and providing support to other programs in their educational endeavors. Some of these projects focus on developing a community of practice among farmers and ranchers, and others like COCEWL and NMCEWL, focus on developing a community of practice among organizations and agencies that support agriculture and land stewardship. 

The Education and Outreach Director will direct the organization’s education and outreach programming including peer-to-peer land steward workshops and other events, the organization’s annual REGENERATE conference, and the New Mexico and Colorado Coalitions to Enhance Working Lands. For each of these activities, the director will: 

  • Develop, implement, and evaluate program mission, plans, and objectives
  • Develop, implement, and evaluate program fundraising and income generation plans and objectives
  • Develop and oversee program budget and financial management
  • Maintain compliance with external regulations and internal policies as they apply to programmatic activities
  • Oversee daily programmatic activities; delegate project responsibilities
  • Supervise and evaluate program staff according to organizational policies and procedures, and represent supervisees in leadership meetings
  • Participate in leadership team activities including annual policy and procedure evaluation
  • Report regularly to the Executive Director on finances, fundraising, work progress, evaluation, and program staffing
Who we’re looking for

The Education and Outreach Director is a people-oriented facilitator, communications wizard, and team leader who has experience designing, managing, and fundraising for land based educational programs, events, conferences, and media. We are looking for someone to take Quivira’s Education and Outreach Program into its next evolution – for someone who has a vision for the ways that equitable, producer-driven education and collaboration can facilitate better land stewardship and the capacity to bring this vision to fruition. This person has worked with farmers and ranchers and understands how to design and implement experiential education programming that reflects the needs and desires of diverse agricultural producers while building community among other stakeholders invested in land stewardship. 

 They are passionate about collaboratively facilitating meaningful, inclusive educational experiences on the land, organizing a large annual conference run by multiple organizations, and creating communication tools and strategies which help others do the same. This person understands how to design mechanisms for community and stakeholder feedback to ensure the education programming we create is truly meeting the needs of the folks we’re serving. Finally, this person understands how to build and support a network of diverse farmers and ranchers, interested individuals, and agencies interested in equitable, collaborative, and regenerative land stewardship. The Education and Outreach Director is not responsible for carrying out each of these on their own, but rather they are responsible for leading, administering and delegating with their project team, and sometimes directly leading programmatic activities.

The Education and Outreach Director must be able to lead a collaborative team remotely; is self-directed, organized, and computer literate; and has a flexible schedule that accommodates workshops, events, and conferences occurring beyond normal business hours. This person will have program management, event management, people management, fundraising, and administrative experience. Working closely with the Education and Outreach Team, the Director is responsible for ensuring that all necessary tasks required to effectively run, manage and expand the program are completed and that program goals and deliverables are met. Alongside external partners, the Director will help to set programmatic goals and strategic plans for CO/NMCEWL, and oversee its implementation. The position also requires travel to conferences, presentations, and other work events.  Currently, about 90% or more of this position is computer-based, and 10% or less is spent traveling to workshops, field visits, or the conference, meeting with partners or funders, or presenting about our program. These percentages could shift depending on the new Director’s work style and the direction they take this program.

Specific duties and responsibilities

Program Management

  • Coordinate Education and Outreach team and contractors to achieve the strategic goals of the program (which includes the REGENERATE conference, COCEWL, and NMCEWL)
  • Ensure the team has the direction, support, and information needed to execute the work of the program
  • Help design and develop new and creative ways to advance program goals (e.g. local outreach, new forms of media, etc.)
  • Oversee program evaluation and evolution based on feedback from program stakeholders to ensure that the program is meeting its goals and aligning with the needs and desires of our community. 
  • Update evaluation process regularly
  • Work closely with the executive director and Education and Outreach team to hone the program missions and visions, and develop aligned work plans
  • In concert with the executive director and operations director, create and manage the program budget to ensure financial sustainability and longevity
  • Develop strategies, toolkits and templates that support educational efforts in all programs by providing consistency, efficiency and clarity
  • In partnership with the American Grassfed Alliance and Holistic Management International, oversee the annual REGENERATE Conference
  • In partnership with its steering committee, oversee the  Colorado and New Mexico Coalitions to Enhance Working Lands

Fundraising

  • Identify new sources and administer existing sources of funding that align with the program goals and objectives, including grant writing and management
  • In cooperation with the communications and development director, expand the reach of the the program through workshops, conferences, podcasts, publications, and more
  • In cooperation with the leadership team, build rapport with existing and potential major donors for the program, and strive to secure multi-year funding
  • Facilitate program growth while maintaining high quality standards for the education, inclusivity and relationship building that is crucial to the current programming

Partnerships and outreach

  • Build relationships with partners throughout the region and world to expand and diversify the network of producers, agencies, programs, and other individuals and organizations
  • Collaborate with partners on workshops and conference, sometimes serving as lead manager, other times providing logistical support for partners’ leadership
  • In collaboration with the entire Education and Outreach team and Communications team, coordinate communications for the program including newsletters, social media, press opportunities, and documentation
  • Collaborate with the communications team on producing publications or other learning tools for land stewards to grow the existing land steward library
  • Represent Quivira, Quivira’s Education and Outreach Program at relevant events in the community and by actively seeking opportunities to present to relevant conferences
  • Regularly travel to and from workshop sites throughout New Mexico and Colorado
Qualifications

Required Qualifications

  • Passion for developing, administering and supporting educational programming for producers and other land stewards, and for building meaningful relationships with diverse people
  • Sense of humor, flexibility, willingness to do what needs to get done
  • Experience fundraising for nonprofit programs and managing budgets
  • Substantive management experience in a nonprofit setting, including budget management, administration and policy development
  • Substantive experience in directing educational programming
  • Ability to balance both independent and highly collaborative work with a diverse and busy remote team where you are expected to work across programs often
  • Willingness to work primarily on a computer and use multiple forms of software and technology
  • Excellent and professional written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills
  • Capacity and competency for cross-cultural communication
  • Experience in meeting facilitation and large event planning
  • Passionate about working with ranchers, farmers, and other land stewards, and about the work they do
  • Must have a valid driver’s license

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience in developing tools for stakeholder feedback and analyzing data to inform program direction
  • An understanding of how conservation and agriculture have historically and currently impacted Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color
  • Work well with people from institutional and governmental organizations
  • Excitement to communicate about agriculture, natural resource management, experiential/ participatory education, and land stewardship
  • Capacity to work in a team environment with minimal supervision, and with a primarily remote staff
  • Proficiency in Zoom, Slack, Google Apps, and other software
  • Multi-lingual in Spanish or Native languages
Terms of Employment

 

  • Quivira Coalition is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our organization. We embrace and encourage applicants of all ages, colors, disability statuses, ethnicities, family or marital statuses, gender identities or expressions, languages, national origins, physical and mental abilities, political affiliations, races, religions, sexual orientations, socio-economic statuses, or veteran statuses.
  • Reports directly to the executive director.
  • Compensation $51,626 to $69,848 annually depending on experience, paid bi-weekly.
  • 40 hours a week, salaried.
  • This position is primarily remote. All employees currently work from home with access to the office on an as-needed basis. Candidates must live within a reasonable driving distance to the Santa Fe office. No relocation compensation – the ideal candidate is already based in or near Santa Fe.
  • After 3 months, benefits include health care, dental, vision, simple IRA, paid-time-off, short and long term life insurance and disability policy.

     Application Instructions

    Please include a current two page resume with the application. The application will take the place of a cover letter; no cover letter is needed. Please have available the name, phone number, and email of three professional references. References will be checked as a part of the hiring process.

    Please send questions to Sarah Wentzel-Fisher sarah@quiviracoalition with the subject line “Education and Outreach Director Application.”

    The deadline for applications is March 15 or until position is filled, with the intention of a start date between mid-April to early May 2023.

    Since its establishment in 1997, the Quivira Coalition has prided itself on its history of working across differences at the radical center, though we have not always accomplished this and continue to strive for improvement. In the last year, we have become increasingly aware of the work that we must do to ensure that individuals and communities of all backgrounds are truly included and welcomed into our work, and of the ongoing legacies of racism in agriculture and land stewardship. Quivira Coalition is taking its steps toward becoming an antiracist organization, and reevaluating what diversity, equity and inclusion means for the organization. This is difficult, often messy, ongoing work, and we are committed to working through the challenges to join the movement for racially just regenerative agriculture. We have made mistakes, committed harm, and are committed to growth. We hope new hires and the perspectives they bring will continue to help us navigate this path. We invite candidates to ask questions about where we are in this journey, and to join us in moving the organization and the regenerative agriculture movement towards becoming more just, equitable, and inclusive.