Chief Community Impact Officer

Pendergast Elementary School District•Phoenix, AZ

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Chief Community Impact Officer (CCIO) serves as the district’s senior executive responsible for the district’s external-facing enterprise, including communications, marketing, branding, recruitment, and community engagement. Working collaboratively with the Superintendent and district leadership, the CCIO ensures the district’s public narrative, outreach strategies, and engagement systems are aligned to instructional priorities, academy pathways, and long-term district goals. The CCIO leads a comprehensive portfolio that includes strategic communications and branding, family and student recruitment, community partnerships, family learning systems, and the strategic use of community facilities. In alignment with the district’s strategic plan and social enterprise operating model, the CCIO designs scalable systems—not isolated events—that strengthen trust, build awareness, and position the district as a destination of choice for families, staff, and partners. Beyond communications and outreach, the CCIO cultivates high-impact partnerships that expand student opportunity, deepen family agency, and strengthen the district’s connection to the broader community. Through cluster-aligned partnerships and enterprise thinking, the CCIO ensures community engagement efforts reinforce instructional and academy goals while contributing to long-term sustainability, shared value creation, and community confidence in the district. Builds trust, demand, and partnership through strategic communications, branding, and community engagement that expand opportunity and strengthen the district’s public value.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, public relations, public administration, education, community development, or a related field.
Progressive senior-level leadership experience overseeing external-facing systems such as communications, family engagement, community partnerships, or public affairs in a complex organization.
Demonstrated expertise in strategic communications and public engagement, including brand management, messaging, stakeholder engagement, and reputational risk management.
Experience designing and leading scalable family engagement or community impact systems, with a clear focus on outcomes rather than isolated events.
Strong collaborative leadership skills, with demonstrated ability to partner effectively with executive leaders, school leaders, and cross-functional teams.
Excellent communication skills, including the ability to clearly convey complex ideas to diverse audiences and represent the organization publicly with credibility and professionalism.
Experience leading and developing high-performing teams, including setting expectations, coaching, and fostering shared accountability.
Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, ethical leadership, and public accountability in community-facing work.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in communications, public administration, education, marketing, or a related field.
Senior leadership experience in a K–12 public school district or public-sector organization, with familiarity navigating governance, community accountability, and public trust.
Experience leading family learning systems, including parent education, adult learning, or family capacity-building initiatives tied to student learning and achievement.
Experience working with early childhood partners, including collaborations with organizations such as First Things First or similar agencies.
Experience cultivating and sustaining high-impact community partnerships that expand student opportunity and shared value.
Experience overseeing recruitment, enrollment, or positioning initiatives that strengthen organizational demand and community confidence.
Experience leveraging community facilities or shared-use agreements as strategic assets for engagement, partnership, or sustainability.
Demonstrated success integrating communications, engagement, and partnerships into a coherent enterprise strategy.
Experience using data and feedback to evaluate impact, refine systems, and guide continuous improvement
Demonstrated commitment to ethical leadership, transparency, and accountability in the stewardship of public resources.
Ability to lead through influence rather than authority, modeling professionalism, humility, and shared ownership of outcomes
Arizona Superintendent or Administrative Certification, or demonstrated eligibility.
Such alternatives to the above required & preferred qualifications as the Superintendent/ Designee may find appropriate and acceptable.

Responsibilities

Design, lead, and continuously improve districtwide systems for communications, marketing, branding, and recruitment that strengthen the district’s public narrative and position the district as a destination of choice for families, staff, and community partners.
Ensure all external-facing strategies, messaging, and engagement efforts are aligned to instructional priorities, academy pathways, and long-term district goals.
Support the creation and deployment of crisis communications to ensure timely, transparent communication to all stakeholders at critical moments.
Design and oversee comprehensive family learning and engagement systems, including the Pendergast Family Resource Center (PFRC) in partnership with First Things First, to build family capacity, agency, and meaningful partnership in student learning.
In partnership with the Chief Learning and Innovation Officer (CLIO) develop and implement a coherent family learning pathway that spans early childhood through the elementary years, intentionally connecting family learning, parent engagement, and the student experience to improve student learning and achievement.
Lead districtwide parent engagement and adult learning systems that move beyond participation toward measurable impact, ensuring efforts are inclusive, culturally responsive, and aligned to school cluster and academy needs.
In partnership with schools and internal teams, facilitate the design and delivery of family and student experience supports that strengthen belonging, access, and continuity across the student journey.
Establish feedback loops and data-informed practices to assess the effectiveness of family learning, engagement, and student experience systems and continuously refine approaches.
Cultivate, steward, and evaluate high-impact community partnerships that expand student opportunity, extend learning beyond the classroom, and reinforce instructional and academy goals.
Align community partnerships to cluster-based priorities to ensure coherence, relevance, sustainability, and shared value creation.
Provide strategic oversight of community-facing use of district facilities, ensuring community facilities operations function as mission-aligned assets that support engagement, partnership development, and long-term sustainability.
Partner with the COO, CFO, and executive leadership to ensure community-facing initiatives, partnerships, and facilities operations are well-governed, fiscally responsible, and aligned to district priorities.
Work in close partnership with the CLIO, CTO, COO, and CFO to align community impact efforts with learning priorities, talent strategies, operational systems, and financial stewardship.
Remove silos by coordinating messaging, timelines, and engagement strategies across departments to improve coherence and the family and student experience.
Establish metrics, data systems, and evaluation practices to assess the effectiveness of communication, recruitment, family learning, partnerships, and engagement strategies.
Use data and stakeholder feedback to inform decision-making, prioritize improvement efforts, and ensure innovations are practical, scalable, and sustainable.
Ensure all community-facing systems comply with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and ethical standards, including proactive management of reputational risk through transparency and responsive engagement.
Provide principled, respectful counsel and candid feedback at all levels of the organization, including upward; ensuring alignment with district values, brand integrity, and public transparency.
Serve as a member of the District Leadership Team and Superintendent’s Cabinet, contributing to enterprise-wide leadership and decision-making.
Model relationship-centered, servant leadership that builds trust, shared ownership, and accountability.
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned by the Superintendent or designee.