Director, Community Building
About The Position
The Director, Community Building leads regional efforts to educate, engage, and activate Audubon chapters and members while expanding the Audubon network in New Mexico and Arizona. The role develops partnerships and provides education, training, capacity-building opportunities, tools, and mechanisms to strengthen the network’s connectedness, capacity, diversity, and size. In collaboration with the Center Directors, the Director oversees programming at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe and the Rio Salado Audubon Center in Phoenix, building culturally resonant programs and messages that address community needs and connect people with conservation actions for the region’s birds and their habitats. The Director collaborates with the Senior Director of Policy and conservation partners to engage Audubon’s bipartisan network in policy campaigns and conservation leadership. The role oversees community engagement and community science programs, with an emphasis on reaching new audiences and diversifying membership to reflect Arizona and New Mexico communities. As a senior leader on Audubon’s Southwest team, the Director works with the Executive Director to guide operations and strategy toward conservation impact in both states. This is an onsite position at an Audubon Center in either Santa Fe, New Mexico, or Phoenix, Arizona.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences, environmental education, or a related area and 10 years of professional experience developing programming; a similar combination of education and experience will also be considered.
- Understanding of environmental and outdoor education philosophies and best practices, and knowledge and appreciation of the people, values, conservation issues, and policy issues of New Mexico and Arizona.
- Leadership ability, strategic and creative thinking, ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines, and comfort working in a dynamic environment.
- Ability to inspire and motivate staff, volunteers, and potential partners; strong interpersonal and social skills, a positive attitude, and a good sense of humor.
- Commitment to Audubon’s values of care, collaboration, change, integrity, impact, and innovation.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a flexible, non-structured environment.
- Experience managing paid education staff and volunteers.
- Excellent organizational, writing, speaking, and communication skills, including the ability to synthesize and communicate technical and complex information to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Fundraising experience, including writing and overseeing grants and cultivating and managing individual donors, foundations, and public agencies.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications; experience using social networking techniques to build awareness and engage others; and comfort developing program measurement and evaluation methodologies.
- Ability and willingness to travel locally and out of state, work evenings and weekends as job demands, and hold a valid driver’s license.
- Ability to work outdoors in all weather conditions and on varying terrain, and to occasionally carry field equipment with or without accommodation.
Nice To Haves
- Experience fostering inclusive and collaborative work environments is valued.
- Spoken and written Spanish proficiency is strongly preferred.
Responsibilities
- Lead development and execution of Audubon’s community-building strategy in Arizona and New Mexico, setting priorities for center operations, network engagement, and community education.
- Work with the Southwest Executive Director and Policy Director to provide strategic guidance and align community-building, policy and advocacy, and habitat programs.
- Coordinate with Community Building Milestone initiative teams, including Community Chapters, Conservation Action Centers, and NextGen, on strategy and shared projects aligned with Flight Plan Milestones.
- Hire, mentor, and supervise education and engagement teams, and oversee recruitment and training of seasonal educators, volunteers, and interns.
- Work with regional Center Directors to guide programming toward Flight Plan milestones.
- Develop assessment tools to evaluate program effectiveness and regularly report outcomes to the Executive Director.
- Cultivate and maintain partnerships with community organizations, Audubon offices and chapters, educators, school administrators, federal land-management staff, tribal entities, biologists, and other specialists; develop partnerships that extend conservation and education outreach to broader and more diverse communities.
- Serve as a spokesperson for Audubon Southwest as needed.
- Support fundraising and help secure donations; communicate the case for support of center programs at community and fundraising events.
- Manage the annual program budget and provide financial reporting to the Executive Director, including analysis of costs and revenues against program goals.
- Enhance earned income, including program revenue and camp and school program tuition, and work with senior leaders to develop partnerships for scholarship donations.
- Prepare funder reports and respond to education-related donor inquiries as needed.
- Support a culture of philanthropy, including public funding efforts.
- Collaborate with colleagues across the Americas on planning and shared priorities.
- Maintain and foster a culture of safety.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
