Executive Director

Florida Atlantic University•Boca Raton, FL

13d

About The Position

FAU Lab Schools seeks an entrepreneurial, data-informed, and results-oriented Executive Director to launch and lead The Carl A. DeSantis Center for Educational Strategy and Innovation. The Center was established through a $10 million, five-year catalytic investment from the Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation to scale proven FAU Lab Schools practices across Palm Beach and Broward counties, throughout Florida, and nationally. The Executive Director will serve as the Center’s chief architect and champion, translating its five-year business plan into annual implementation plans, recruiting and leading the Center team, managing the Foundation grant with fiscal and programmatic accountability, and developing measurement systems, partnerships, and revenue streams for long-term sustainability. The role establishes the Center’s operating model and expansion strategy; develops professional learning, leadership development, and workforce preparation programs; and supports replication of FAU Lab Schools’ models by partner schools and districts. The Executive Director will build evidence-based measurement and evaluation systems, oversee grant compliance and donor stewardship, develop partnerships and dissemination activities, and advance financial sustainability. The role also leads a multidisciplinary team and coordinates with FAU Lab Schools staff and faculty, university units, external organizations, and senior leaders.

Requirements

Master’s degree or higher in education, business, instructional design, organizational leadership, or a related field.
Five or more years of experience as a school district senior leader or principal supervisor, or ten or more years of experience as a school principal and school district leader.
Five or more years of experience building programs or strategic initiatives from concept through implementation, evaluation, and scale.
Experience managing grants or restricted funds, including budgets, compliance, and programmatic and financial reporting.
Demonstrated ability to use data, research, and performance measures to inform strategy and decision-making.
Experience managing complex budgets, personnel, contracts, timelines, and external partners.
Exceptional executive communication, presentation, relationship-building, analytical, and leadership skills.

Nice To Haves

Doctorate in education, organizational leadership, or a related field.
Knowledge of Florida K–12 education, school district operations, and educator preparation and leadership systems.
Knowledge of program evaluation, research design, key performance indicators, dashboards, and decision-science approaches.
Understanding of instructional design, learning science, adult learning, and learning management systems.
Experience developing conferences, institutes, speaker series, or other large-scale professional convenings.
Experience with university–K–12 partnerships, laboratory schools, or STEM, health care, or research workforce pathways.
Demonstrated success in donor stewardship and building partnerships across education, government, business, philanthropy, and health care.
Experience generating sustainable revenue through grants, philanthropy, sponsorships, consulting, licensing, or fee-based programming.
Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and align diverse stakeholders around common objectives.

Responsibilities

Translate strategic initiatives into actionable implementation plans with responsibilities, milestones, deliverables, performance indicators, staffing, and costs.
Develop a balanced portfolio of initiatives addressing immediate needs while advancing innovation, measurable impact, scalability, and financial sustainability.
Recruit and onboard Center staff and establish core infrastructure, including a Learning Management System, continuing education registration, and event operations.
Identify emerging educational challenges, research, technologies, and workforce needs and translate them into programs, services, and partnerships.
Establish a disciplined process to evaluate, test, launch, refine, and scale initiatives, using evidence to determine which to expand, redesign, or discontinue.
Assess professional and organizational learning needs and develop scalable frameworks for educator and leadership development, workforce preparation, and organizational improvement.
Expand teacher and leader professional learning in coordination with the Stiles-Nicholson STEM Teacher Academy and leadership partners to meet or exceed performance targets.
Develop and award micro-credentials and STEM certifications, and design LMS-based virtual courses.
Design innovation-focused curricula that prepare leaders to anticipate workforce needs and move from compliance management to innovation architecture.
Apply instructional design, adult learning, and talent development principles to achieve measurable changes in participants’ practice.
Identify, recruit, and cultivate faculty, practitioners, industry experts, presenters, and nationally recognized subject-matter experts.
Provide consulting and implementation support to partner districts and expand the university lab school partner network across Florida and nationally.
Support annual Center and research site visits for school and district leaders, educators, and policymakers.
Develop and disseminate replication blueprints, toolkits, and implementation guides documenting FAU Lab Schools programs and success conditions.
Engage school districts statewide, with the goal of reaching all 67 Florida school districts over the grant period.
Partner with the FAU Lab Schools’ Research Director to expand Research Communities of Practice and the Action Research Fellows program statewide.
Build and maintain a five-year outcome measurement framework with definitions, baselines, annual targets, data sources, collection frequency, and responsible staff.
Develop measures of changes in teacher practice and leadership behavior, using valid methods such as matched pre- and post-assessments, follow-up, and verified student-reach estimates.
Oversee dashboards and decision-support tools that help leaders understand performance, anticipate challenges, and allocate resources.
Partner with faculty, researchers, and data scientists to design studies, evaluate innovations, and advance responsible uses of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics in education.
Establish continuous feedback loops using outcome data, stakeholder input, and financial results to improve programs and guide investment.
Manage the Foundation grant in accordance with its agreement, approved annual budgets, and performance commitments.
Prepare mid-year and year-end programmatic and financial reports comparing actual performance and expenditures with targets, explaining material variances, and documenting lessons and corrective actions.
Oversee accurate tracking and reporting of participants, activities, results, and expenditures by county, while maintaining clear separation between the catalytic grant and other awards.
Establish strategic partnerships with universities, school districts, government agencies, foundations, corporations, organizations, and research institutions.
Develop external advisory relationships and networks to identify emerging trends, opportunities, technologies, research, and promising practices.
Position the Center as a convener for education, research, business, government, and philanthropy leaders.
Develop a dissemination strategy covering publications, policy briefs, practitioner guides, case studies, digital resources, and state and national conference presentations.
Translate complex research and analytical results into clear, actionable information for practitioners, policymakers, and donors.
Represent the Center with senior university, education, government, philanthropic, corporate, and community leaders.
Collaborate with FAU Lab Schools’ leadership to develop additional revenue streams and build a diversified model for long-term sustainability.
Develop business cases for major initiatives that assess demand, strategic alignment, anticipated impact, investment, scalability, and sustainability.
Support cultivation of foundations, donors, corporations, and government entities able to support or scale the Center’s work.
Manage budgets, personnel, contracts, vendors, and timelines with accountability and fiscal responsibility.
Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing multidisciplinary team across education, research, analytics, professional learning, business development, communications, and program implementation.
Coordinate with FAU Lab Schools’ staff and faculty as needed; establish priorities, responsibilities, performance expectations, and accountability.
Lead cross-functional initiatives involving university units, FAU colleges, and external organizations.
Communicate strategy, evidence, performance, and recommendations to the Superintendent, university and school leadership, and the Foundation.
Create an environment that encourages responsible experimentation, measures results, captures lessons, and translates successful innovations into broader practice.