After nine years building, leading, and holding the vision for TFA-GNO/LAD’s work in New Orleans, Executive Director Kira Orange Jones will transition from this role into a new position at TFA in which she will manage the Executive Directors (EDs) of 15 regions, including all regions in Louisiana.
Therefore, TFA-GNO/LAD is seeking a new leader – one equally committed to this unique region and the aggressive pursuit of excellent educational opportunities and options within it. The next ED will inherit a strong team that is proud of its ongoing and intentional work to operate a community-embedded and core values-centered enterprise and one that is determined to fuel a strong and grounded local movement for educational equity. Over the past few years, the GNO/LAD team has focused intensely on articulating the defining principles for its work. These principles – referred to internally as “culture pillars” – follow and should resonate with the new ED:
Primary Responsibilities: Five key areas of focus are central to the GNO/LAD Executive Director role. S/he must: Partner with a broad set of local community leaders and organizations to define what the next phase of reform will look like to end educational inequity in Louisiana by:
- Seeking and listening to discerning and diverse perspectives to formulate informed opinions to ensure that this vision is grounded in the region’s opportunities, needs, problems, and culture
- Acquiring firsthand community experience and perspectives to deepen insights and approaches
- Navigating and leveraging existing structures and relationships to gain support
- Acquiring knowledge of political and policy landscapes to deepen insights and approach
- Anticipating where conflicts may develop and surfacing, managing, and resolving conflict proactively and constructively
- Convening and mobilizing diverse groups of stakeholders – including staff, corps members, partner schools and alumni – to fight for educational equity
- Deepening our political capital and fundraising capacity to ensure that GNO/LAD maintains its meaningful positon in the educational fabric of the community
- Identifying public relations opportunities which can maximize impact
Preserve and provide leadership deeply reflective of the GNO/LAD culture pillars by:
- Continuing to build and maintain a culture that is grounded in our regional culture pillars and our five core values: transformational change, leadership, team, diversity, and respect and humility
- Creating an environment that fosters and prioritizes diversity and inclusiveness
- Exemplifying our core values in all actions with all internal and external constituents
- Demonstrating adaptability in approaching and communicating with diverse audiences to share the story of GNO/LAD; building new alliances and partnerships; bridging gaps between communities, cultivating support; and inspiring action
Inspire, lead, and optimize the GNO/LAD team by:
- Attracting, hiring, and developing a team of diverse and talented staff members
- Ensuring proper infrastructure to maximize performance of people and resources toward regional and personal goals
- Effectively managing other executive/high-level staff members
- Coaching and developing regional staff members to exhibit strong cultural leadership skills and orientations
- Synthesizing and making meaning of a dynamic educational climate for staff, corps members, and alumni and enabling that meaning-making for others in order to foster leadership development and to catalyze collective action
Execute the fundamentals of not-for-profit leadership and management by:
- Developing a comprehensive multi-year strategic plan with outcomes and targets to achieve regional goals
- Cultivating and building a regional advisory board who will help maximize Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta’s impact, narrative, and sustainability in the region
- Focusing on significantly growing and diversifying a sustainable funding base that will include gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, and districts
- Being responsible for a budget of approximately $7M
- Promoting new and strengthening existing relationships with public officials and organizations that are statewide in nature – ranging from district partners, higher education institutions, education non-profits, and civic/social justice organizations – to maximize our scale and impact
Serve effectively as a national leader for Teach For America by:
- Supporting the work of teacher leadership development and alumni impact to create a larger, more effective force of transformational teachers and leaders
- Leading with integrity in ambiguous and/or paradoxical situations
- Exercising good judgment when facing new challenges and viewing situations through multiple lenses to weigh options and consequences
- Constructing decision-making processes which balance timeliness with the need to engage multiple perspectives
- Serving as a contributing voice on public relations efforts to maximize impact
- Establishing national networks of education and community leaders to understand best practices in education reform and how to maximize those best practices in the local landscape
- Being the face and voice for TFA-GNO/LAD in national platform
Requirements: TFA seeks a leader propelled by a palpable urgency to transform educational equity in Louisiana. Ideally, the successful candidate will possess a public speaking record that reflects an ability to engage and inspire diverse, local, and national audiences. The ideal candidate will also bring a developed, sophisticated understanding of the complexity of the local political climate of the region.
Additionally, the next ED must have the following experience:
- Significant leadership experience (minimum of 10-15 years) with a verifiable track record of:
- Achieving excellence and successful outcomes leading a complex enterprise;
- Setting bold vision for impact and leading others to reach ambitious goals in support of that vision;
- Defining and leading others towards a culture of excellence;
- Managing individuals to goals and managing managers
- Experience building and working in partnership with a Board of Directors
- Demonstrated achievement in fundraising or ensuring financial sustainability of an organization, including an ability to mobilize people and to create champions to support our organizational mission
- Experience navigating political processes at the state level, including district officials and board members
The next ED must have the following skills:
- Highly-developed strategic and execution skills that allow him/her to manage systems in a complex environment
- A suite of adaptive leadership skills that facilitate smart, disciplined, and timely decisions via multiple layers
- The ability to seek, listen to, and discern diverse perspectives and to synthesize and make meaning of a dynamic educational context and then apply that knowledge to the regional leadership, vision, and direction
- Proven ability to lead collaboratively and to share responsibilities for outcomes
- Tolerance for ambiguity and conflict
- Outstanding interpersonal skills and desire to develop deep relationships with a variety of constituents
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
The next ED must have the following personal characteristics:
- Strong alignment with, passion for, and commitment to the mission and values of TFA
- A level of maturity and gravitas that engenders respect and facilitates strong partnerships with senior-level staff members, high-profile community stakeholders and civic leaders, staff members, corps members, and alumni
- Commitment to exploring issues of race, class, and privilege
- Sense of urgency around accomplishing goals and objectives
- Humility, self-awareness, and a commitment to personal growth
- The ability to work some evenings and weekends, travel within the region daily, and attend meetings in various U.S. cities quarterly.
Benefits and Salary: Salary for this position is competitive and depends on prior experience. In addition, a comprehensive benefits package is included.