After an exhaustive review of successful social change efforts, TFA-Colorado has concluded that broad-based and durable systemic change requires three pillars:
- Sustained leadership inside and outside of the system we seek to change, challenging conventional wisdom and the status quo by demonstrating what’s possible;
- The effort must be shaped by those most directly impacted by the injustice, and led by those with personal proximity to the problem and its complexity; and
- A broad and diverse coalition of people united around common purpose and shared values, working together to translate insights from proof points of possibility into policy and practice.
For the past ten years, TFA-Colorado has been at the forefront of building talent pipelines that work inside and outside of the education system. And, recently, we built a first-of-its-kind approach to homegrown and diversity recruitment called the Colorado Talent Initiative (CTI) to live out that second pillar. CTI creates ladders of access to opportunity and builds pipelines starting as early as 8th grade so that TFA-Colorado will have more homegrown & diverse members. The ultimate goal is that our students today become the classroom, school, and systems-level leaders of tomorrow in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo. The Managing Director, Talent Strategy will manage a full-time staff member and lead the initiative into its next phase of maximizing regional recruitment potential, creating innovative early engagement programming, and managing the scaling of the TFA-Colorado Launch Fellowship.
The Launch Fellowship is an additional pathway to classroom (and eventually higher level) leadership with three key components: (1) Fellows learn alongside a master teacher, (2) complete coursework to obtain a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), and (3) engage in TFA-Colorado programming that offers exposure to systems-level leaders and change. Given TFA in Colorado now offers both the two-year corps and the Launch Fellowship, the Colorado Talent Initiative Team is charged with building short and long-term pipelines of diverse, homegrown talent for both programs. In 2017, we started with a pilot cohort of 9 Fellows and anticipate between 15 and 25 Fellows in the 2018-2019 school year. The MD, Talent Strategy will lead the change management, recruitment, and selection process to scale the Fellowship to 50 participants in 2019 and 75 Fellows in 2020.
In 2018, TFA-Colorado is now turning to the third pillar – building a broad, diverse coalition – through a unique two-pronged approach: (a) training in coalition-building skills while simultaneously (b) bolstering the viewpoint diversity of our membership to ensure we have a broad and diverse movement to end educational inequity in Colorado. The MD, Talent Strategy will manage an additional full-time staff member to determine conditions necessary for a diversity of viewpoints to both enlist and thrive in our corps and Launch Fellowship programs, continuing on to eventually lead at the school and systems level.
- Manage a full-time staff member (Manager, CTI) who will themselves manage a team of three part time CTI Campus Campaign Coordinators to exceed immediate recruitment goals of recruiting undergraduate seniors and local professionals to the 2019 TFA-Colorado corps and Launch Fellowship
- Manage an additional full-time staff member (Director, Coalition Building) to recruit for viewpoint diversity into Teach for America and into leadership pipelines for classroom, school, and system leadership.
- Partner with TFA National Recruitment Team members who recruit at the top-producing college campuses in Colorado to cultivate homegrown & diverse talent across the state and inspire candidates to preference Colorado as part of Homegrown Engagement
- Working closely with the Continuum Support & Experience Team and Community Building Team, design and co-lead TFA alumni member pipeline strategy to bring talented alumni to teach and lead in our partner schools in Colorado
- Lead strategic partnerships strategy by identifying CTI-aligned organizations and partners who represent a diversity of viewpoints as part of long-term pipeline-building efforts
- Serve as project manager for the Launch Fellowship to ensure quality control as we scale the program from 9 in our 2017-2018 pilot year to 25 in the 2018-2019 school year, 50 in 2019, and 75 in 2020
- Plan and lead weekly Launch Fellowship team meetings, keeping track of next steps for key work streams across the Program Continuum
- Create a new, standalone application process for the Launch Fellowship and delegate interview responsibilities to the Colorado regional team.
- Design, lead, and support the execution of programs to partner with our members, schools and communities to create a pipeline of local 8-12 grade students into Teach For America
- Design, lead, and support programs to engage undergraduate students early in their college experience to build pipelines for our 2020, 2020, and 2022 corps.
- Design, lead, and support our programs to bring talented non-traditional teaching candidates into the classrooms (e.g. Veterans, Career Transitioners, etc.)
- Minimum 5-7 years professional work experience preferred, demonstrating progressively increasing responsibility, with demonstrated success in all or most of the relevant functional areas (i.e. recruitment, admissions, program design, etc.)
- Experience leading teams and work streams
- Deep experience working directly with low income communities and communities of color
- Experience working in Colorado communities, school districts, and/or charter management organizations preferred
- Community organizing or related experience preferred
Work Demands
- Ability to work evenings and weekends when necessary
- Occasional out-of-state travel required, along with monthly travel within the region
Skills
- Spanish Language Proficiency preferred, but not required
- Extremely organized with the ability to design and manage complex systems
- Strong problem solving skills, approaching constraints and challenges with creativity and optimism.
- Goal-oriented with an unwavering focus on the pursue of success
- Management of a team to ambitious results driven by quantitative and qualitative data.
- Strategic thinking skills with the ability to conduct ongoing analysis and make immediate pivots
- Exceptional communication skills with internal and external stakeholders with the ability to influence others to achieve outcomes