At Teach For America Nashville-Chattanooga we believe that in order for us to reach the day when all children have access to an excellent education, we need a diverse coalition of education leaders working for a prolonged period of time both inside and outside of the education system. Achieving educational equity will require the individual and collective leadership of our 800+ network of alumni. Over 100 of our alumni are working toward equity as school leaders and administrators, nearly 300 as teachers, and many more as social entrepreneurs, policymakers, health professionals, and business people. The Director, Alumni Talent Initiatives will strengthen and deepen the individual leadership of alumni by supporting them in finding the role they can play in the movement toward educational equity, and will deepen Teach For America’s impact in the community by growing the number of alumni working toward a shared vision.
The ultimate goal of the Director, Alumni Talent Initiatives (D, ATI) is to develop the vision and strategy that will empower alumni to know the role they want to play in the movement for educational equity and support alumni in actively working to make that happen. This will include building relationships with individual alumni job-seekers and cultivating partnerships with mission-aligned hiring partners to help match alumni with their desired career and/or leadership pathway.
We are looking for an experienced networker and recruiter who builds trust and relationships and draws energy from engaging externally. You enjoy the challenge of recruitment, and use a systematic, yet passionate approach to exciting others about the opportunities in Nashville-Chattanooga. You are also a community builder, motivated by making connections and developing strategic partnerships with schools, non-profits, corporations, and other organizations. The Director, Alumni Talent Initiatives will have a demonstrated ability to drive results in pursuit of ambitious goals, and will have an entrepreneurial spirit that derives energy by succeeding where there is no precedent. The D, ATI believes in the incredible potential of Teach For America alumni as individuals and as a network, and views their role in the fight for educational equity as serving, developing, and catalyzing adults who serve students and communities.
Talent Recruitment, Cultivation, Placement (60%)
- Build and maintain strong partnerships between Teach For America and local principals and organization hiring managers to foster demand for TFA alumni talent and steward relationships towards a shared community vision/build champions
- Manage a portfolio of alumni educator relationships for the purpose of building and deepening relationships with TFA alumni, identifying opportunities (roles, mentorship, development, etc.) to deepen or expand their leadership and assist with short- and long-term career goals
- Develop and manage systems for communicating and marketing open education or mission-aligned roles in Nashville-Chattanooga and connecting alumni with the roles
- Develop strategy to Influence the relocation of out of regional alumni talent to Nashville-Chattanooga, through direct efforts to land high impact professional positions and through personal networking and marketing across our team, base, and partnerships
- Cultivate and recruit alumni teaching and leading in education to participate in the Teach For America Nashville Aspiring School Leader Fellowship (NASLF)
Community Building and Talent Management (25%)
- Coordinate with regional program team to coordinate professionalism and networking trainings for second-year corps members and alumni to support career acceleration and hiring
- Create a vision, plan, and execute networking events opportunities to connect alumni job seekers to each other and to partner organizations
- Plan and execute the scope and sequence for NASLF Fellows to network and develop with leaders in the alumni network or from mission aligned community partners
- Maximize the engagement and retention of NASLF Fellows in Nashville
Regional and Organizational Stewardship (15%)
- Support team-wide priorities for TFA Nashville-Chattanooga and organizational-wide initiatives. Examples include:
- Participating in staff committees, teams and task forces
- Corps member recruitment, admissions, and matriculation
- Team meetings and professional development
- Institute
- Regional events and programming (such as teacher orientation and end-of-year celebration)
- Role check-Ins, cross-team meetings, performance management conversations, etc.
- 5+ years professional work experience including two years of recruitment or community organizing/engagement experience
- Teach For America alumni strongly preferred, but not required
- Deep connection or network in Nashville or Chattanooga education landscape preferred, but not required
Work Demands
- Ability to work evenings or weekends, as necessary
- Ability to travel around the metropolitan Nashville area
- Regular travel Chattanooga for meetings and events (approximately 1 – 2 days per month)
Skills
- Results-oriented – effectively balances driving strategically at clear, ambitious goals with relationship-centered work
- Strong relationships building skills, with a proven ability develop and cultivate effective and authentic relationships and engage with internal and external stakeholders in a meaningful way to understand their objectives and needs, and to invest them in our work
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage, motivate, and inspire others to action through written verbal and written communication
- Exceptional organizational skills, leveraging systems strategically to accurately track many multi-faceted workstreams; Skilled at data systems and maintenance; can leverage existing systems or innovate to improve upon them
- Entrepreneurial mindset – someone who is excited by the opportunity to proactively develop new and innovative ways to meet our goals
- Strong understanding of best practices in career acceleration (resume support, interview expertise, etc.)
Technical Skills
- Familiarity with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, other MS Office Applications and Google Drive Applications
- Familiarity with Salesforce.com or other CRM platforms is a plus
- Experience with Pardot, Constant Contact, or similar graphic design or print/online publishing platforms a plus