Teach For America Greater New Orleans seeks a Manager, Special Assisant to the Executive Director, to provide critical, high level support to the Executive Director (ED), as she leads the regional team, corps members, alumni, board of directors, and key partners to make an excellent education a reality for all kids in Greater New Orleans. This individual must possess outstanding poise and the ability to communicate on behalf of the executive director verbally and in writing to a variety of audiences including corps members, alumni, school leaders, high level funders, and regional senior staff. The ideal individual will have the ability to exercise good judgment in complex situations, with strong written and verbal communication, administrative, and organizational skills, and the ability to maintain a realistic balance among multiple priorities. The manager will have the ability to work independently on projects, from conception to completion, and must be able to work under pressure at times to handle a wide variety of activities and confidential matters with discretion. The ideal candidate acts with humility, seeks different points of view and historical context to evolve best practices in service of strengthening our collective and impact.
Executive Support, Communications, and Stakeholder Engagement (60%)
- Leverage operational excellence and organizational skills to provide foundational complex and extensive day-to-day administrative support for Executive Director (ED), developing systems and process improvements for calendar management and anticipating and acting on any operational pitfalls that may arise in ED’s day-to-day
- Assist the Executive Director in balancing the competing interests of both internal and external stakeholders as well as short- and long-term priorities.
- Partner closely with the ED to ensure the ED’s time is aligned to our regional priorities and scheduled in a way that protects the ED’s sustainability and energy
- Develop analysis, reports, presentations, and other resources to ensure ED is prepared for all her engagements and coordinate meeting debriefs and track outcomes and action steps for critical ED, regional team, and regional board meetings
- Manage the ED’s travel schedule (i.e. booking travel, calendar adjustment, and keeping track of her travel expenditures) and budget, including sharing spending updates with the ED and collecting and ensuring compliance of receipts
- Act as a liaison and build enduring, inclusive, and Core Values-aligned relationships between external constituents (such as board members, community partners, corps members, alumni) and the ED through thoughtful and strategic communications
- Ensure relevant information related to ED meetings is captured into TFACT, Teach For America’s relationship management database
- Manage the ED’s budget, including sharing spending updates with the ED and collecting and ensuring compliance of receipts
Special Projects 30%
- Maintain regional dashboard reflecting progress-to-goal across every functional area that can be utilized to flag trends, risks, challenges, and successes for the broader regional team.
- Contribute strategic thinking and project management support for team projects and regional initiatives (i.e. regional impact research, external communications strategy, etc.) while coordinating communication and collaboration across teams
- Develop flexible and adaptive staffing plan to support regional operations execution and supervise interns, fellows, and/or temp/part-time team members executing regional projects and/or supporting regional operations
Region-wide and Organization-wide Responsibilities (10%)
Teach For America thrives on cross-functional partnerships throughout our organization. Our staff members are skilled in working across layers, empathizing with our colleagues around the reality of competing commitments, navigating these situations with grace, and being culture leaders within our regional team. We do this by upholding an orientation towards flexibility and generosity while also remaining deeply committed to a sense of possibility and achievement.
While some days we work independently to achieve milestones, realizing our breakthrough goals requires regular collaboration at all levels. Everyone shows their support for region-wide and organization-wide initiatives by actively engaging in the following opportunities:
- Corps member on-boarding (selection, confirmation, hiring, etc.)
- Cross-functional special projects
- National conferences
- Regional staff leadership development and team building
- 2-4 years of professional work experience required; previous administrative experience preferred
- Previous experience working in or supporting K-12 education preferred
- Knowledge of MS Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel required
- Knowledge of Greater New Orleans education landscape a plus
Skills
- Exceptional orientation to detail and organizational skills
- Ability to communicate effectively with others while building relationships and networks
- Ability to pursue ambitious, meaningful outcomes by holding yourself to high standards, making data-informed decisions, and orient towards long term success
- Exceptional customer service orientation
- Impeccable judgment and ability to manage confidential information with the utmost integrity
Approach to Work
- Deep commitment to Teach For America’s mission of achieving educational equity
- Spirit of flexibility, sense of possibility
- Utilizes courage, relationships, and high degree of trust to achieve outcomes
- Highest ethical standards and commitment to responsible stewardship
- Sense of humor
Work Demands
- Willingness to work occasional early mornings, evenings or weekends (for Board meetings, donor engagement events, etc.)
- Comfortable traveling around Greater New Orleans for meetings