We are seeking an entrepreneurial Executive Director to pursue and extend our vision of excellence in Orlando and to maximize Teach For America’s impact inside the organization and outside in our communities. You as the Executive Director will inspire and motivate your team while creating a culture of innovation, sustainability, and core values alignment – balancing our short-term work and long-term efforts in the region.
To realize the vision of growing and deepening our impact, you will cultivate and enhance our funding base to double the regional budget from nearly one million dollars to over two million dollars; set the vision and direction for increasing the corps from 41 to over 100 over a period of two years, an alumni base of over 90, and a staff of 5; serve as a model cultural leader within the organization and outside of it; and play a critical role in the education movement across the region. Orlando is a region with incredible potential to expand, and it calls upon you as the Executive Director to work deeply in partnership with community, private sector, education, and political leaders at all times.
Teach For America’s Executive Directors are part of the national senior leadership team at Teach For America and are at the forefront of improving the state of education in this country, impacting the future of thousands of children. You would report directly to the Senior Vice President of Regional Engagement and will partner with a dedicated local board to work within Teach For America’s evolving operating model.
As the Executive Director of Teach For America-Orlando, you will:
- Chart the course for the region by leveraging your entrepreneurial spirt to create an innovative, clear, compelling, community-based vision that is grounded in the landscape’s opportunities, needs, and problems and investing stakeholders in this vision.
- Influence others to achieve outcomes in service of this vision by seeking, listening to, and discerning diverse perspectives; acquiring firsthand community experience to deepen insights and approaches; navigating and leveraging structures and relationships to gain support; and demonstrating knowledge of political and policy landscapes.
- Provide cultural leadership to the Orlando region by building and maintaining a culture that is grounded in our core values in partnership with staff, corps members, and alumni; exemplifying our core values in all actions with all internal and external constituents; and creating an environment that fosters diversity and inclusiveness.
- Lead fundraising efforts and engage and cultivate stakeholders by deepening our political capital and fundraising capacity to ensure that Orlando is a meaningful part of the educational fabric of the community; focusing on significantly growing and diversifying a sustainable funding base that will include gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, and districts; and assuming responsibility for a budget of nearly one million dollars.
- Provide executive management to Orlando by attracting, hiring, and developing a team of diverse and talented staff members; ensuring that the proper infrastructure exists to maximize performance of all people and resources; managing a team to reach ambitious goals; and executing the fundamentals of not-for-profit management (board management, fundraising, and fiscal management, etc.).
- Make decisions and demonstrate judgment as the leader of the Orlando region by exercising good judgment when facing new challenges and viewing situations through multiple lenses; leading with integrity in ambiguous and/or paradoxical situations; constructing decision-making processes to engage multiple perspectives; and enacting a suitable, timely course of action when making decisions.
- Cultivate new relationships while retaining and continuing to deepen existing relationships with public officials and organizations that are statewide in nature and working with all sides to maximize our scale and impact.
- Partner with the regional advisory board who will help maximize Teach For America-Orlando’s impact, narrative, and sustainability in the region.
- Entrepreneurial leadership experience (minimum of 5 years) or relevant skills to manage a high-performing team toward ambitious outcomes in a mission-driven organization
- Demonstrated achievement in fundraising, partnership development, or external affairs, including an ability to mobilize people and create champions to support an organizational mission
- Working knowledge of ways to partner with a Board of Directors, in addition to possessing a strong understanding of the roles of the Executive Director and the board
- Outstanding interpersonal skills and an ability and desire to develop and maintain deep relationships with variety of diverse constituents
- Understanding of the complexity of the local political climate that impacts Teach For America-Orlando
- Experience navigating the political process as it pertains to elected officials, legislators, school district officials, and school board members.
- Excellent strategic thinking skills to understand and lead in a complex environment
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
Personal Characteristics
- Strong alignment with, passion for, and commitment to the mission and values of Teach For America
- Sense of urgency around accomplishing goals and objectives
- Clarity of vision and the ability to invest others within the organization and in the broader Orlando community in that vision
- Extraordinary cultural leadership and credibility
- Strong sense of self-awareness and understanding of one’s strengths and areas for development
- Commitment to exploring issues of race, class, and privilege
- Ability to deal with ambiguity and conflict
- Excellent judgment and sound decision-making skills
- Willingness and ability to learn about the Orlando education landscape and establish oneself as a key partner in the local movement to fight educational inequity
- Ability to work some evenings and weekends
- Ability to travel within the region daily and ability to travel to in-person meetings in various U.S. cities quarterly