Southwestern University is hiring a Director of Public Engagement. This is a 2.5-year grant-funded staff position (Mellon Foundation), reporting to the head of the Center for Integrative Learning. The Director will bring perspective, knowledge, and ability to help inform Southwestern University’s increasing engagement with the public sphere, broadly defined. This is a unique opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join our team and bring a vision for synthesizing and strengthening Southwestern’s approach to publicly engaged teaching, learning, and research.

Primary Duties:

• Partner with faculty members and the Office of Academic Affairs to develop, implement, and sustain publicly- and community-engaged research, teaching, and learning projects, within and outside of academic courses.
• Coordinate and manage existing and future community-engaged learning classes.
• Establish and share best practices for publicly engaged research and teaching, including but not limited to community-engaged learning pedagogy, with faculty members, students, staff, and community partners.
• Identify and raise awareness about issues and needs, from the local to the global, that can be actively and effectively addressed by academic work–scholarly and creative.
• Cultivate and nurture multi-layered partnerships with individuals and constituencies beyond Southwestern that serve both sides, facilitating dialogue and collaboration.
• Collaborate with appropriate offices on campus, including academic departments, Registrar, Center for Career and Professional Development, Center for Teaching, Learning, & Scholarship, JEDI Center.

Skills:

• Excellent interpersonal and team-building skills.
• Talented facilitator, comfortable leading internal teams and building collaborations with external groups.
• Strong, adaptive, and effective communication skills, written and oral, including the ability to present complex information in an understandable and compelling manner for multiple audiences.
• Knowledge of and comfort with humanistic research methodologies.
• Adaptive capacity and readiness to be a continuing learner and sharer in support of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Experience:

• Developing training content and curricula or other similar material.
• Strong understanding of and commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Strong local relationships and/or the capacity to build and maintain external partnerships across communities including groups/leaders, researchers, universities, and practitioners.
• Designing and implementing public engagement initiatives, including logistics, outreach, and communication.
• Facilitating small and large engagement sessions with stakeholders with diverse experiences on complex issues.

Position Requirements:

• MA
• Academic or professional background in Humanities, Humanistic Fine Arts, or Humanistic Social Sciences.
• Understanding and commitment to a liberal arts education, including the ability to relate to a liberal arts faculty.

Preferred Requirements:

• PhD
• Experience working on an undergraduate residential liberal arts & sciences campus

To apply: The University will only accept application materials through Interfolio at apply.interfolio.com/139973. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume/CV, and the names and contact information of three professional references. The cover letter should address the candidate’s qualifications, experience, and interest in the position; it should also include a statement of the candidate’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and their understanding of how student and faculty work can and should translate outside the classroom, via community-engaged learning projects and beyond. Review of applications will begin on March 1 and will continue until the position is filled. Email and paper applications will not be accepted. Only completed applications will be reviewed by the Search Committee. All offers of employment are contingent on successful completion of the University’s Background Check Policy process. Southwestern University is an E-Verify employer. EOE/M/F

Inclusion is the deliberate effort to create an environment in which people from all backgrounds* are not only included but welcomed, valued, respected, considered, and supported within our community. People from marginalized (i.e., devalued) and/or minoritized (i.e, underrepresented) groups are heard, seen, respected and accepted in all aspects of our community. Southwestern University is committed to inclusive excellence that provides access and support, enables participation, and removes barriers so that all people within our community are empowered and can thrive in a campus that is welcoming and validating.

*including but not limited to people of color (race, ethnicity, nationality), sex, sexual identity, gender identity, age, physical and mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, religion, immigrants, and the intersection of these identities.

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