ROLE TITLE: Managing Director, Alumni and External Affairs (Full time)

POSITION REPORTS TO: Mikisha Nation, Executive Director, Twin Cities Region

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 11:59pm ET on August 30, 2024

LOCATION: Twin Cities, Minnesota

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Teach For America – Twin Cities seeks a Managing Director, Alumni and External Affairs to a build robust, compelling, and high-impact network of champions and leaders advocating for education equity and investing in the political, financial, and social capital needed to create transformative opportunities for children, youth, and families in our community. We are looking for a powerful storyteller with sophisticated community organizing and coalition building expertise capable of stewarding public and community collaboration and mobilizing our alumni network to advocate for student and community centered change within the Twin Cities and Minnesota more broadly.

The ideal candidate for this role has prior external and public affairs, coalition-building, community organizing, alumni or stakeholder engagement, and people management experience. You have strong political acumen, fearlessly pursuing a seat at the table with powerful decision makers and are committed to using your voice to work toward educational equity. You are fulfilled by taking deep personal responsibility for the success of your organization and igniting passion in potential partners to fight for our shared work. You are a skilled public speaker and influencer and also enjoy the behind the scenes work of leveraging what you’re learning to enhance strategy development and drive project implementation plans. You’re dedicated to building authentic relationships and connections with diverse constituents, stakeholders, program participants, alumni, and government officials. You also are highly skilled at engaging with high-impact alumni leaders within our communities, and enjoy connecting this portfolio of leaders with each other and other local leaders, all toward building stronger coalitions in the communities we serve. You enjoy thought partnership as well as coaching and mentoring leaders, direct reports, and consultants while prioritizing collaboration, shared learning, innovation, and continuous improvement.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Strategy and Planning:

• Set the vision and strategy for our region’s External Affairs work, including legislative and public engagement, policy priorities, community affairs, and activation of our members, alumni, and network of local leaders.

• Secure bipartisan support of our work, including state funding as well as public, institutional, and legislative support, and network affinity to sustain our local operation and foster systems-level change toward educational equity in Minnesota working in partnering with Executive Director and national colleagues from TFA Public Partnership, Development, and External Affairs teams and public affairs and/or lobbying consultant(s).

• Design robust communications strategy integrating multi-channel approaches (digital, marketing, social media, newsletters, event marketing, earned media, etc.) and manage implementation of key priorities and campaigns designed to enhance public awareness of TFA’s impact, engagement in regional programs and events, and enabling conditions needed in our community to advance education equity.

• Led vision setting and innovation to enhance and amplify a comprehensive alumni engagement strategy to drive connectivity, collaboration, leadership and career development, advocacy, and impact aligned to TFA's 10-year goal with input from Executive Director, Regional Team, TFA national colleagues and pur alumni network.

• Serve as regional leader for strategic thought partnership for alumni talent development and talent sourcing, matching alumni to key career development, employment, and leadership development opportunities.

• Foster meaningful connections to local and national organizations and programs that serve specific components of the alumni and stakeholder engagement strategy especially related to talent and career development opportunities and priorities.

• Develop goals and priorities for critical areas within the External Affairs , Alumni and Stakeholder Engagement, and Communications strategy, tracking progress to goals, and driving impact towards outcomes.

Alumni and Stakeholder Engagement:

• Build and steward relationships with a portfolio of high-impact alumni leaders within our communities, with the aim of strengthening our talent matching and coalition building within this group and within the broader communities we serve.

• Cultivate and deepen alumni network and community through 1:1 and small groups meetings to build strong relationships and drive engagement and partnership with TFA Network Leadership Groups (The Alumni Board, Collective, PRISM, and Corps Member Leadership Council).

• Curate meaningful opportunities for alumni community to support each other and the work of the TFA Twin Cities team, including coalition building, call to action, and volunteer opportunities.

• Lead project planning for large-scale alumni facing events (Choose Twin Cities, Holiday Party, speaker series, etc.) with collaboration and support from regional teams, Network Leaderships Groups, and volunteers.

• Design process and systems for shared team accountability for managing relationships with various alumni and stakeholder segments while carefully documenting interactions and sharing information.

• Portfolio manage or lead key relationships in the public sector, influencing support, advocacy and funding for Teach For America. This includes relationships with legislators, city and district officials, non-profit leaders, senior executive alumni, etc.

Policy Development and Oversight:

• Develop analysis, commentary, and mobilization strategies on relevant state policy issues, including state licensure regulations and certification policy, as well as other PK-12 education issues of interest and focus in Minnesota aligned with Teach For America’s 10 year goal

• Manage public affairs and/or lobbying consultant(s) in pursuit of annual state funding via a variety of channels including but not limited to a direct appropriation and/or competitive grants.

• Prepare Executive Director, Regional Leaders, and key alumni for legislative meetings, policy engagement opportunities or events, hearings and testimony.

• Serve as proxy for Executive Director in key matters related to External Affairs as needed

Collective Responsibilities:

• Contribute to initiatives, priorities, and projects outside Alumni and External Affairs to help fellow regional and national team members achieve our shared goals and responsibilities.

• Operate flexibly to lend skills and capacity to meet the needs of emerging projects or priorities as they arise

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Over the course of any week, the MD, Alumni and External Affairs might spend time:

• Meeting with legislators, district officials, and other key decision makers to influence support for Teach For America and reduce barriers for educators to work toward equity.

• Advising the Executive Director and Regional Team on external relationships, policies, and issues facing our strategy and landscape and preparing testimony for key policy issues and appropriation requests.

• Meeting individually and collectively with our senior-level alumni leaders as well as other education and community leaders throughout the state to foster new connections and networking; to share resources and knowledge; to support career and professional development; to mobilize for high priority legislative policies and funding; and/or to support our talent matching and 10-year goal advancement work.

• Collaborating with Executive Directors, public affair consultant, lobbyist, and TFA Public Partnerships and Field Fundraising teams to advance the Alumni and External Affairs agenda of our organization and activate our network to realize systems change and support legislative and philanthropic investment.

• Partnering with TFA alumni and connecting with Regional Team and National colleagues and TFA Network leadership ch

• air(s) to ensure that all aspects of our work are aligned to TFA brand standards and local best practices for marketing and communications to support regional priorities, upcoming events, and engagement campaigns.

• Pitching in on projects outside External Affairs to help fellow regional and national team members achieve our shared goals.

• Analyzing internal and external data and reports and data systems (Salesforce, PowerBI, etc.) while gathering insights and perspectives from alumni, community leaders, policy makers, and other stakeholders to inform strategy implementation, decision making, and progress monitoring.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):

• 5-8 years of experience in external affairs work, including cultivating relationships with public officials in government affairs, community leaders, and senior executives.

• Strong knowledge of the education system and the political landscape in Minnesota with ability to navigate power and decision making to influence change.

• Ability to convey complex ideas concisely and compellingly to a range of external and internal audiences while leveraging a nuanced understanding of their beliefs, motivations, contexts, and barriers

• Experience managing complex campaigns and projects and timelines while collaborating with internal teams and external stakeholders

• Passion for actively and productively engaging in dialogue to further your commitment and your organization’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusiveness

• A transparent and inclusive decision maker, viewing every step you take as a leader as an opportunity to build trust and community

• Displays and models a learning orientation, including around one’s own personal identity.

• Open to ambiguity, adaptability, risk taking, and learning in a constantly evolving context

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Salesforce, PowerBI, Social Media Tools, and Canva

BONUS (preferred qualifications)

• 8-10 years of experience in external affairs work, including cultivating relationships with public officials in government affairs, community leaders, and senior executives.

• Experience working in senior leadership with state, county, city, or local government

• Experience working in senior leadership in local school district central office or network

• Strong connection with key leaders within the Minnesota education or public policy sphere

• Deep experience leading state level policy initiatives, legislative or political campaigns, and/or grassroots community organizing efforts

• Alumni of the Teach For America programs

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

Teach For America’s mission is to enlist, develop, and mobilize the nation's most promising future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equity and excellence. As a MD, Alumni and External Affairs, you will be a leader on the Teach for America Twin Cities Regional Team. TFA-Twin Cities has a diverse coalition of staff members, corps members, alumni, school partners, program participants and community partners all working to realize the potential of all Twin Cities students. At Teach for America - Twin Cities, we believe that our students and community are our greatest asset and resource so it is critical to work collaboratively to address and disrupt educational inequity so that all children will have access to an excellent education.

In Minnesota, educational inequities are experienced early and often by our students of color, American Indian students, and students from low-income, linguistically diverse, indigenous, different ability, and immigrant backgrounds. While Minnesota is consistently nationally ranked highly for quality of life, there are significant race and ethnic disparities in access to high-quality schools, grade level academic proficiency, high school graduation, and post-secondary education. MN is essentially one of the worst states in the country for students of color and students from diverse low-income, linguistically diverse, indigenous and immigrant backgrounds to live if they want to graduate from high school in four years. In the midst of these challenges, there is a growing number of Twin Cities educators, advocates, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and foundation, non-profit, corporate, and school leaders intent on building and creating innovative solutions to our state’s historic inequity. Among these leaders is a network of nearly 1000 Teach For America alumni and corps members providing all Twin Cities students with the education they deserve. We are determined and focused to work in deep partnership with the communities we serve to ensure that more students learn, lead, and thrive in Minnesota.

YOUR COMPENSATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary range for this role is set forth below. This range may be modified in the future.

$99,000 - $132,400

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here. If your location is not listed, please click here for additional total rewards information.