TEAM: Teach For America - Massachusetts

REPORTS TO: Executive Vice President, Regional Field Executive

LOCATION: Boston, Massachusetts

APPLICATION DEADLINE: October 14, 2024 by 11:59 PM ET

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Teach For America region supports corps members, alumni, and our local network to empower students to achieve unprecedented results and shift that public narrative to one of power, possibility, and a limitless future for students.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

TFA is seeking its next Executive Director to lead the Massachusetts region to achieve the local 2030 impact goal. This leader will work shoulder-to-shoulder with existing champions and enlist new advocates in Massachusetts– including our corps members, parents, students, community leaders, donors, and elected officials – as partners in the success of all children. The next leader will lead a strong, accomplished, and innovative regional team and will play a key role in public affairs across the regional landscape. The next Executive Director’s mission is to evolve and hone the role that Teach For America (TFA) must play to accelerate educational opportunity for all. The Executive Director will directly manage a team of 5 staff members, collaborate with other teams to ensure TFA corps member outcomes, and will be responsible for raising $5.25 million by May 31, 2025.

THE MOMENT

Massachusetts regularly leads the nation in general indicators of educational excellence, yet low-income students and children of color are still subject to one of the largest disparities in academic outcomes. We believe that it is unconscionable that students in many communities are receiving anything less than the world-class education we are capable of providing them. Teach For America Massachusetts launched our teaching corps in 2009, and has since grown into a diverse community of over 200 corps members and over 2,300 alumni working each day on behalf of children. Building on the success of the past decade, we are working in nine communities statewide, from Greater Boston to the South Coast to Western Massachusetts, to help grow, strengthen, and sustain excellent schools for all students. A hallmark of our team is a strong culture that fully embraces our core value of Strengthen Community – approaching our work with a strong spirit of collaboration, joy, generosity, and professionalism. We also embrace our organizational belief that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness is at the center of our work, making engagement with issues of race, class, and other aspects of identity a welcome and regular part of what we do. We care deeply for one another, and most importantly for the communities we serve. We ground everything we do in a disciplined focus on what is best for kids and schools. Learn more about our work at https://massachusetts.teachforamerica.org.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

Lead Fundraising and Resource Stewardship

• Initiate, cultivate, and extend relationships with the organization’s portfolio of individual, foundation, and corporate supporters with an emphasis on developing new partnerships aligned to emerging strategic efforts.

• Lead efforts to generate philanthropic support in collaboration with the Development team, leveraging the local TFA region board and their relationships.

• Generate interest in engaged philanthropy with an emphasis on establishing and nurturing new partnerships with potential funders.

• Enlist champions and supporters to cultivate strong relationships and continued support for the organization’s core priorities.

• Engage strategically with elected and appointed members of state government in order to ensure Teach For America’s continued ability to operate in the region and ongoing support for public funding.

• Promote the work of TFA in creative ways including communications, thought leadership and events to elevate the work of the organization to others.

Strategy, Innovation, and Impact

• Iterate, strengthen, and execute an inspiring strategy to reach our local 2030 goal.

• Build relationships to inspire and galvanize action across staff, members, board, and the broader education, civic, and philanthropic communities.

• Deliver local impact by leveraging capabilities of TFA’s central teams while maximizing local relationships, partnerships and expertise.

• Act as an organizational steward to help us improve our impact and culture in the region and beyond. This includes leading and stewarding organizational strategy, decision-making, and learning and creating trust and transparency between central teams and the region.

• Provide leadership, in partnership and coalition with local organizations, in pursuit of education policy and innovative solutions necessary to reach our local 2030 goal.

• Use a wide lens to identify, analyze, and leverage information and connections to advance broader systems change.

• Envision the possibilities that others may not see and offer innovative solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

• Anticipate challenges and opportunities in order to set priorities and focus efforts to execute on the organization’s strategy.

• Analyze complex, nuanced data and information from multiple angles and exercise judgment in making critical decisions and communicate the implications to diverse audiences.

• Grow and evolve a culture that is strategic, agile, and determined to deliver for students in partnership with our communities and exhibit a strong focus on short and long-term goals, accountability, and results;

• Translate the vision into long- and short-term priorities, strategies, and goals; establish clear metrics for success and monitor progress and demonstrate persistence to overcome obstacles to achieve goals.

Board Leadership

• Manage strong relationships and partnerships with the Board, particularly the Chair, maintaining regular and ongoing communication with the entire Board, and providing support and guidance to members to support effective governance of the organization.

• Work closely and openly with the Board, ensuring ongoing communication of risks, issues, successes, and emerging opportunities.

• Build a diverse regional board and leverage board members and their networks to support financial sustainability.

Team and Organizational Leadership

• Model the organization’s core values to approach challenges, ensuring the organization grows and retains its people.

• Inspire, demonstrate belief and hold self and others accountable for providing strategic clarity and direction and for reaching high quality learning outcomes for all students.

• Navigate complex environments and act with integrity, honesty, transparency, and courage in the best interest of students.

• Solicit, elevate, understand, and value--either through personal experience or empathy--the perspective of a wide variety of stakeholders.

• Build and maintain a culture of success grounded in the core values of the organization and address matters of equity, race, and bias in decision-making with clarity, sincerity, and an understanding of historical context.

• Foster and promote inclusion across the organization and the community and build trust and authentic relationships across lines of difference through self-reflection, self-awareness, openness, vulnerability, empathy, and a clear sense of personal identity.

• Acknowledge race and power dynamics that play out within the organization, school systems and community and continuously interrupt those inequities.

• Recruit, mentor, and develop a diverse team of high quality and highly functional leaders who are aligned with the mission and vision of the organization. Elevate the performance and tap into the potential of others to achieve ambitious goals.

• Actively coach and develop direct reports to be effective in their roles and in the management of their teams and functions. Provide deep thought partnership, stewardship and cover as needed to direct reports and team members engaged in the cultivation of emergent work aligned to the region’s strategic direction.

• Inspire team collaboration and engagement to ensure successful outcomes grounded in the core values of the organization.

Community and Coalition Building

• Convene and catalyze a community-grounded coalition of champions and stakeholders to advance systems change by influencing the conversation about education, learning, and economic mobility, fueling the leadership of region alumni and community leaders and help to cultivate the conditions required for students to thrive.

• Navigate complex political environments, relationships, and dynamics to challenge ideas and enable thoughtful decisions and positive outcomes for students.

• Build positive relationships and coalitions with key education leaders, political officials and other key stakeholders that inspire and drive investment in the organization.

• Communicate purposefully and effectively, tailoring messages for the audience, context, and mode of communication.

• Maintain visibility and presence in the organization and greater community, using your voice to change public opinion and convince others to take action.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following:

• A minimum of 10 years of progressive work experience, inclusive of a minimum of 4-5 years leading an organization with effective operational and fiscal management as well as building external relationships.

• Proven experience leading at a systems level in Massachusetts.

• Impactful relationships across the educational ecosystem.

• Strong experience, curiosity, and understanding of the complexity of the local educational and political context in Massachusetts.

• Passion, commitment and alignment with the mission and values of Teach For America, including education advocacy and organizing, nonprofit and school system leadership.

• Deep understanding of and demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial equity necessary for leading an organization that serves low-income communities and communities of color across the region.

• Ability to navigate uncertainty and ambiguity, and to prioritize work efforts to execute overall strategy.

• Demonstrated experience building consensus, leading successful campaigns, and mobilizing others to champion the efforts of an organization.

• Exceptional written, oral, and visual communications skills and a desire to develop and maintain deep relationships with a variety of diverse constituents.

• Knowledge of best practices and education policy and research on a national, state, and local level.

• Ability to travel nationally 2-3x a year, and travel frequently across the Massachusetts region.

At Teach For America, we build off the great impact our corps members, alumni, and broader community are making to work towards a collective vision that is innovative and community-driven. Specifically, we are working towards our 2030 goal which is that twice as many students are on a path to college and career readiness.

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 $216,400 - 300,900. This range may be modified in the future.