ABOUT INTERFAITH AMERICA
Interfaith America is a national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. We believe that religious diversity is a foundational American strength, and we are building a nation that achieves that promise for the common good. Our mission is to inspire, equip, and connect organizations and leaders to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity. We leverage our expertise in interfaith leadership in different sectors and spaces in American life, such higher education, health, public policy, racial equity, corporations/business, tech – giving leaders and institutions the tools and resources they need to positively engage religious diversity for the common good.
At Interfaith America, we are ever adapting and changing. We look for people who set audacious goals and love that one workday may not be like the next. We are committed to supporting work at the intersection of racial equity and interfaith cooperation. We believe in the essential contributions of countless religious and secular traditions that affirm dignity and justice for every human being. We are utilizing our interfaith leadership to contribute to the transformation of America into the promise of what it can be but has not yet been. We seek to attract and retain a team of staff comprised of the diverse identities we need to achieve our vision, including minority religious groups and people of color.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Interfaith America has worked with American colleges and universities for over a decade. We are committed to providing high quality interfaith programming that suffuses and sustains higher education’s commitment to engaging religious diversity. Higher education also often serves as a testing ground and launching pad for IA’s work in other strategic sectors. The Director of Campus Partnerships will be responsible for key aspects of IA’s longstanding higher education strategy, specifically leading IA’s cross-campus work to embed interfaith cooperation as an institution-wide priority. This work involves collaborating with administrators, faculty, staff, and higher ed. association leaders to embed interfaith cooperation across all areas of university life, both curricular and co-curricular.
Responsibilities:
Build Relationships and Represent Interfaith America in Higher Education Spaces
- Oversee IA’s higher education network engagement strategy
- Build relationships with external higher education networks and professional associations and represent IA at their professional conferences and spaces
- Collaborate with IA colleagues, partner organizations, and key higher education networks to advance a proactive strategy of increased attention to interfaith cooperation across American higher education
Oversee Key IA Programs that Support Cross-Campus Interfaith Work
- Serve as primary program lead, in partnership with the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), on the annual Institute for Interfaith Excellence (IIE)
- Co-lead annual IIE with AAC&U
- Support IIE participant campuses to achieve articulated outcomes
- Explore additional collaboration opportunities and maximize positive outcomes with regard to the national, ongoing partnership with AAC&U
- Oversee IA’s campus consultation and training work
- Field inquiries about on-campus consultation and training from campus partners
- Devise concrete scopes of work and contracts for each interested campus that are in line with IA’s strategic objectives
- Lead select on-campus consultations and trainings and identify and prepare other IA team members to staff these projects as needed
- Oversee 1-2 campus grant programs that support campuses in embedding data-grounded best practices for interfaith cooperation across the institution
- Steward IA’s network of senior administrators and identify strategic new ways to engage this audience
Contribute Literature and Best Practice Resources to the Field
- Contribute literature and best practice resources to the field of interfaith cooperation in higher education, including serving as Editor of an annual IA column with the Journal of College and Character
- Promote effective practices in interfaith engagement by deploying findings from the IDEALS study across IA programs and for campus partners
Contribute to Organizational Culture and Projects as Needed
- Lead or contribute to additional time-bound projects as determined by organizational needs and cultural realities. Projects may include building relationships with or facilitating peer learning among key underrepresented networks of campuses (e.g., community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions) or guiding interest groups on topics of salience.
- Ensure that all programming delivers excellently on IA goals and grant requirements
- Contribute to funder reports regularly and potentially relate directly to relevant funders on select projects
- Contribute positively to organizational culture and collaboration; uphold IA policies and values
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree
- High level of religious literacy and fluency in diversity, pluralism, and inclusion
- Five or more years’ experience and a record of success in program strategy, or related responsibilities in higher education, interfaith work, non-profit, government, and/or religious communities
- Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills
- Authorization to work in the United States
- COVID-19 vaccinations
Preferred Qualifications (not required)
- Graduate degree in higher education, religion, organizational management, youth development, or related field
- Experience effecting change in complex organizations, ideally in a college or university environment
- Training, facilitation, curriculum design, consulting, pedagogy, or related skill sets
- High level of religious literacy; fluency in pluralism and an “engaging deep differences” approach to diversity
- Experience leveraging interfaith leadership in a variety of settings
- Experience working with college students or other young people
- Supervision/ management (direct or indirect) of individuals with diverse working styles and backgrounds
Competencies:
- Strategic Thinking – Aptly explores, deciphers and interprets the best concepts for achieving organizational excellence, anticipating and responding to change and aligning organizational systems, processes and people with changes in the IA business landscape.
- Trusted advisor -Apt at building trust-based relationships both internally and externally and viewed as a source of valuable advice.
- Program Leadership – Ability to lead programs, manage staff, and delegate work effectively and ensuring that all items are completed within scope, budget and timelines.
- Project Management – Aptly leading, planning, and executing project or pieces of a project, ensuring all project members are staying within timelines and budgets.
- IA Theory and Methodology –Ability to explain and engage constituents in Interfaith America’s theory and methodology in a way that resonates with that constituent, and they understand our work within their own context. (learned on the job, not required prior to start date)
- Inclusive and equitable decision maker – Ability to lead, listen, think critically, and leverage the thinking of diverse groups for smarter ideation and decision making that lead to equitable outcomes in our work.
JOB DETAILS
Supervisor: Senior Director of Higher Education Strategy
Leadership level: Director
Travel: 20% of the time traveling on behalf of IA
Location: 2-3 days per week from our Chicago Loop office; prefer Chicago candidates but open to remote candidates
Other Requirements:
The Director of Campus Partnerships position requires the ability, with or without reasonable accommodation, to: maintain regular attendance; travel to campuses across this US; work cooperatively with others; adhere to Interfaith America personnel policies and safety rules; sit and/or stand for extended periods of time; operate standard office equipment, including computers, telephones, photocopiers, and projectors; communicate orally, in writing, and via computers and digital devices; and requires close visual acuity to prepare and analyze data and figures, transcribe, view a computer terminal and other office equipment.
Interfaith America is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, marital status, or any other status protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodation will be provided as needed to enable qualified applicants with a disability to participate in pre-employment procedures.
TO APPLY:
