Director, Community Learning & Partnerships, RTL

Job Description

Director, Community Learning & Partnerships, RTL (Hybrid)

Department: Learning and Research

Corporate Area: PBS KIDS

Status: Full-time/Project/Exempt (This position is fully funded through September 30, 2023, and will be renewed on receipt of additional federal appropriations approval annually through September 30, 2025)

Supervisor: Sr. Director, Early Learning Engagement

Position Overview:

The position is funded by a Ready To Learn grant from the US Department of Education to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS. It focuses on the development, dissemination, and evaluation of content across media and platforms to improve learning outcomes and increase school readiness for children ages 2-8, and providing support and educational services to educators, parents and caregivers.

The Community Learning & Partnerships Director oversees community engagement programs designed to support educators, children, families and other members of a child's learning ecosystem, together with stations. The incumbent is responsible for directing existing programs, thinking strategically about ways to scale successful models of engagement, and innovating and piloting new models that will support stations to scale and sustain their work with families, partners and educators in RTL target communities.

The role is responsible for managing relationships with multiple stakeholders, including PBS member stations, education experts, partners and researchers to develop, implement, iterate, and scale station capacity-building initiatives, co-design work, and national partnerships. The incumbent will collaborate across PBS KIDS to meet the goals of the project.

Key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:
• Oversee community learning, partnership and Learning Neighborhood programs for the Ready To Learn initiative:

• Educator Engagement: Guide and implement strategy, together with stations and educators, to iterate on the PBS KIDS Early Learning Champions program and inform broader educator engagement strategy and initiatives, including the PBS KIDS Edcamp program, and educator events/activities to increase discoverability of PBS KIDS and recognize and amplify early childhood educators' role as PBS KIDS ambassadors.

• LN Station Engagement: Direct strategy and design of station capacity-building and peer learning engagement, including community assets and needs assessment, content, research, and fulfillment. Build and foster collaborative relationships with PBS member stations and support the development of collaborative relationships amongst those teams.

• RTL Partnerships: Serve as the primary contact between the RTL project team and RTL's national partners, staying abreast of challenges, concerns, successes, and opportunities to increase distribution and the effectiveness of engagement initiatives.

• Family & Community Learning: Provide thought leadership on the development and scaling of PBS KIDS family and community learning workshops, camps, engagement models and resources. Collaborate across PBS KIDS department and the Education team at CPB to innovate new strategies for engagement.

• RTL Research: In partnership with the Ready To Learn research consortium, support the development and implementation of a research strategy for outreach content, and work with research partners to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness, impact and success of outreach and engagement models.

• Other duties as assigned

Requirements for success:
• Five years managing and implementing large scale, multi-faceted projects, preferably in education or media

• Bachelor's degree in communications, education, early childhood development or related field preferred; an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered

• Experience managing relationships between multiple stakeholders

• Experience working in direct service of high needs communities

• Familiarity with community engagement models, methods and strategies

• Familiarity with PBS KIDS programs and digital products for educators, families, and kids

• Experience working in early childhood environments or with families of young children a plus

• Supervisory experience not required, but desired

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Ability to manage resources to achieve project goals within time and budget constraints

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage overlapping deadlines

• Ability to practice innovative and creative thinking, and to motivate others to do the same

• Ability to collaborate as a team player with all levels of staff and external stakeholders

• Serves as a subject matter expert in field(s), staying current in requisite skills and sharing new knowledge and practices with relevant team members

• Demonstrated knowledge of best practices for inclusion, diversity, and ethics in family, educator, and community engagement

• Knowledge of PreK-2 educational media field, family engagement and national early learning standards is preferred

• Position requires frequent travel

PBS is an Equal Opportunity Employer in accordance with the EEOC and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g4qy3y-3-144-48-135-42 in your application.