Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Questions of geography-where, and why there?-lie at the heart of humanity’s greatest challenges, from sustainable development to human rights to climate change. The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a nonprofit scientific and educational society with professional and student members from nearly 100 countries who are at the forefront of academic and applied geography globally. AAG members share interests in the theory, methods, and practice of geography, which they cultivate through the AAG’s annual meeting, scholarly journals, and other events and communications, including affinity groups and more than 70 specialty groups. Now in its second century, the AAG is in the midst of a transformation to serve its members more effectively and advance geographical expertise and viewpoints in local, national, and global discussions of public policy, education, urban and transportation planning, environmental monitoring, sustainability, and other fields.

Location: Hybrid Position (Washington, DC and Remote)

Position: The Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) provides strategic leadership to advance the AAG’s JEDI Strategic Plan, working closely with the Executive Director, Chief Program Officer, AAG Council, and the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee. The Director of DEI will work collaboratively across the association to enact, evaluate, and report on actionable and measurable JEDI goals and strategies. This highly strategic position requires proven experience in the implementation of JEDI programming for organizations, with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion training, facilitation, and program evaluation. This position will serve as a leader, strategic partner, and champion for JEDI by leveraging deep subject matter expertise and by keeping abreast of industry best practices, benchmarks, and emerging JEDI approaches, with a particular focus on the global geographic community. This role will be responsible for further scaling our JEDI practices at the AAG based on changing organizational needs, including identifying, planning, developing, and implementing a variety of programs and projects. The position requires strong project management skills including research, planning, organizing, developing, and participating in and/or leading cross cultural/functional teams. In addition, this role requires collaboration and experience in problem solving with a balance of empathy and pragmatism and someone who is a team player and leads by example to build trust and credibility. This position will report to the Chief Program Officer.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership in implementing the JEDI Strategic Plan, working with key constituencies across the AAG and the academic field of geography
• Act as primary liaison to the JEDI Committee, a standing committee that works to advise leadership and staff, serves as a communication conduit between AAG and members, and helps to facilitate action on JEDI-related matters
• Provide coaching, technical assistance, and monitoring to all programs and central office departments in their development of multiyear diversity, equity and inclusion strategies, objectives, and goals in alignment with the JEDI strategic plan
  Work with staff, AAG Council, and committee leadership to embed JEDI principles and strategic goals throughout AAG programming, including but not limited to:  – Organizing listening sessions, plenaries, and a curated research track at the annual meeting – Supporting an array of AAG communities (e.g., Specialty Groups, Regions, standing committees, task forces, etc.) to increase collaboration and organize programs – Working with the JEDI Committee to conduct regular webinars that spotlight work and experiences in the JEDI arena – Tracking JEDI efforts and developing appropriate resources and evaluation tools to advance departments’ JEDI goals

• Lead efforts to curate knowledge by creating and maintaining a virtual repository of resources to support knowledge-sharing on issues of JEDI in geography and provide access to training resources
• Lead efforts to gather and present data on diversity-related issues

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field
• Demonstrated experience in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within an association, academic institution, research institution, or other entity with a complex organizational structure, preferably in a non-profit setting
• Demonstrated experience and success in facilitating groups of varying in size, scope, and stakeholder composition
• Experience working in and with academia, non-profits, or research institutes strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ability to collect, analyze, and synthesize qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate programs and monitor progress over time
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills with an ability to prioritize, negotiate, and work with a variety of internal and external individuals and organizations
• Demonstrated ability to clearly convey information and ideas both verbally and in writing
  Resiliency, flexibility, proactivity, and capacity to be effective, maintain productivity, keep focus on results and use sound judgment are required attributes
• Personal qualities of integrity, honesty, credibility, and dedication to the mission of AAG
  Experience fundraising for programs and working with development staff preferred

Salary Range: We anticipate the starting salary for this position to be $100,000-$110,000k annually, depending upon qualifications and experience.

To Apply: Please submit your resume, cover letter, and desired salary requirements for consideration.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with the first review beginning on September 9th.

Equal Opportunity Employer