Aspen Global Change Institute is seeking a curious, self-motivated, organized, and professional Interdisciplinary Program Development Manager. This is a newly formed position at AGCI that will be a core member of AGCI’s Workshops Team, which facilitates the organization’s long-standing workshop series on emergent global change topics. Topics are hugely diverse spanning climate change mitigation and adaptation, energy and Earth system modeling, food and nutrition, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, water systems, artificial intelligence, human health, and more. AGCI workshops utilize interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, bridging across knowledge from the social, natural, physical, and engineering disciplines as well as practical experience from many professional fields.
The workshop series, now in its 36th year, convenes global leaders in research and practice to improve understanding of global change, spur science-informed solutions, and cultivate communities that are inspired, integrative, and innovative. Workshops are designed in partnership with voluntary co-chairs, often leading experts in their respective fields. Each workshop typically convenes thirty participants from across institutions, geographies, and disciplines for a five-day intensive program. Workshop outputs include publications in high impact journals such as Science and Nature Climate Change, the formation of new working groups and consortia, and new ideas for research agendas.
The Workshops Team coordinates all stages of workshop development, including fundraising, program and roster development, logistics, participant invitations and support, workshop week implementation and facilitation, synthesis, evaluation, and post-workshop communications products.
Specific Responsibilities:
- Support workshop fundraising and development efforts (including new and existing funding opportunities):
- Identify relevant funding opportunities and coordinate program response.
- Cultivate and maintain strategic partnerships.
- Pursue new opportunities with aligned private, federal, and individual funders.
- Grant proposal preparation, reporting and management.
- Leverage existing expertise, resources, or reputation to further program goals and impact.
- Promote the goals, achievements and value of AGCI programming.
- Support all stages of workshop planning, implementation, and synthesis for three to five workshops per year, including:
- Facilitate expert co-chair leadership teams in developing workshop aims.
- Develop workshop agendas/programs tailored to meet specific workshop goals.
- In partnership with co-chairs, develop a roster with representation across disciplines, institutions, geographies, demographics, career stages.
- Coordinate workshop logistics and invitations.
- Week-of facilitation of workshop program, breakout groups, event logistics.
- Workshop synthesis on key takeaways.
- Support post-workshop product development.
- With AGCI’s Communications Team, prepare post-workshop communications for AGCI’s blog and newsletter.
- Strategically engage with external audiences to disseminate knowledge, communicate messages, and synthesize workshop takeaways.
- Administer and analyze workshop series evaluations:
- Use reporting and other approaches (feedback via surveys, focus groups, and informal mechanisms) to determine whether activities are achieving program objectives.
- Make recommendations based on findings; and coordinate with external evaluators as needed.
- Contribute to data preservation & analysis (archive) of workshop records.
- Support organizational convenings outside the workshop series including AGCI staff. retreat & work weeks, and convenings in partnership with other AGCI teams.
- Stay abreast of emerging topics in the global change landscape at the boundary of research and practice.
- Collaborate with Workshops Team members on innovative approaches to interdisciplinary synthesis, convening, and community development.
Skills and Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree, preferred
- At least 5 (required, 7 preferred) years work experience in program management, fundraising (including grant preparation and management), conference planning, or similar
- Passion for actionable science; familiarity with a range of global change science topics at the intersection of human and natural systems
- Experience synthesizing themes from across social, natural, and physical science disciplines and/or practical experience from related professional fields
- Facilitation skills, including the ability to adapt styles or strategies as needed to fit different groups and desired outcomes
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
- Proficient with Mac OSX, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel), Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Forms), Zoom
- Familiarity with Salesforce (or willingness to learn)
- Ability to thrive in a small, supportive team that values curiosity, attention to detail, flexibility, growth, humor, open communication, self-motivation, and the power of integrating different ways of knowing
Position:
Full-time
Location:
The position can be remote anywhere within the continental United States.