American Forests is a national non-profit organization committed to creating healthy and resilient forests from cities to wilderness, that deliver essential benefits for climate, people, water, and wildlife. We advance our mission through forestry innovation, place-based partnerships to plant and restore forests, and movement building. We envision a world in which the significant environmental, societal, and economic benefits of forests are fully realized and equitably available to all people. Established in 1875, American Forests is the oldest national non-profit conservation organization in the U.S. working to restoring urban forests and forested landscapes for nearly 150 years.
American Forests is proud to be a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible (DEIA) workplace. These are our shared values. We welcome individuals who bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences to be a part of our team to help make a difference individually and collectively as we work toward achieving our mission. We are committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and respectful and provides opportunities for advancement and professional growth for every team member.
POSITION SUMMARY
Since 2018, American Forests (AF) has been supporting communities by using the power of trees to address environmental injustices faced by the country’s most disadvantaged communities. With this, American Forests created a bold goal of delivering the needed technical expertise, workforce and funding opportunities, and policy guidance to help U.S. cities commit to and make progress towards Tree Equity across the country, with over 150 and counting.
Our new Senior Director of Urban Forestry Strategy will serve as a trusted advisor and “deputy” to the Chief Program Officer of Tree Equity to ensure internal integration and refine and advance a cross-cutting strategy to deliver Tree Equity to the field. That is, the Senior Director will:
- Develop and lead our “ground game” to help cities and states achieve Tree Equity, while adopting AF’s and our partners’ tools and resources;
- Have established relationships with key urban and community forestry sector partners, including the US Forest Service other relevant state and national forestry networks, and have comfort expanding relationships with community partners, city and state leaders and urban-focused networks; and
- Manage AF’s urban forestry national (two Directors) and place-based experts (“Regional Directors”) in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest and East Coast regions to start, with a “business development” mindset to grow our technical assistance activities.
The Senior Director and their own “deputy” (Director of Field Operations and Planting) will additionally ensure seamless internal coordination and accountability among AF’s Tree Equity youth and workforce development, community engagement, research, GIS, and Federal Policy teams as they support our larger program goals. Finally, the Senior Director will serve as a vital partner to the Director of Program Operations and Administration, particularly around budgets and process implementation.