Vice President, Education Initiatives

ORGANIZATION: Purpose Built Communities
ROLE: Vice President, Education Initiatives

LOCATION: Hybrid (Atlanta, GA)

TRAVEL EXPECTATIONS: 50% of time

SALARY: $160,000-$180,000
ABOUT PURPOSE BUILT COMMUNITIES 

Purpose Built Communities (“Purpose Built”) is an incubator, convener, and catalyst for social change at the neighborhood level. Purpose Built is a philanthropically-funded nonprofit organization that partners with local leaders–its Network Members–to design, direct, and accelerate neighborhood transformation initiatives across the United States so residents can experience greater racial equity, improved health outcomes, and increased upward mobility. 
Purpose Built provides pro-bono guidance, coaching, and support to these local leaders, their staff, and stakeholders in implementing and growing a holistic model of revitalization in their neighborhoods. Together with Purpose Built’s Network Members and strategic partners, Purpose Built believes every neighborhood should have affordable, high-quality mixed-income housing, excellent schools that keep student success in life and in the classroom central, inclusive spaces that nurture and enrich residents’ physical and mental health and foster a sense of belonging, and a thriving commercial core that keeps the neighborhood economically vibrant. The throughline is uplifting the legacy and supporting the vision of the people who have long called that neighborhood home.

Purpose Built supports 26 Network Members with pro-bono services, including technical assistance, a robust Community of Practice, racial equity programming, policy support, fundraising, and more. As Purpose Built continues to evolve its Model and support structures, it is focusing on amplifying its value proposition, telling a collective story of Network impact, and establishing its leadership in the field of place-based work. 

Purpose Built Communities’ Values: 

• Possibility: Our purpose is providing the possible, not settling for the probable. 
• Impact: We take action and build bridges to create lasting impact. 
• Community: We cultivate connected, mutually contributing communities. 
• Equity: We ground our work in the foundational beliefs that race and place matter. 

To learn more about Purpose Built Communities, visit: www.purposebuiltcommunities.org.

ABOUT THE CRADLE-TO-COLLEGE EDUCATION PILLAR STRATEGY

Education, beginning at birth, is vital for healthy child development. High-quality, community-serving schools within a comprehensive early learning to grade 12 pathway foster children’s development and prepare them for college or their chosen postgraduate path. As such, one of Purpose Built Communities’ four core pillars is education. 

The Education Pillar’s strategy is grounded in five key principles. (1) A neighborhood-serving Cradle-to-College Education Pipeline is thought of in segments, whereby readiness is defined at every child’s milestone grade-level transition. (2) Education partners are education assets in a community. (3) Residents play a critical role in identifying what is needed to ensure schools become a neighborhood asset, a point of pride, and a place where social capital is built and nurtured for students and their families. (4) Purpose Built Communities design for economic diversity and create multiple places where economic connectedness – the only social capital that drives economic mobility - can develop. (5) Schools alone cannot be the agent of change. It is the integration with other pillars–community wellness, economic vitality, and housing–that allows for support to families beyond the school building.

ABOUT THE VICE PRESIDENT, EDUCATION INITIATIVES ROLE

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Education Initiatives, the Vice President, Education Initiatives is an inaugural member of the Education Initiatives team who will advise, counsel, and support Network Members at various stages of their cradle-to-college education strategy. This pivotal position will connect Network Members to education-related experts and resources to implement high-level strategies within their community and organizations. The Vice President, Education Initiatives will also partner with Network Members in setting a localized education strategy in alignment with Purpose Built Communities four-pillar model standards. 

The ideal candidate will possess a deep understanding of Early Learning and PreK-12 education, ability to build and maintain relationships with community-based education leaders from the classroom through central office. They will possess exceptional emotional and social awareness, a strategic mindset, and a proven track record of successful coalition building.

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Strategic Alignment: Conduct in-depth educational needs assessments with Network Members to understand the unique education goals to achieve an enhanced a local community pipeline. Customize Purpose Built Communities’ offerings and resources to align with the specific needs of each prospective Network Member and community, ensuring tailored and impactful solutions throughout the initial engagement and onboarding process. Ensure education efforts are aligned meets the needs of residents and aligns with Purpose Built Communities’ strategic plan and overall model. Support Network Members by offering resources about Purpose Built and network-wide priorities.  
• Relationship Management: Build and maintain relationships with Network Members. Facilitate proactive community, ensuring Network Members have the partnership and support to foster trust and confidence with residents.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration: Facilitate partnerships between public and private entities at the organizational level, leveraging resources and expertise to execute the Education Pillar Strategy of the Purpose Built Communities model.
• Leadership Development: Identify and provide leadership and professional development support and opportunities to Network Members collaborative and supportive community.
• Strategic Questioning: Use strategic questioning and facilitation approaches to engage Network Members in identifying solutions while sharing alternate perspectives based on your own experience. 
• Subject Matter Expertise: Leverage in-house and external expertise regarding Purpose Built’s education pillar. Coordinate with the Network Member Success Team and other network-facing staff to systematize knowledge sharing, offer specialized support, and serve as a “cabinet of advisors” to Network Members.
• Communication: Maintain constant communication with Network Members and collaborate with organizational leaders and their teams on a regular basis. Create shared accountability structures so Network Member goals are met through transparency, clarity, and pillar integration.
• Strategic Partnership Cultivation: Develop and execute comprehensive strategies to usher prospective Network Members through a thoughtful and supportive process aligned with Purpose Built Communities’ mission and Network Member Progression Matrix. Initiate conversations and foster relationships with organizations and entities considering collaborating with Purpose Built Communities.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 15 years of experience in relevant fields or functions, including 5 or more years in senior-level positions in urban education or a related sector. Experience with cross-sector partnerships preferred. Experience as an organizational leader in education or as a consultant is preferred.  
• A deep understanding of urban education-related opportunities and challenges that ideally comes from prior experience working directly in urban schools and communities.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills with the ability to partner with executives, staff, residents, community-based education partners (e.g., principals, superintendents, school boards, etc.), and donors. Ability to build strategic partnerships with results in facilitating negotiations using consensus building.
• Track record of building diverse coalitions that successfully reach desired outcomes. 
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities to translate high-level goals into practical, actionable plans.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey complex ideas clearly and concisely. Demonstrated experience communicating with diverse audiences.
• Strong critical thinking and active listening skills, with the ability to identify challenges and develop effective solutions. Ability to adapt plans as new information becomes available.
• Proactive and accountable. Ability to take initiative and drive projects forward independently.

ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Ardent commitment to continuing on a racial equity journey organizationally within Purpose Built and its Network, as well as personally. 
• Able and willing to operate as a pragmatic problem solver and strategic advisor. 
• Team player with strong leadership who can also be a self-starter with exceptional project management skills. 
• Embody the Purpose Built values. 
• Exemplify a respected professional recognized for collaborating with others with a commitment to integrity, candor, and transparency.  
• Lived or shared experience with the people of Purpose Built communities. 

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Purpose Built Communities offers generous compensation and comprehensive benefits package to all staff that, effective on the first day of employment, which includes:

• Fully paid health, dental, and vision insurance. 
• 401(k) retirement plan (Safe Harbor Match of 100% of the first 3% and 50% of the next 2%). Annual 3% discretionary distribution, as well, after completing 1000 hours of service. 
• Cell phone reimbursement is $75 monthly. 
• 9 weeks of parental leave. 
• Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance.
• Frontloaded annual PTO based on years of service, for the first three years it is 17 days. 
• 11 Paid holidays and 2 paid floating holidays. Additional days off for the PBCF Holiday Schedule. 
• Flexible work model. 
• Other perks (Monday office lunches, and more). 

Purpose Built Communities is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender expression, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status.

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