The Director of the Center for Resilient Schools and Communities serves as the strategic leader responsible for advancing the Center’s vision, operations, partnerships, and impact. This role oversees a portfolio of work designed to champion access, opportunity, and resilience so students and families can thrive in schools and within their communities. The Director translates the CRSC framework into actionable strategies across three reinforcing pillars: Training & Skills-Based supports, School-Based systems, and Community-Based movement building. The Director provides leadership for collaborative planning, implementation, partner engagement, professional learning, continuous improvement, and external representation of the Center’s work.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include but are not limited to the following:
Center Strategy, Leadership, and Alignment
- Lead the development, implementation, and refinement of CRSC strategy, annual priorities, workplans, and operational routines in alignment with SAM’s mission and strategic direction.
- Translate the CRSC framework into clear goals, timelines, partner expectations, implementation supports, and accountability practices.
- Ensure the Center’s work remains grounded in access, opportunity, resilience, strategy, thought leadership, and innovation.
- Advise SAM leadership on emerging opportunities, risks, needs, and system-level strategies related to resilient schools, families, and communities.
- Develop internal systems that support coordination across CRSC initiatives, team members, consultants, partners, and funder expectations.
School-Based Systems and Partnership Development
- Strengthen school and district partnerships that support full-service community school approaches, multi-tiered systems of support, integrated support systems, and family-school-community partnerships.
- Guide planning and implementation efforts that connect students and families to coordinated academic, social, emotional, health, and community supports.
- Facilitate partner alignment around shared priorities, identified needs, resource coordination, implementation barriers, and continuous improvement opportunities.
- Support school-based teams and partners in designing practical workflows, referral pathways, communication routines, and support strategies that are responsive to local context.
Training, Professional Development, and Capacity Building
- Develop, coordinate, or oversee professional development workshops, trauma-informed practices, resilience-building curricula, coaching, and technical assistance.
- Ensure training and capacity-building efforts are practical, high quality, culturally responsive, and aligned with the needs of educators, families, partners, and community stakeholders.
- Identify training needs, curate resources, and support implementation learning across CRSC partners and initiatives.
- Build partner capacity to apply trauma-informed, resilience-building, and systems-oriented practices in ways that improve conditions for students and families.
Community-Based Movement Building and Advocacy
- Advance community-based strategies connected to Promise Neighborhood, Movement 2030, neighborhood engagement, collective impact, and movement-building priorities.
- Cultivate relationships with residents, families, grassroots leaders, nonprofit partners, public agencies, school partners, and community-based organizations.
- Facilitate community engagement processes that elevate family and resident voice, strengthen trust, and inform responsive implementation strategies.
- Support advocacy, storytelling, learning, and partner mobilization efforts that reinforce shared ownership of outcomes for children, youth, families, schools, and communities.
Program Management, Operations, and Staff Leadership
- Manage the Center’s day-to-day operations, priority projects, partner commitments, contracts, budgets, grant deliverables, and implementation timelines.
- Supervise and support assigned staff, consultants, coaches, fellows, interns, or project teams, providing clear direction, feedback, accountability, and professional support.
- Develop documentation, agendas, meeting materials, implementation tools, partner updates, and reporting products that support coordinated execution.
- Monitor progress against workplans, identify barriers, recommend adjustments, and maintain strong internal communication with SAM leadership and team members.
Data, Learning, Thought Leadership, and Continuous Improvement
- Partner with SAM’s impact, data, and evaluation functions to define measures, document implementation progress, gather learning, and communicate results.
- Use data, partner feedback, field knowledge, and community voice to inform improvement cycles, strategy adjustments, and resource alignment.
- Develop briefs, presentations, learning products, meeting materials, and other collateral that strengthen SAM’s thought leadership in resilient schools and communities.
- Track emerging practices, policy shifts, research, and field learning related to trauma-informed systems, community schools, MTSS, resilience, family engagement, and place-based strategies.
Resource Development, Communications, and External Representation
- Support grant proposals, funder updates, reports, presentations, and communications connected to CRSC priorities and outcomes.
- Represent SAM and the Center in meetings, convenings, conferences, committees, and community engagements related to resilient schools and communities.
- Communicate complex ideas in clear, accessible, and compelling ways for school, community, funder, board, and partner audiences.
- Identify opportunities for partnership, sustainability, innovation, and resource alignment that advance the Center’s long-term impact.
Program Development, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Convene partners and participate on relevant taskforces to assess needs in Spartanburg County
- Provide oversight of the development of evidence-based trainings in collaboration with Spartanburg County schools and after school program providers
-
Develop neighborhood-based training and workshops
-
Work closely with community place-based partners (Northside and Highland) to advance Movement 2030 neighborhood strategy
-
Foster and maintain cross-sector community partnerships (i.e., Converse, USC Upstate, Wofford, Highland, Northside, Family Resource Centers, SRHS, Churches, etc.)
- Maintain accurate data of training evaluations, participants and school district involvement
- Meet quarterly with CRSC advisory council to report on training and assess training needs
- Plan with CRSC team a training schedule one year out
- Build a strong community model for a trauma informed and resilient community by 2030
-
Utilize a continuous improvement strategy to monitor, evaluate and adjust training as indicated
-
Maintain subject matter expertise and continue to acquire and incorporate new information into training
Community Subject Matter Expert
-
Be a strong advocate for trauma informed systems and provide training
-
Serve on relevant boards, taskforces and committees as an subject matter expert to align and assist with County-wide efforts towards a resilient, trauma-informed community
EDUCATION AND SKILLS REQUIREMENETS:
- Bachelor’s degree in Education, Public Administration, Social Work, Human Services, Public Health, Community Development, Psychology, Nonprofit Management or a related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
-
Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience leading education, youth development, family engagement, community schools, resilience-building, trauma-informed, collective impact, or community-based initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience designing, managing, and improving complex programs or portfolios involving schools, families, neighborhoods, nonprofit partners, public agencies, and/or philanthropic partners.
- Experience building and sustaining cross-sector partnerships, facilitating collaborative planning, and translating shared priorities into coordinated action.
- Experience developing or overseeing professional development, coaching, technical assistance, curricula, training, or capacity-building supports for adult learners and partner organizations.
- Experience supervising staff, consultants, coaches, project teams, or external contractors preferred.
- Strong project management skills, including work planning, budget monitoring, grant deliverables, documentation, reporting, and accountability routines.
- Ability to use qualitative and quantitative information, community voice, implementation learning, and outcome data to guide strategy, improvement, and partner communication.
- Excellent facilitation, writing, public speaking, relationship management, and strategic communication skills.
