Hiring: National Programs Manager – New Entry Sustainable Farming Project

New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s (New Entry) (http://www.nesfp.org) mission is to improve our local and regional food systems by training the next generation of farmers to produce food that is sustainable, nutritious and culturally preferred and making this food accessible to individuals regardless of age, mobility, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.  In doing this work, New Entry provides critical training, career development, and economic opportunity to new farmers. New Entry is a program of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and is also a fiscally-sponsored project of TSNE MissionWorks (www.tsne.org). The hiring entity for the position is TSNE.  New Entry/TSNE envisions a society grounded in the principles of social and economic justice. As such, we strive to achieve excellence through a diverse and inclusive workplace that honors the unique talents and lived experiences of each person. Our vision and values are reflected in all our employment-related decisions, including hiring practices. Accordingly, New Entry actively seeks people who bring diverse backgrounds and perspectives to join us in our work.

National Programs Manager, Full-time, Beverly, MA (or will consider remote within driving distance to have periodic face time with the organization)

The National Program Manager provides management and oversight for New Entry’s beginning famer land-based training networks and leads robust program evaluation strategies locally and nationally. Responsibilities include oversight of several USDA national technical assistance (TA) projects supporting Ag Apprenticeship Learning Networks, and National Incubator Farm Training Initiative networks, Gaining Results through Evaluation Work program, and Community Food Projects TA program. This person will lead outreach to national organizations, particularly in underserved communities. In addition, this position requires strong project management, leadership, evaluation, and networking skills, as they will:

• Manage partner relationships;
• Conduct intake and case management/technical assistance for partner organizations and connect them to our networks of technical assistance providers;
• Develop educational resources, toolkits, guidebooks, and webinars to support successful programs;
• Lead program evaluation, data collection, monitoring, and project reporting, and;
• Manage annual conferences and convenings of national partners.

Salary Range:  $48,000-$58,000.  Full benefits (vacation, holiday, sick/personal time, medical/dental/vision insurance, retirement benefits).  To apply, please include your resume and a thoughtful cover letter about how you could leverage your skills and experience to advance the goals of these national networks.  Apply Here.

Detailed Job Components:

Manage the National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI) Program – 30% Time

Oversee the administration of New Entry’s National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI). This involves managing NIFTI partner networks; scheduling, planning and hosting professional development events and conferences; developing educational resources, toolkits and guidebooks; and supporting incubator farm programs with ongoing project planning, development, advocacy, and evaluation.

• Conduct national planning, outreach, and technical assistance to emerging or developing beginning farmer training and incubator farm programs through recruiting clients and engaging national partners in TA and national and regional Community of Practice (CoP) efforts;
• Develop TA protocols in areas of financial literacy, land and credit access, and metrics and evaluation for farm incubator projects;
• Maintain national NIFTI TA request and referral system;
• Develop national webinars on incubator farm program topics;
• Refine and expand upon web-based national clearinghouse for farm incubator resources;
• Develop case studies, success stories, and best practices;
• Organize multi-day national Incubator Field Schools and CoP national meetings/conferences;
• Facilitate ongoing CoP strategies for beginning farmer program staff;
• Document and evaluate program outputs and outcomes;
• Collaborate on development of national metrics and evaluation of farm incubator projects;
• Collaborate on national-level research on incubator projects;
• Promote and distribute existing NIFTI toolkits, fact sheets, and other materials;
• Collaborate with national partners on local and regional-level projects to encourage and strengthen farm incubators by partnering and serving in an advisory capacity as requested;
• Manage project reporting and evaluation metrics to funders.

Manage the Agriculture Apprenticeship Learning Network (AgALN) – 30% time

Oversee administration and management of the national Ag Apprenticeship Learning Network (AgALN). AgALN is geared towards formalizing a set of shared standards or best practices for meeting clearly articulated learning goals of farm/ranch apprentices looking to gain hands-on, land-based management and production skills on commercial farms and ranches. Our aim is to “raise the bar” of on-farm learning and training by skilled mentors.

• Conduct national planning, outreach, and technical assistance to emerging or developing agricultural apprenticeship and internship programs by engaging national partners in TA and national and regional Community of Practice (CoP) efforts;
• Expand the network to include a diversity of members and program types: urban/rural, large/small scale ag, enterprise interests, geographically diverse, and culturally/racially diverse programs;
• Research and produce a variety of documents, reports, proposals, webinars, other literature across multiple project partners/authors;
• Plan, coordinate and host educational events (webinars, national conferences, meetings);
• Respond to inquiries about the AgALN network and provide detailed information and technical assistance and referrals to constituents;
• Collaborate on development of national metrics and evaluation of ag apprenticeship programs;
• Collaborate on national-level research on ag apprenticeship programs;
• Develop case studies, success stories, and best practices on ag apprenticeships for broad dissemination.
• Refine and expand upon web-based national clearinghouse for ag apprenticeship resources;
• Manage project reporting and evaluation metrics to funders.

Manage the Gaining Results through Evaluation Work (GREW) – 20% time

Oversee New Entry’s role in the GREW project – a partnership between UCSC, Virginia Tech, and New Entry that supports the development of strong, effective, and long-lasting farmer and rancher training programs to ensure that beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs) can enter the field and establish successful farming businesses through training and education on evaluation tools and practices.

• Conduct national planning, outreach, and networking to expand and diversify participation in the GREW project by underserved communities and geographically diverse organizations;
• Participate collaborative project team meetings to conduct national outreach and develop and get feedback on beginning farmer Pathway Analysis (to identify outcomes most likely for success); Outcomes Lists (to identify key outcomes and indicators); and Resource Lists (to identify a variety of example survey instruments, assessment instruments and other resources);
• Coordinate identification, collection of, and organizing of a web-based national clearinghouse for evaluation tools to help BFR organizations identify key outcomes and measures that can be used to make evaluation easier;
• Contribute to evaluation training via webinars to share technical information for conducting evaluations with national organizations serving beginning farmers;
• Organize and lead an online learning community to support farmer training organization staff to learn from each other, and from project evaluators;
• Manage project reporting and evaluation metrics to funders.

Provide oversight to the USDA Community Food Projects Technical Assistance Program – 10% time

Oversee staff who coordinate a National Technical Assistance (TA) and Referral Network for Community Food Project (CFP) Programs.

• Establish goals and monitor outcomes of National CFP TA program;
• Conduct national planning, outreach, and technical assistance to organizations developing community food security and beginning farmer training programming, in particular:
  • Promote and outreach CFP TA programs nationally by attending and presenting at relevant conferences and events;
  • Recruit applicants and engage national partners in CFP TA efforts;
  • Maintain and expand national TA request and referral system;
  • Develop national webinars on CFP grant application and program topics;
  • Expand web-based clearinghouse for CFP resources and support;
  • Support development of case studies, success stories, and toolkits for CFP projects;
  • Organize national trainings, webinars, and meetings for CFP grantees;
• Document and evaluate program outputs/outcomes; assist in completing required reporting.
• Oversee planning for a national conference for community food security organizations.

Oversight of National Programs – 10% time

• Provide strategic vision and direction for national team;
• Manage New Entry’s National Programs Team, including staff, interns, TA partners, consultants, and subawards; manage partner relationships for national programs; create and manage consulting agreements and contracts with program partners;
• Develop and maintain operations manuals for all aspects of National TA program administration;
• Manage grant budgets, grant reporting, and liaise with USDA agency staff;
• Investigate and pursue fee-for-service and additional revenue generating opportunities to support national program operating costs;
• Participate in regularly scheduled staff and leadership meetings and lead national team meetings;
• Facilitate connections between national and local programs at New Entry by working with New Entry staff to develop robust program metrics and evaluation tools to share nationally and to educate New Entry staff members about best practices gleaned from national organizations;
• Promote New Entry’s work on a national scale by attending and presenting at relevant conferences and events.

Special Requirements

Access to reliable private transportation necessary;
Willingness to travel nationally;
Willingness and ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings and weekends.

Qualifications:  We will consider exceptional candidates who demonstrate a strong combination of the specific qualifications and skills described below.

•  At least 5 years of experience in national network organizing; bachelor’s degree preferred;
• Significant work experience in the non-profit sector (at least 5-10 years) with national outreach, and educational resource development; Minimum of 3 years supervisory experience required;
• Experience networking with multiple organizations and collaborative networks; demonstrated leadership and communication skills in networking/relationship building across disparate partners and interests;
• Ability to analyze data, capture trends, insights, and needs of partners and develop clear, actionable vision and related programming to respond to needs and synthesize ideas / present vision for future to network leadership;
• Ability to lead projects independently; ability to coordinate innovative programming with multiple partners; Significant experience in program evaluation, designing surveys, and leading multi-stakeholder assessments required;
• Demonstrated research capacity – ability to explore new areas of learning and to back up ideas with data and metrics;
• Skills and knowledge in multiple aspects of community food projects, food security, and/or beginning farmer training programs gained through experience working with diverse ethnic and economic groups;
• Experience working with social media, web-based/online learning, and web resource development required;
• Experience with adult education theory and training strategies preferred;
• Experience with event planning is desired;
• Organizational development and cross-cultural experience helpful;
• Strong commitment to racial equity and social justice; empathy for and sensitivity to food insecurity in underprivileged communities preferred;
• Enthusiasm for critically engaging with the local food movement and determining how non-profit programming can better address food insecurity, food access and improve nutritional outcomes;
• Strong organizational skills and acute attention to detail;
• Self-directed; works well within a rapidly-changing, high-performance environment;
• Effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills; Ability to write well and develop compelling impact reports;
• Proficiency with standard computer software (MS Office, Social Media, website content development, graphic design, Excel database). Experience with Salesforce CRM desired.

Apply for the National Program Manager Position.

To Apply for all New Entry open positions, visit the employment section of our website at www.tsne.org.  We strongly encourage online applications per instructions above and provision of a writing sample as needed. We also accept applications by mail or fax. Apply by mail to: TSNE MissionWorks, Attn: Employment Manager, NonProfit Center, 89 South Street Suite 700, Boston, MA  02111; or send by fax to: 617.523.2070.

As an EOE/AA employer, TSNE MissionWorks/New Entry will not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin or ancestry, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, genetic information, veteran or disability status or any other factor prohibited by law.