Hiring: National Technical Assistance Coordinator – New Entry

National Technical Assistance Coordinator – part-time (25 hours/week), year-round

The National Technical Assistance Coordinator provides outreach to promote USDA programs and land access services for beginning famer land-based training networks and leads robust program evaluation strategies locally and nationally.  Responsibilities include coordination and technical assistance services to members of the FIELD Network, a national technical assistance (TA) and capacity building network for land-based experiential beginning farmer training programs.  This position will lead USDA program outreach and technical assistance to national organizations, particularly in underserved communities; manage and build partner relationships; support development and delivery of training workshops and technical assistance for partner organizations and their farmers and connect them to our network partners for information sharing and program development resources; develop educational resources, toolkits, guidebooks, and webinars to support successful programs; support program evaluation, data collection, monitoring, and project reporting, and; organize annual conferences and monthly convenings of national partners. This position requires working knowledge of USDA programs and resources, strong farmer relational skills, project management, leadership, evaluation, and networking skills with groups serving immigrant, refugee, and historically underserved and BIPOC farmers.

Key Responsibilities Include:
Provide Outreach and Technical Assistance (TA) to the National FIELD Network (incubator and apprenticeship training programs)

• 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 USDA program participation, financial literacy, land and credit access, marketing, and metrics and evaluation for farm incubator and apprenticeship training programs.
• Maintain national TA request and referral system.
• 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 farmer training programs.
• Collaborate on national-level research on farmer training projects.
• Collaborate with national partners on local and regional-level projects to encourage and strengthen farm incubators and other land-based farmer training programs by partnering and serving in a technical assistance and advisory capacity as requested.
• Develop and maintain operations manuals for all aspects of National TA program administration.

Develop Educational Resources and Training Materials

• Develop national trainings, webinars, and learning sessions on program topics.
• Refine and expand upon web-based national clearinghouse for farm incubator and apprenticeship resources.
• Develop case studies, success stories, and best practices.
• Promote and distribute existing toolkits, fact sheets, and other materials.

Support National Network Building and Program Connections

• Conduct outreach and track program metrics around geographic, organizational, and participant diversity across the national network.
• Organize multi-day national FIELD Schools and CoP national meetings/conferences.
• Organize monthly FIELD Networking events and follow up resources.
• Promote New Entry’s work on a national scale by attending and presenting at relevant conferences and events.
• Participate as part of a team to support the mission of New Entry by working with 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.
• Participate in other programmatic deliverables as requested.

Basic Job Requirements:
• Prior experience in national outreach, adult education theory, beginning farmer and rancher training strategies, local and regional food systems, educational resource development, and organizational development preferred.
• Skills and knowledge in USDA programs and services for beginning and underserved producers.
• Experience working in beginning farmer training programs, community organizing, food security, and/or gained through experience working with diverse ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic groups.
• Cross-cultural experience helpful; strong commitment to racial equity and social justice.
• Ability to lead projects independently; ability to coordinate innovative programming with multiple partners.
• Effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills; ability to write well and develop compelling impact reports.
• Experience working with social media, web-based/online learning, and web resource development required.
• Experience with programmatic evaluation and assessment desired.
• Experience with event planning, conference organization, and multi-stakeholder gatherings.
• Demonstrated leadership skills, strong project management experience, and attention to detail required.
• Self- directed and able to work well in a rapidly changing, high-performance environment.
• Effective oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proficiency with standard computer software (MS Office, online meeting software, Social Media, website content development, graphic design, Excel database).  Experience with Salesforce CRM desired.

Additional Preferred Experience:
• Demonstrated research capacity – ability to explore new areas of learning and to back up ideas with data and metrics;
• 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
• Organizational development and cross-cultural experience;
• Experience with adult education theory and training strategies preferred;
• Empathy for and sensitivity to food insecurity in underprivileged communities preferred;
• Multilingual a plus.

Compensation and Timeline:  The Tufts University hourly wage range for this position is:  Minimum $26.40, Midpoint $31.40, Maximum $36.40.  Salary is based on related experience, expertise, and internal equity; generally, new hires can expect an offer of pay between the minimum and midpoint of the pay range.  The position is open until a suitable candidate is identified; an ideal start date would be no later than May 1, 2024.

Special Work Schedule Requirements: Work happens at office spaces on a farm and on a working farm in all weather conditions, or in a barn/warehouse with limited heating/cooling, so it can be extremely hot or extremely cold in certain settings depending on the weather.  All staff are expected to support on-farm events and pitch in to support farm and food hub activities, so occasional field duties and food hub share packing may be required which can involve bending, lifting, and driving vehicles.  This position has expected work-related travel to meetings throughout the state, region, and nationally.

To Apply, submit a resume and cover letter outlining your skills and qualifications in connection to the job description and mission areas of New Entry.  Applications are accepted online through the Tufts University Human Resources application portal.  Apply HERE.