Associate Director of Landscape Organizing

The Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network seeks an Associate Director of Landscape Organizing who will work in collaboration with our staff, organizers, farmer-members, and landscape, to maintain a deep focus on activities and programming in the field that touches both SAAFON’s membership base and organizational partners. This role leads in articulating and implementing SAAFON’s organizing methodology through the relational and cultural practices that advance our organizational goals and uplifts our contributions to the Southern Black Agrarian organizing movement in our region.

This role is a part of the Landscape Organizing & Membership Department of SAAFON and will collaborate with the Co-Executive Directors to ensure the values and organizing practices of the institution match the needs and desires of our farmer members and the communities they represent. The Associate Director will assist the Co-Executive Directors in connecting dots across the region, weaving assessments and analysis, and collecting and internalizing stories from the field to inform organizational strategy. Grounded in Black agrarian traditions and movement-building, the Associate Director will help build connections through landscape organizing that promote the continuity of Black agrarian values - this includes deepening membership and partner engagement, facilitating regional exchanges, and cultivating organizing spaces rooted in collective care, intergenerational bridge-building, and cooperation.

Note: This is a new role within SAAFON and provides the space to build and implement organizing strategies from the ground up, taking SAAFON further into alignment with our values, geographical context, culture, and history. It is an opportunity to join a growing, grassroots organization committed to the culture keeping of Southern Black Agrarian organizing lineage and play a central role in shaping the vision and direction of the revival of Black agrarianism in the U.S. South.

Responsibilities

Landscape Organizing & Relationship Development

• Lead the development and facilitation of SAAFON’s organizing methodology as it relates to regional relationships, focused on ecosystem strategies and priorities, agrarian cultural practices, and supporting positive morale, respectful interactions, and deep, trustful collaboration
• Collaborate with the Co-Executive Director to guide and direct the deepening and scaling of SAAFON’s Organizing Strategy, adding value to meaningful member experiences and serving as a liaison between SAAFON as an institution, a representative of membership and the wider landscape – helping to hold relationships, and strategizing on how we can relate and coordinate more deeply by translating field insights into organizational strategy and program development.
• Lead external partnership cultivation, communication, and organizing, maintaining awareness of and participation in activities happening in our landscape facilitated by key partner organizations o Lead the codification and maintenance of SAAFON’s relationship to organizational partners, facilitating planning space for exploration, experimentation, and emergent strategy
• Lead and provide oversight in the execution of field organizing spaces, including field days, solidarity brigades, affinity gatherings
• Co-facilitate Field Team Meetings alongside the Associate Director of Membership and Programs, and lead the facilitation and coordination of Landscape Organizing Pod meetings
• Regularly attend state-based, regional and national conferences as a representative of SAAFON, our landscape, region, and Black agrarian values, ensuring a positive institutional presence
• Co-Lead alongside Co-EDs a collaborative with strategic partners to develop and plan itinerant regional organizing initiatives

Field Team & Membership

• Lead the creation, ongoing utilization and implementation of a template for annual field organizing planning that expresses our base-building and field priorities for the year
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Membership to schedule and design activities in the field to ensure appropriate coordination between partners, project needs, and farmer capacity
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Membership to c0-lead the strategy, reactivation and growth of
• SAAFON's Cluster Programming, which supports farmer organizing and social infrastructure across the network
• Collaborate with the field team and programmatic staff to support the planning of field events, and overseeing the SOPs and policies
• Exemplify knowledge of SAAFON’s politic of Black Agrarianism and afro/agroecology and communicate how this politic relates to organic and sustainable agricultural practices generally; and alternative/cooperative labor models

o Serve as a knowledge source and/or connector generally around sustainable/afro ecology/organic practices, protocols, and spaces

• Assist in documentation and capturing of event activities, outcomes, limitations, and learnings, including support for note-taking and basic photography
• Support the coordination of the farmer-to-farmer spaces that SAAFON facilitates - webinars/calls, assemblies, and meetings

Leadership, Strategy & Team Management

• Provide visionary leadership, strategic oversight and development of SAAFON’s landscape organizing and engagement, keeping eyes on the larger “why” in collaboration with Co-Executive Directors
• Participate in the Director’s Circle holding cross organizational analysis, and collaborate on decision-making as needed
• Participate in departmental pod meetings representing field and landscape organizing as it relates to maintaining and growing SAAFON’s relational and reputational credibility, standing and influence with members and organizational partners

Qualifications

• Minimum 5–7 years of experience in community, cultural, or grassroots organizing—preferably within social justice, food systems, or cultural institutions, and within the Southern U.S. or rural contexts
• Demonstrated experience working with Black farmers, land stewards, or agricultural cooperatives, with an understanding of Black agrarian traditions and histories
• Exceptional facilitation skills with the ability to lead gatherings, meetings, and trainings with large and small groups of stakeholders
• Experience developing and implementing organizing strategies rooted in relationship-building, political education, and cultural practice
• Familiarity with the historical and contemporary landscape of Black land ownership, food systems, and agricultural justice in the South at the intersection of land access, climate, and economic resilience
• Experience in cross-organizational collaboration, coalition-building, or partnership management
• Flexible, adaptable, and able to effectively toggle between strategy and execution
• Self-starter with the ability to work both independently without close oversight and in highly collaborative workspaces
• Strong time management skills with attention to detail
• Familiarity with Microsoft Teams, Office, and Salesforce (or other CRM systems) are a plus

Please note: this role requires significant travel regionally across the U.S. South and Caribbean

for field visits, convenings, conferences and gatherings. Please only apply if you have the ability

and willingness to do this.

The salary range for this position is $65,000-$70,000 (commensurate with experience) annually plus a competitive benefits package including but not limited to:

• Health insurance at 100% coverage
• An annual professional development allocation
• Work from home reimbursement
• Paid time off
• Flexible, remote work environment