State Policy Manager

Who we are

The News Literacy Project, founded in 2008, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization building a national movement to ensure that all students are guaranteed to be skilled in news literacy before high school graduation, giving them the knowledge and ability to participate in civic society as well-informed, critical thinkers. NLP is the country’s leading provider of news literacy education and works with districts and educators in all 50 states, primarily through our signature e-learning platform, Checkology®, and weekly educator newsletter, The Sift®. To read more about the organization and our plans, visit our website.

Where you fit in

The News Literacy Project empowers educators to teach middle and high school students how to sort fact from fiction in the digital age. We are at an exciting inflection point for our work, and we are making critical investments to rapidly scale our growth and impact. We are seeking a State Policy Manager to support our systems change work at the state level. This is a great opportunity for you to expand our footprint on a state-by-state level to ensure more students are learning news literacy today and future students are guaranteed to do so as well. We’re looking for someone who can have an immediate and meaningful impact on our work by supporting and coordinating our state policy education work, while ensuring NLP maintains our 501c3 status in good standing. This position reports to the Director of State Engagement.

About the position

Our state engagement work runs on two tracks: developing partnerships at the state level to increase NLP’s footprint in a state, and local coalition building with the ultimate goal of seeing legislation passed requiring that all students are guaranteed news literacy instruction before high school graduation. To that end, this position will be part of our State Engagement team and will support all NLP efforts to engage in coalition building and stakeholder education. Specifically, in this job, you will:

• Track all news literacy-specific legislation in all 50 states and produce monthly reports on the state of opportunities for NLP’s engagement with developing legislation.
• Coordinate meetings with NLP staff and key state stakeholders during both the coalition-building efforts and legislative action efforts.
• Track all efforts of the State Engagement team to monitor our systemic progress to goals.
• Advise the State Engagement team and executive leadership on legislative process and strategy.
• Serve as a key staff contact with stakeholders and legislative staff.
• Represent NLP at state-level events and convenings as assigned.
• Support the Director of State Engagement with promotional events and webinars in partnership with the DOEs and other state-level organizations.
• Assist the Director of State Engagement with other duties as assigned.

This position starts at 30 hours per week and qualifies for full benefits. The role is virtual. Highly qualified candidates who live in and are authorized to work in the United States are encouraged to apply.

About you

This position will directly impact many thousands of educators and hundreds of thousands of students in schools across the country and plays a pivotal role in shaping and achieving our organizational strategy of social impact through systems change. As the Director of State Engagement, you will partner with the SVP of Educator Engagement to ensure that NLP reaches its ambitious social impact (district, educator, and student) metrics each year through our state partnership and policy advocacy efforts.While we do not expect candidates to meet all qualifications, the successful candidate will have all or most of the following:

• A bachelor’s degree.
• A minimum of five years of professional experience.
• A minimum of three years of experience in state legislative activity as a legislative aide, staff member or committee support position, or three years of experience in an advocacy supporting role at another nonprofit.
• Experience in tracking legislation as it progresses through the bill process.
• Experience in managing through complex community and legislative relationships.
• Experience in public education or education policy is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated strong verbal and written communication skills.

Our Interview Process

Candidates selected to participate will be asked to complete a skills assessment (1-2 hours) and up to three rounds of virtual interviews (2-3 hours total). Interviews are conducted one-on-one and in group settings. Finalists will be asked to provide references.

The News Literacy Project welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. We offer equal opportunity in employment for all qualified persons and prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, military service or other protected status.

We deeply value diversity in the workplace and strongly believe that a diverse team enriches our organization and strengthens our ability to realize our mission (read/print NLP’s Organizational Values [PDF] and Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [PDF]).