Director of Narrative and Cultural Strategies

JOB POSTING

Position Title:

Director of Narrative and Cultural Strategies

Career Level:

Director

Department:

Program Central

Reports to:

Deputy Senior Vice President of Programs

FLSA Status (for HR):

Exempt

Last Updated:

June 2025

Salary Range:

$98,301 - $109,053

About Race Forward

Race Forward's mission is to support communities and public institutions to achieve a just, multiracial, democratic society through governance that advances racial justice.

Since 1981, Race Forward has brought a systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity.

Position Summary

The Director of Narrative and Cultural Strategies will report to the Deputy Vice President of Programs to envision, design, and implement narrative and cultural strategies that support Race Forward's overall mission, vision, theory of change, and programs. This role is housed in the Program Central Department alongside the Training, Research, and Conferences and Convenings Teams.

Race Forward's narrative programs and services harness the power of narratives to create and share in multiple storytelling formats the vision of a just, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. The Director of Narrative and Cultural Strategies is a highly collaborative role that works in partnership with organizers, artists, journalists, communicators, and advocates to define our narratives and to scale those narratives. This role facilitates training and resourcing an ecosystem of storytellers. For Race Forward, Narrative change is the process of intervening and altering the type, prevalence and scale of narratives circulating within public discourse - until we overtake harmful narratives and replace them with ones that are beneficial and rooted in our collective vision and values of racial justice and multiracial solidarity. Cultural change is the shift in societal beliefs, practices, and values as a result of narrative change and other other strategies.

The ideal candidate is a person with a depth of experience in developing and implementing narrative and cultural strategy, strong program management skills, a knack for engaging people with differing views, and experience navigating both small and large institutions.

Duties/Responsibilities

Principle duties and responsibilities include:

Leading and Project Management of Key Narrative Projects (25%)

• Lead cultural strategies through key projects such as the Cultural Week of Action on Race and Democracy;
• Serve as a co-lead for Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity Conference, including content creation and partnership development;
• Manage grant-funded projects and related staff such as participation and leadership in narrative communities of practice and collectives.

Build and grow revenue-generating work (25%)

• Work with Race Forward's Training Strategies team to build and scale a "Narrative and Cultural Strategy" learning curriculum for a diverse set of stakeholders, including community activists, government employees, and cultural storytellers, among others.
• Manage a portfolio of fee-for-service work (including training, coaching, technical assistance, capacity-building, speaking engagements, and more) for leaders and organizations, particularly in the arts and culture sector.
• Co-facilitate and lead public and client trainings related to narrative work.

Clarifying, Aligning, and Strengthening Race Forward's Narrative Strategy ( 25%)

• Work with the Office of the President, the VP of Narrative, Culture and Storytelling and the Deputy SVP of Programs to develop a narrative and cultural "blueprint" that guides the organization's work
• Seed, grow, and cultivate a "narrative ecosystem" via partnerships and collaborations that scale narratives for racial justice.
• Partner with Race Forward departments on integrating narrative and cultural strategy into their work and collaborate with other Race Forward teams to produce original content that uplifts and amplifies narratives for racial justice.
• Build and maintain deep relationships and potential partnerships with leaders and organizations in the narrative and arts and culture space.

Assist the Senior Vice-President of Programs and the Deputy Senior Vice-President of Programs with overall programmatic stewardship. (15%)

• Assist in identification of funding sources, proposal writing, and grant reporting.
• Support the department planning process for annual and strategic work plans.
• Participate in internal committees to add narrative expertise as needed/requested

Others (10%)

• Complete other operational requirements (scheduling, calendaring, answering emails, coordination of meetings and engagements) based on the needs of the team.
• Participate in internal meetings.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This role provides supervision for narrative grant-related staffing

Required Job Competencies (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities)

To perform successfully in this role, incumbent should possess skills identified below:

• Advanced understanding of narrative and cultural strategy and how its importance to racial justice and Race Forward's theory of change and mission.
• Strong structural, intersectional racial analysis.
• Superior project management skills including attention to detail, organizational skills, and the ability to manage complex projects, relationships, and timelines.
• Strong facilitation and curriculum and content development skills needed for narrative trainings, sessions, webinars, and meetings. Excellent public speaking, facilitation, and training skills, with a reliable ability to explain race-explicit content, synthesize and translate complex concepts on race and racism as well as on narrative and culture change.
• Informed and expansive understanding of the narrative and cultural ecosystem in the US, including key individuals, networks, and institutions working across fields of strategic communications, pop culture, media and entertainment, arts and culture, and narrative change in service of racial justice.
• Ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders (including people in grassroots organizations, "grasstops" organizations, advocacy organizations, philanthropic organizations, and local/state/federal government) at different points in their journey of understanding racial justice and narrative and cultural strategy
• Strong program and process design skills to envision, design, create, pitch, and fundraise for innovative narrative and cultural projects
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• Open to experimentation, learning, and adjustments along the way; ability to hold complexity to deliver results
• Ability to work in a team and independently and think creatively about how to leverage the resources at your disposal.
• Experience in using project management tools such as Asana and Slack as well as Microsoft Office and Google Suites application.

Required Education and Experience

• 5 years of relevant experience and exposure in narrative and cultural strategy work, with familiarity about the diversity and scale of the arts and culture sector in the US
• Demonstrated portfolio of work and projects at the intersection of narrative and culture change for social justice issues, ideally with a focus on race-explicit work
• 5 years or more of experience with program design and strategy in narrative and/or cultural work
• 5 years or more of experience training, facilitating, and teaching on topics of racial justice and institutional change
• 1-2 years of relevant experience with community organizing (whether full-time or on a volunteer basis), canvassing, and/or doing institutional change work

Physical Demands

This job may entail sedentary work that primarily involves sitting/standing and repeating motions that may include the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.

Travel Requirements

Travel for this position is required (20-35%)

Race Forward Core Organizational Competencies

Racial Equity Advocates.

Consistently demonstrates, through behavior, understanding of racial equity, institutional racism, and structural racism and the ability to apply that analysis to Race Forward work and culture. Demonstrates, through action, commitment to centering Blackness in both internal and external work.

Accountable and Self- Reflective.

Consistently practices self-reflection; follows through on commitments; treats others fairly and consistently; confronts difficult issues despite discomfort and supports others who do so; shows strong commitment to personal and professional values; champions new ideas. Demonstrates a strong understanding of how identity and corresponding power dynamics impact interactions.

Transparent and Collaborative.

Actively builds and sustains authentic, meaningful relationships with colleagues and external partners, across race and other group identities, to strengthen our work and create new opportunities. Communicates clearly and directly with colleagues. Engages in ways that are solutions- oriented and productive. Is proactive to resolve conflicts and misunderstandings, especially across differences in identity and experience; works to foster a culture that allows all voices to be heard and is respectful and supportive of staff, without expecting perfection.

Strategic and Creative.

Cultivates and generates new ideas and customized approaches that add value and foster innovative solutions; thinks critically, anticipating unintended impacts of decisions; engages the correct stakeholders with a specific emphasis on BIPOC communities, and identifies ways to connect their work to the work of other departments and teams as well as to Race Forward's mission, vision, and values.

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the incumbent in the position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills of the employee. Duties and responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice.

Race Forward is an at-will employer and may terminate the employment relationship at any time, for any reason, with or without cause or notice.

AAP/EEO Statement:

Race Forward is an active Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.

ADA Statement:

It is the goal of Race Forward to ensure that its programs, services, buildings, employment opportunities, communications, and work environments are accessible to all individuals, and to comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.