Director of Educational Partnerships

ABOUT US

Interfaith America is a national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. We believe that religious diversity is a foundational American strength, and we are building a nation that achieves that promise for the common good. Our mission is to inspire, equip, and connect organizations and leaders to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity. We leverage our expertise in interfaith leadership in different sectors in American life, activating a public discourse on pluralism with a focus on higher education, workplaces, and civic partners. IA activates leaders and institutions in these sectors with the tools and resources they need to positively engage religious diversity for the common good.

At Interfaith America, we are ever-adapting and changing. We look for people who set audacious goals and love that one workday may not be like the next. We have a strong commitment to pluralism and building bridges across deep differences. Our programs help people build skills to bridge deep ideological divides. Our work is about staying in relationship with one another and contributing to the common good even when we might disagree on fundamental things. We seek to attract and retain a team of staff comprised of a wide variety of views and backgrounds we need to achieve our vision.

Role Summary:

Interfaith America has worked with American colleges and universities for over a decade. As higher education is reckoning with its role in society, IA seeks to partner with higher education leaders to build up the infrastructure for promoting an intellectually grounded, practical, and skills-based paradigm of pluralism that focuses on cooperation across differences while respecting worldview and ideological differences. This infrastructure requires a dramatic increase in the number of leading university programs on pluralism and in university staff and faculty nationwide who are equipped to facilitate productive engagement across differences.

The Director of Educational Partnerships will lead the development of a new area of IA’s work in higher education, building deep partnerships initially with a small portfolio of leading universities that will serve as influential champions of pluralism. With these universities, IA will partner to create new signature education programs that identify, recruit, elevate, and train university staff, faculty, and/or administrators to be excellent at fostering pluralism. These dedicated university-based programs will equip campus staff and faculty, both within and beyond their own institutions, with the skills, knowledge, and mindsets of pluralism, cultivating the talent for pluralism that the field of higher education needs. Programs can take various formats based on each hosting university’s existing assets (e.g., an executive education certificate in pluralism in partnership with a university’s School of Education). IA would be a partner in designing, implementing, and refining these programs, which aim to not only directly impact those who participate, but also play a significant role in catalyzing the growing field of pluralism in higher education.

IA seeks an entrepreneurial Director of Educational Partnerships to refine the strategy and lead the partnership development for this exciting and important new area of work.

Responsibilities:

• Strategy and Impact: In line with IA’s business plan and Higher Education sector goals, refine IA’s strategy for building partnerships with campuses to advance the field of pluralism through signature campus-based educational programs that serve the wider field. Refine partnership criteria and measures of success for these partnerships. Work with other teams within IA’s Higher Education sector to ensure strategic alignment, and collaboration where appropriate, across teams.

• Partnership Development: Build relationships with and vet potential partners, with the goal of developing formal multi-year partnerships that leverage both Interfaith America’s and partner campuses’ existing strengths and assets. Develop each campus partnership from start to finish, building out a vision, business model, curricular approach, recruitment targets, public storytelling targets, sustainability plan, and other specific commitments with deliverables with each partner campus.

• Program Development: Work with each partner institution to design, implement, refine, and evaluate impact for partnered programs, working collaboratively with partner institutions’ administrators and faculty experts as well as IA’s internal Learning Team.

• Gather: Plan and facilitate convenings for key leaders from partner institutions to facilitate shared goal setting and idea exchange, holding responsibility for both content and logistical planning.

• Storytelling: Work with partner campuses, their communications teams, and IA’s Strategic Communications team to create shareable content and compelling public storytelling about the impact of these new programs.

• Field Building: Work with partner campuses to disseminate learnings from these programs in strategic higher education spaces.

• External Relationship Building: Build relationships with external strategic partners. Speak, write, and present on behalf of IA to external partners (e.g. higher education administrators and educators, directors at partner associations, and foundation program officers).

• Program and Budget Management: Lead programs and budgets with an understanding of program area funding realities. Deliver on grant requirements, complete reporting on time, liaise with the Advancement Team if deliverables are exceptional or off track, and relate directly to relevant funders on select projects.

• Team Contributions: Lead or contribute to additional time-bound projects as determined by organizational needs and cultural realities.

• Supervision: Supervise a Program Assistant, who will provide administrative support for two directors’ areas of work.

Qualifications:

• Graduate degree in higher education, organizational management, or related field
• 8-12 years of experience in higher education, consulting, bridgebuilding or interfaith work, or other related sectors
• High level of religious literacy and fluency in pluralism and engaging across deep differences
• A track record of strategic partnership development
• Ability to engage effectively as a trusted partner of senior faculty and administrators in higher education
• Experience in program and curricular design
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills
• Authorization to work in the United States

Preferred Qualifications (not required)

• Experience working with university faculty and senior administrators, particularly within schools of education or higher education graduate programs
• Training, facilitation, curriculum design, pedagogy, or related skill sets
• Experience effecting change in or consulting for complex organizations, ideally in a college or university environment
• Supervision (direct or indirect) of individuals with diverse working styles and backgrounds

Supervisor: Vice President of Higher Education Strategy

Leadership level: Director

Travel: 20-30% of the time traveling on behalf of IA

Compensation: $100,000 - $110,000, plus excellent benefits. Please read more about our benefits here.

Location: Working from our Chicago office or remote from DC, MA, MD, MI, NC, NY, OH, VA, and WI.

Benefits: The Director of Educational Partnerships position is a full-time, regular hire role, this position is eligible for the full suite of Interfaith America's benefit offerings. Interfaith America offers medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance. For employee-only coverage of medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, Interfaith America covers 100% of the premium costs. Interfaith America also offers a retirement plan and a generous paid time off plan. More information can be found here: https://www.interfaithamerica.org/careers/

Other Requirements:

The Director of Educational Partnerships position requires the ability, with or without reasonable accommodation, to: maintain regular attendance; travel across this US; work cooperatively with others; adhere to Interfaith America personnel policies and safety rules; sit and/or stand for extended periods of time; operate standard office equipment, including computers, telephones, photocopiers, and projectors; communicate orally, in writing, and via computers and digital devices; and requires close visual acuity to prepare and analyze data and figures, transcribe, view a computer terminal and other office equipment.

Interfaith America is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, marital status, or any other status protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodation will be provided as needed to enable qualified applicants with a disability to participate in pre-employment procedures.

We will be accepting applications from 7/23/2025 - 8/20/2025.