Project Director, Education Equity

About ACLU SoCal

Founded in 1923, the ACLU SoCal has been at the forefront of many major efforts to protect civil liberties, civil rights, and equal justice in California. Principled and nonpartisan, the ACLU SoCal has offices in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire (San Bernardino), and Kern County (Bakersfield). The ACLU SoCal tackles a vast array of issues, including police practices, criminal justice, First Amendment rights, voting rights, gender equity, reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights, education equity, and economic justice.

About the Role

The ACLU of Southern California’s Education Equity Team advocates for the rights of students in California to educational equity. Our foremost priority is to ensure that all students receive an excellent education, particularly Black, Indigenous, and disabled students, and other students who traditionally have been marginalized and under-resourced. Specifically, it has brought lawsuits, sponsored legislation, and led advocacy campaigns to increase resources for high-need students, eliminate the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline, eliminate school pushout, protect student expression, among other subjects.

Reporting to the Chief Advocacy and Legal Officer, the Education Equity Project Director will lead and manage the interdisciplinary team, which includes litigators, policy counsels, policy advocates, and/or organizers throughout the region. They will establish and guide the vision, act as the primary spokesperson, and oversee both long- and short-term complex, multi-disciplinary campaigns to drive significant change. The Project Director will manage annual planning and budgeting, supervise team members across multiple offices, and collaborate with the Communications and Media Advocacy team to develop and support communications strategies. They will work with Advocacy Department staff who engage volunteers to advance priority campaigns and power-building goals and the Development team to support fundraising efforts.

The Project Director will also directly engage in advocacy and campaigns and collaborate with other project directors, attorneys, policy advocates, and organizers on intersectional work across the organization. The Project Director will supervise the legal work of the Project. Additionally, the Project Director will work with statewide teams and support legislative advocacy efforts as needed.

The position requires a willingness to work beyond a standard 7.5-hour workday, including evening and weekend meetings and events. Work weeks more than 37.5 hours are anticipated to be common.

The Project Director is expected to model professional workplace behavior and standards, and clearly and enthusiastically demonstrate guiding principles of integrity, respect, accountability, compassion, and leadership.

Responsibilities

• Envision, design, build, lead, and manage an active, innovative program focused on Education Equity, incorporating policy advocacy, litigation, legal advocacy, legislative initiatives, administrative actions, electoral efforts, organizing, public education, civic engagement, and strategic communications.
• Serve as the primary subject matter expert and spokesperson for the project area’s initiatives.
• Lead planning and budgeting processes for the project’s priorities, engage in intersectional planning with other projects, and manage the budget effectively.
• Supervise staff attorneys, fellows, policy counsels, policy advocates, and organizers, providing subject-matter supervision and support for other team members working on related issues.
• Forge and maintain relationships with people impacted by and have been through the systems we are trying to change, community partners, decision-makers, government officials, allied organizations, and academics to implement collaborative projects and foster positive, effective working relationships while focusing on a people power-based theory of change.
• Meaningfully incorporate people who have been impacted by the systems we are seeking to change into all aspects of the team’s work, helping to elevate and center their expertise and leadership whenever possible.
• Collaborate with and provide support to people in other ACLU affiliates in California ACLU California Action, as well as colleagues at the national ACLU.
• Serve as primary contact with the Communications and Media Advocacy Department to collaborate on and implement communications advocacy strategies.
• Serve as primary contact with the Development Department to support fundraising efforts, manage grants and interface with donors and boards, as needed.
• Design, manage and implement advocacy, education, organizing and narrative change campaigns to achieve policy change.
• If an attorney, litigate and serve as senior counsel on litigation. If not an attorney, manage legal work by attorneys with support from senior attorneys.
• Participate in regular meetings of project directors and the Advocacy Department and participate in leadership and administrative tasks requested by the Advocacy Director to ensure smooth management and communication throughout the Department.
• Engage in special projects and other duties as assigned.
• Center principles of equity, inclusion, and belonging in all work, embedding the values in program development, policy application, and organizational practices and processes.
• Demonstrate a commitment to the mission of the ACLU.
• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity within the office using a personal approach that values all individuals and respects differences in regard to race, ethnicity, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability and socio-economic circumstance.
• Demonstrate a commitment to work collaboratively and respectfully toward resolving obstacles and/or conflicts.

RACIAL EQUITY COMPETENCIES:

• Understanding and Applying Racial Equity
  • Demonstrate commitment to building or deepening understand of racial equity:
    • Core terms and concepts such as structural racism, white privilege, and anti- Blackness.
    • The role that racial inequity has played and continues to play in our society.
    • How race impacts supervisory relationships, team dynamics, and organizational culture.
    • Personal/implicit/unconscious bias.
• Working for Racial Equity
  • Consistently assess structural implications and racially disproportionate impacts of policies, activities, and decisions within the context of their job responsibilities; race/ethnicity, intersection of race/ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation.
  • Consistently adhere to organization’s racial equity policies and procedures, including those that relate to hiring, retention, and promotion.
  • Consistently identify and disrupt ways in which bias plays out in work and/or team.
• Leading on Racial Equity
  • Effectively encourage people to have honest conversations about racial equity, and accept feedback openly, non-defensively, and from a posture of learning.
  • Consistently address structural implications and racially disproportionate impacts of policies, activities, and decisions by identifying and implementing changes that can produce more equitable outcomes. This applies not only in terms of race/ethnicity, but also at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender and/or sexual orientation.
  • Consistently set racial equity outcomes, goals, and performance measures for team, department, or organization, and develop and successfully implement plans to achieve them.

Qualifications:

• A J.D. and admission to the California Bar or ability to be admitted shortly after hired.
• A visionary leader with extensive experience in legal, policy, or organizing work within the relevant field, ideally with 10 or more years of experience in program leadership and at least 3 years in team management. Experience within the ACLU or a similar large and complex civil rights or advocacy organization is preferred.
• Experience working in education equity, student rights, or juvenile justice is preferred.
• A demonstrated commitment to civil and human rights, racial justice, and possess strong advocacy and management skills.
• Experience developing and leading legal, policy, legislative or organizing campaigns to advance civil liberties and civil rights.
• Experience managing people or teams developing and implementing advocacy.
• Experience leading visioning, planning and budgeting processes, and writing plans and budgets.
• Experience working with system-involved people and communities.
• Excellent research, writing, analytic and speaking skills.
• Extremely strong project and time management skills, including a high level of organization, attention to detail and follow-through, while balancing and prioritizing multiple activities and responsibilities.
• Excellent relationship-building skills, ability to inspire collaboration and inspire others to action and a demonstrated ability to work well in diverse coalitions.
• Demonstrated experience engaging in creative problem solving and taking initiative, while utilizing a solutions-oriented approach and exhibiting flexibility and good judgement in a complex organizational ecosystem.
• A deep and demonstrated commitment to the cause of civil liberties and civil rights.
• Willingness to travel regularly within Southern California as well as occasionally to other parts of the state.

ACLU SoCal offers a full benefits package including medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability, and 403b/401k match.

Fluency in English required; proficiency in Spanish preferred