Policy Fellow

Position Summary:

The LA County Office of Food Systems is seeking an experienced candidate to join our team as a Policy Fellow, in a two-year fellowship position. The Policy Fellow will help to implement the Office’s multi-pronged strategy, will report to the Executive Director, and will work in close collaboration with our team and expansive network of local partners.

A successful candidate will be highly motivated, creative, and collaborative. Strong leadership and management skills, excellent writing and communication skills, relationship-building skills, flexibility, attention to detail, and the ability to be nimble and successfully manage rapid change are essential to this position. The ideal candidate should have five or more years of nonprofit, government, or public policy experience focused on social, environmental, and economic justice issues. The Policy Fellow will demonstrate a knowledge of the issues and deep commitment to cultivating an accessible, sustainable, and resilient food system.

The ideal candidate will embrace working in a ‘start up’ mode and wearing several “hats” simultaneously during these early phases of this new organization. To be effective in this role, the candidate must be able to learn quickly, flourish independently even in the face of ambiguity, and excel at managing priority tasks across multiple work-streams simultaneously. They will bring an understanding of emerging issues in the field of health, food systems and agro-ecology, have a track record of supporting successful collaboration with a diverse set of stakeholders and recruitment of new partners, be a strong communicator, and an experienced, independent project manager. The candidate should bring a passion and enthusiasm for discovering solutions that can create lasting impact and an appetite and ability to partner with a wide range of individuals to drive change.

Core Responsibilities:

• Support implementation and advancement of the Office’s policy agenda, advocacy, and programmatic strategies
• Cultivate and deepen meaningful relationships with the Office’s network of partners and communities, as well as key policy makers
• Help to shape and coordinate outreach and engagement strategies on specific high-impact state and federal policy campaigns, as guided by the senior leadership team
• Represent the Office in key policy coalitions and partnerships
• Actively monitor and report on relevant legislative activities at the federal, state and municipal levels
• Help the Office develop and maintain strong relationships with all branches of the local governments, as well as state government
• Conduct policy research and analysis and develop incisive policy briefs and communication tools for various audiences, working in partnership with communications and outreach staff
• Collaborate with Office staff to identify and leverage quantitative and qualitative data and local impact information in support of policy priorities
• Proactively contribute to fund development efforts to sustain and grow the Office’s policy work
• With all staff, support other core organizational functions as needed
• Serve as an ambassador for the Office and its values

Education, Experience, & Skills:

• No less than five to seven years of experience, which includes significant interaction with government (and/or some years of government experience)
• Legislative policy experience, ideally in agroecological, public health or food system issues
• Deep understanding of governmental functions and systems, public policy development, and issue oriented movement dynamics, include various advocacy approaches
• Project level experience in implementing high-impact, innovative policy advocacy campaigns
• Research for and principal authorship of persuasive policy briefs
• Master’s or advanced degree will be taken into positive consideration but is not required
• High level of organization and ability to manage many projects simultaneously
• Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills

Organizational Overview:

The LA County Office of Food Systems (OFS or Office) was established as a directive of the LA County Board of Supervisors, and created through an official partnership agreement between LA County and local philanthropic organizations. The Office works to cultivate a fair, flourishing, resilient, and healthy food system for all County residents. We are an innovation and R&D center for the County, working in collaboration with a diverse network of stakeholders to address food system challenges across LA County.

Our goals are to improve the affordability of and access to healthy foods; build market demand and consumption of healthy foods; support sustainability, economic opportunity, and resilience in food systems and supply chains.

Our optimal team would have an array of expertise in:

• International and National food policy
• Economic Development
• Workforce Development
• Land use planning
• Data analytics and Research
• Report writing and policy briefs

Near term strategies to achieve these goals include increasing the following, throughout LA County (derived from the LA County Food Equity Roundtable Action Plan of December 2022), among other initiatives:

• land available for climate smart urban and peri-urban agriculture;
• community gardens, particularly in or near affordable housing;
• healthy, sustainable animal protein production and availability, such as with sustainable aquatic food;
• good jobs in farming (on land and in water), processing, and distribution;
• mission driven distribution centers, dedicated to sourcing from local high road and earth friendly farmers for distribution to populations of need;
• support for healthy neighborhood markets;
• healthier and better sourced food for food as medicine, aging, and school meals programs;

We also intend to develop and maintain relationships with 88 cities, areas and tribes in LA County; state offices; federal govt offices where feasible; SCAG (So Cal Association of Governments); NACO (National Association of Counties); the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and C40; and food policy offices in other major cities (eg. Chicago and NYC)

Work Location:

This is a remote-hybrid position: work from home on one’s own equipment, with occasional travel and in person office meetings. The Office is based in Los Angeles County. Residence in Los Angeles County is preferred.

The Office is a fiscally-sponsored project of Community Partners, and through that arrangement also offers competitive benefits (i.e. medical/dental/vision, disability/life insurance, vacation, and a 403(b) plan).