Communications Director

About the HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance:

Co-founded by the Food Chain Workers Alliance, the National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Real Food Challenge, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, HEAL is a multi-sector, multi-racial coalition building collective power to transform our food and farm systems, with racial justice and community self-determination at the core. We are led by our member organizations, who represent over 2 million rural and urban farmers, ranchers, fishers, farm and food chain workers, indigenous groups, scientists, public health advocates, policy experts, community organizers, and activists nationwide.

HEAL is committed to achieving food and farm systems that are nourishing for our families, accessible and affordable for all communities, and fair to the working people who grow, distribute, prepare, and serve our food — while protecting the air, water, and land we all depend on.

Position Overview

HEAL seeks a strategic and motivated Communications Director to lead the alliance’s work to:

• Uplift the solutions led by our frontline members, through amplification, training, and support
• Make relevant policy decisions engaging and accessible to HEAL’s membership and our base
• Confront unbridled capitalism, heteropatriarchy, and white supremacy, using an intersectional lens
• Advance a shared narrative that values ecological wisdom, the dignity of working people, and collective care

Key components include:

• Conceiving, guiding, and managing HEAL’s communications strategy and narrative work, aligning storytelling, political education, policy and media work with HEAL’s mission, vision, and values
• Aligning HEAL’s communications with team capacity, balancing long-term strategy with immediate communications needs
• Expanding communications capacity for member organizations to drive cross-sector, coordinated campaign work
• Overseeing the development and publication of materials, digital content, and media relations for the Alliance’s programs, donors, and policy campaigns, ensuring that all materials are visually appealing and engaging, and reflect HEAL’s analysis and core values
• Developing and stewarding clear processes for collaborative projects that involve multiple teams – such as action alerts, rapid response and press materials– ensuring transparency, accessibility, and shared ownership.
• Assessing progress towards HEAL’s communications and narrative goals, adapting as needed.

The Communications Director directly supervises the Communications Manager and Communications Designer, and manages consultants, cultivating a collaborative, care-centered team culture that prioritizes mentorship, accountability, and shared learning. They ensure that individuals and teams have the capacity, authority, and information necessary to fulfill their responsibilities, and demonstrate strong management and prioritization skills to guide the team through shifting demands.

All Directors are expected to provide leadership and strategic thinking to develop and adapt HEAL systems, providing connectivity and continuity across programs and teams. HEAL’s staff team is strong and growing — we are highly accountable to our members and to each other. Each of us contributes to the overall functioning of the organization, maintaining relationships with members, and adapting workflows to support one another’s needs. For more about how our team operates, please see our protocols and principles.

This position reports to HEAL’s Executive Director.

Location: Remote

Hours: Working hours are Monday through Friday. Daily schedule is flexible within

reason, with an expectation to be reachable online 12pm-5pm Eastern Time. Evenings

and weekends may be required for specific in-person events.

Travel

When public health conditions allow, domestic travel is required 2-3 times per year for

meetings and conferences.

Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive listing of

activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties,

responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Desired Qualifications:

At least three years of communications leadership, at a scale and complexity comparable

to HEAL’s work, with:

• A documented track record of developing and executing narrative, communications, and media strategies, including nontraditional media
• Sound judgement and the ability to forecast and balance long term strategy with emergent communications needs
• Experience pursuing media opportunities, ideally in campaign settings
• Proven ability developing communications materials for policy initiatives that translate complex information into accessible and actionable messages for target audiences

Team & Project Leadership

• At least three years of experience managing a team, including supervising staff, managing consultants, and supporting professional growth through collaborative, values-driven leadership
• Experience creating and stewarding internal processes that support efficient, values-aligned collaboration across teams
• Advanced project management skills, with a proven ability to develop processes, prioritize and reprioritize communications work in response to emerging movement needs, crises, or opportunities, while keeping long-term strategies on track
• Comfort managing projects and people remotely

Values and Approach

• Clear values alignment, with a demonstrated commitment to movement work and understanding of the intersections of racial, economic, environmental, gender, and disability justice.
• Readiness to meet this political moment with clarity, creativity, and purpose.
• Self-direction, with demonstrated initiative, independence, and accountability
• Excellent listening, interpersonal, and facilitation skills, with a collaborative approach to developing and implementing communications strategies
• Creative and strategic, with the ability to identify opportunities for storytelling and engagement that uplift HEAL and our members

Technical Skills

• Fluency with the Google Workspace and basic web maintenance through WordPress, hosting webinars, and some familiarity with tech tools such as Congress Plus, ActionNetwork, and Canva; comfort working on a computer for several hours each day
• Excellent English language skills in all areas of verbal and written communications, and be skilled in interpersonal relations and team dynamics. Spanish-language is a plus.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

This is a full time salaried exempt position with annual gross pay of $105,000-$115,000, commensurate with experience and location.

• HEAL’s full time benefits package includes:
  • 15 standard holidays, 2 personal days, and up to 3 civic engagement days per year
  • Accrual of 13.33 vacation hours per month
  • Accrual of 8 sick hours per month
  • Medical, vision, dental for employees and dependents 100% employer sponsored basic life, short-term, and long-term disability insurance coverage.
  • Access to a 401k retirement plan with employer contribution
  • Access to FSA & Dependent Contribution Plan plans.
  • Annual wellness professional development and home office stipends
  • A paid three-month sabbatical after the first 7 years of continuous service, and each 4 years after that.

HEAL also closes down our office for a paid winter hibernation period during the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years (inclusive) and a paid one-week summer rejuvenation period.

HEAL also loans a laptop for work use, and provides a partial internet and cell phone reimbursement.

HEAL Food Alliance is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, disability, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or any other status protected by law. People from communities disproportionately negatively impacted by the US food system are strongly encouraged to apply.

To apply for this position, please complete the application form on our website at

healfoodalliance.org/work-with-us by January 4, 2026.

HEAL’s full time benefits package includes:

• 15 standard holidays, 2 personal days, and up to 3 civic engagement days per year
• Accrual of 13.33 vacation hours per month
• Accrual of 8 sick hours per month
• Medical, vision, dental for employees and dependents 100% employer sponsored basic life, short-term, and long-term disability insurance coverage.
• Access to a 401k retirement plan with employer contribution
• Access to FSA & Dependent Contribution Plan plans.
• Annual wellness professional development and home office stipends
• A paid three-month sabbatical after the first 7 years of continuous service, and each 4 years after that.

HEAL also closes down our office for a paid winter hibernation period during the two

weeks surrounding Christmas and New Years (inclusive) and a paid one-week summer

rejuvenation period.

HEAL also loans a laptop for work use, and provides a partial internet and cell phone

reimbursement.