Vice President of National Impact

Job Title: Vice President of National Impact

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Status: Full Time, Exempt

Salary Range: $140,000 - $180,000 Exempt/Salaried

Deadline to Apply: August 1, 2025

Start Date: August 17, 2025

Location: Washington, DC

Schedule: Hybrid; 2 in-office days and 3 remote days. Mon - Friday, 9 am to 5 pm. Some special events will occur outside of regular work hours.

Work environment: Normal office environment. Some work will take place off-site during special events.

Travel: This position requires national, overnight travel approximately 20% of the time for activities such as meetings and events within and outside the DC Metro area. Must be able to travel (via plane, train, or car).

About Generation Hope:

Generation Hope is a nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure all student parents have the opportunities to succeed, experience economic mobility, and build wealth by engaging education and policy partners to drive systemic change and providing direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming. To date, we have provided over $1.5 million in tuition assistance, supported nearly 500 teen parents in college, celebrated more than 200 degrees earned through our program, and established relationships with over 30 two- and four-year institutions nationwide. For more information, please visit www.generationhope.org.

By joining our team, you will not only work for an organization that embodies and operationalizes our values, but you will also help create a culture that genuinely supports every member of our staff. The best part of our organization is the people, from the families we serve to the team we have deliberately cultivated. We strive for excellence while understanding that the most valuable asset we have is our people. We celebrate diversity in all its forms, including thought, professional and lived experiences, race, gender, and even musical taste. If this sounds like a mission and work environment you would like to contribute to and grow with, please consider joining our team.

Executive Position Overview

Generation Hope is seeking a bold, visionary executive to serve as its Vice President of National Impact (VPNI)—a mission-critical leadership role responsible for scaling the organization’s national influence, driving systemic change, and delivering measurable progress toward the goals outlined in our 2029 Strategic Path. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and working closely with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the VPNI serves as a key architect and co-leader of Generation Hope’s national impact strategy.

The VPNI oversees and integrates three strategic pillars—policy and advocacy, research and evaluation, and institutional learning and innovation—to advance Generation Hope’s mission of ensuring student parents have the opportunity to succeed, experience economic mobility, and build intergenerational wealth. This leader drives alignment across internal teams and elevates Generation Hope’s role as a national thought leader and systems-change driver.

In partnership with the CEO, the VPNI leads all national policy work, including the development and execution of the organization’s annual policy priorities, the authorship and oversight of policy briefs and reports, and the coordination of timely, strategic responses to federal and state legislative developments. Additionally, the VPNI ensures that Generation Hope’s capacity-building work and strategy are creating more access to higher education and economic mobility for parents nationwide. As a key member of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), the VPNI contributes to the organization's overall strategy and provides cross-functional leadership. This role directly supervises a high-performing team that includes the Director of Learning and Innovation, Policy Manager, and Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation.

The ideal candidate is a strategic, equity-driven executive with a strong track record in policy leadership, systems transformation, and multi-sector collaboration.

Key Responsibilities

National Strategy Development & Executive Leadership

• Co-create and lead the implementation of Generation Hope’s national impact strategy in partnership with the CEO and COO, ensuring alignment, collaboration, and cohesion between our policy, technical assistance, and research work.
• Manage National Impact department budgets and serve on the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), contributing to enterprise-level planning, performance management, and decision-making.
• Drive integration across policy, research, evaluation, and learning teams to ensure coherent and aligned impact.
• Represent Generation Hope in strategic discussions with national partners, including board members, funders, institutional partners, and coalitions, and provide regular briefings on national outcomes.

Policy & Advocacy Leadership

• Lead all policy efforts, including the development, execution, and evaluation of Generation Hope’s annual federal and state policy priorities.
• With input from student parents, guide the development of integrated short-term and long-term advocacy strategies across legislative and administrative domains.
• With the support of the Policy Manager, write, review, and publish policy briefs, legislative recommendations, issue reports, and position statements to champion Generation Hope’s policy priorities.
• Partner with the CEO to lead engagement with policymakers, including drafting legislative language, preparing testimony, and responding to legislative developments.
• Supervise the Policy Manager and provide oversight to the Student Parent Advocacy Alliance (SPAA), ensuring that 25+ student parent leaders annually are meaningfully engaged in advocacy and narrative change.
• Serve as Generation Hope’s national spokesperson in public forums, briefings, media appearances, and coalition work (20+ engagements per year).
• Coordinate rapid-response strategies to legislative or regulatory changes, aligning internal messaging and external advocacy with executive leadership and the communications team.

Research & Evaluation Strategy

• Manage the Senior Manager of Research & Evaluation and lead a robust mixed-method evaluation strategy that integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches to assess the effectiveness of policy, partnerships, and programming. Supervise the collection, analysis, and translation of data into compelling reports, dashboards, and insights that inform strategic decision-making and support grant proposals, funder reporting, and organizational learning.
• Lead the production and release of 2–4 major research publications or briefs annually to include collaborative projects with external experts and partners.
• Ensure all research efforts reflect Generation Hope’s Race Equity Blueprint, incorporating disaggregated data, student parent voice, and actionable insights.
• Translate research findings into strategic recommendations for policy reform, institutional practices, and system innovations.

Learning & Innovation Oversight

• Supervise the Director of Learning & Innovation, ensuring the successful delivery of FamilyU and technical assistance initiatives, serving 8–12 higher education institutions/organizations per year.
• Guide the development of 3+ national field tools annually—including readiness assessments, implementation playbooks, and equity-centered institutional guides.
• Use institutional insights to inform Generation Hope’s broader national impact strategy and contribute to sector-wide best practices.

Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships

• Collaborate with the Development team to secure $ 1 M+ annually in funding aligned with national impact efforts.
• Support funder engagement, proposal development, and strategic messaging for systems change, policy, and research work.
• Cultivate high-impact partnerships with government leaders, academic institutions, advocacy coalitions, funders, and policy influencers to expand Generation Hope’s reach and influence and maintain an overall tracker for all coalition partners and collaborators across the National Impact department.

Other duties: This job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all activities, duties, or responsibilities required of the employee. They may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.

Required Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree is required in a related field such as public policy, education, law, or social science.
• At least 10 years of progressive leadership experience in public policy, higher education, advocacy, research, or nonprofit strategy, including 5+ years in a senior or executive leadership role.
• Extensive expertise in higher education systems.
• Deep understanding of structural barriers affecting student parents and low-income families.

Preferred Qualifications:

• An advanced degree is strongly preferred, particularly in fields such as public policy, education, law, or a related social science discipline.
• Lived experience as a student parent, first-generation college student, or someone impacted by systemic barriers is highly valued.

Competencies

• Proven success leading national or state-level policy initiatives, including legislative drafting, coalition management, and campaign execution.
• Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, manage, and evaluate high-performing cross-functional teams, with a focus on equity, impact, and staff growth.
• Strong experience leading matrixed teams across policy, research, evaluation, and learning.
• Track record in change leadership, including scaling departments, navigating growth, and aligning systems to strategy.
• Skilled in the design and implementation of evaluation systems, with an emphasis on data-driven decision-making and strategic learning.
• Exceptional communicator—able to produce compelling policy briefs, speak publicly, and represent the organization across audiences.
• Experience with government relations, including cultivating relationships with legislators and agencies, monitoring legislative activity, and leading administrative advocacy.
• Proven ability to manage departmental budgets and align resources to organizational goals.
• Confident in briefing boards, funders, and senior constituents on policy outcomes, research findings, and strategic priorities.
• Unquestioned commitment to Generation Hope’s mission and values.
• Deep commitment to racial and economic equity, and a demonstrated ability to center student parent voice and lived experience in all aspects of leadership and systems change work.

Physical demands:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift to 25 pounds at times.

Candidates must be located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area by the start date.

Salary and Benefits:

Generation Hope offers comprehensive benefits, including a 403(b) plan, health insurance, dental coverage, and paid time off. For more information on benefits, visit generationhope.org/careers.

EEO Statement:

Generation Hope is an equal opportunity employer. Generation Hope will not discriminate on any basis prohibited by law, including marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibility, matriculation, political affiliation, race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, breastfeeding, or reproductive health decisions), age, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, and disability.