Regional Director of Mid-Atlantic

Organizational Overview: College Unbound (CU) is an accredited and state-approved college whose mission is to reinvent the higher education experience for underrepresented returning adult learners. Through rigorous and engaged scholarship, College Unbound integrates students’ own purposes for learning with the needs of their workplaces and communities, improving the lives of the students and the lives of those they touch. Started in RI, College Unbound now supports students across multiple states and looks to continue to develop an infrastructure to support this developing model.

Position Summary: Reporting to the VP for Enrollment & Partnerships and working collaboratively with the Regional CU Advisory Board, the Regional Director will provide leadership within a dynamic higher educational organization that has emerged as a catalyst for change in the higher education sector. To that end, the Regional Director will advance CU’s educational mission in the region while promoting its vision both internally and externally. The Regional Director will support day-to-day operations, fiscal affairs, and regional faculty/staff development and management. Key to the success of this position will be the ability to raise funds to support operations and programs in the region. Likewise, this individual must possess the skills to continue building CU’s profile while developing strategic alliances with public, private, and community partnerships.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership and Program Development

• Build the essential, collaborative civic relationships to advance CU’s strategic goals.
• Recruit, guide, and support Regional-based staff in providing CU students with authentic, relational, and meaningful learning experiences.
• Articulate, steward, and execute CU’s vision for academic excellence, rigorous program evaluation, and program development.

Partnerships and External Relations

• Support Community Organizers and Community organizer contractors within the region in their work to foster and maintain partnerships that provide access to prospective CU students and can provide additional employment opportunities and pathways.
• Conduct outreach to cultivate and development partnerships to support the delivery of CU’s model in the region, including but not limited to enrollment partners, community-based organizations, and social services organizations to support student success at the regional level.
• Manage public relations and marketing efforts, serving as a CU spokesperson in building CU’s reputation, increasing community awareness, and sharing CU’s message -- both internally, with students, and externally, with public, private, and community partners at the Region.
• Provide leadership in enhancing CU’s image and mission by assuming a visible, highly regarded presence at the Region and working closely with other professional, civic, and private organizations where necessary.

Fiscal Management/Fundraising

• Ensure the existence of resources sufficient to maintain CU’s financial health as it applies to the region.
• Assist in the development, monitoring, and oversight of the annual budget as it applies to CU in the Region.
• Provide leadership for all aspects of fundraising to reach and cultivate prospective corporate, foundation, and individual donors.
• Collaborate with CU’s Chief Advancement Officer in efforts to identify development opportunities, solicit funding, and manage funder relationships and stewardship.

Governance/Politics

• Provide timely, effective, and comprehensive communication to the VP for Enrollment & Partnerships in a manner that enables them to function properly and make informed decisions.
• Provide leadership in the development of a regional advisory board and continue to steward those relationships on an ongoing basis.
• Guide the process for achieving and maintaining state approval for on-the-ground operations of the college within the state that serves as the headquarters for the Region.
• Interface with the Departments of Education within each state within the Region to make sure CU is operating in compliance, whether under the terms of SARA or specific state approval.

Organizational Leadership

• Cultivate and maintain an organizational climate and culture that attracts, retains, and motivates high-quality faculty and staff in the Region and works collaboratively with the Provost’s Office to extend the reach of faculty recruitment efforts in the region.
• Coordinates with regional-based full-time and part-time Community Organizers, Community Ambassadors, and Student Support Staff.
• Participates in Bi-Weekly Regional Check-In Meetings, Weekly full Staff Meetings, Bi-Weekly Regional Director Meetings, and participates in person in Summer CU Core Meetings and year-round extended CU Core Meetings.
• Responsible for the collection and reporting of accurate and timely data.
• Performs other duties as needed or assigned.