Dated: November 5, 2020 / Edited: November 30, 2020
The deadline to apply for this position has passed. Please make sure you are subscribed to our email list to learn of future opportunities.
Food Solutions New England (FSNE) seeks an experienced part-time policy analyst with demonstrated facilitation, communication, policy analysis, and project management skills within a food system, land and forest conservation, and racial equity context. The policy analyst will work with a newly formed FSNE Policy Platform working group to advance the development of a policy platform through a participatory process to facilitate connectivity, alignment and coordinated action on defining and advancing the platform.
Timeline: Please apply/submit your materials only through the UNH Human Resources portal no later than Sunday, November 29th at 5pm EST. Only those chosen for interviews will be contacted. Interviews will be conducted in early December and our hope is that the successful candidate will begin work in early January.
Responsibilities
Policy Analysis and Coordination 60%
- Collaborate with FSNE staff and related stakeholders to conduct a landscape analysis of current assets of partner networks and organizations to advance policy through formulation, coordination, and agendas.
- Work with FSNE staff to convene the New England FSNE Policy Platform Coordination working. This work includes:
- Conducting and coordinating policy analysis around the FSNE Policy Platform integrating food, farm, fisheries, and forests.
- Setting agendas and facilitating regular working group meetings
- Providing project management for the working group to keep work on track, including developing and implementing timelines and team deliverables and milestones. Tracking and reporting on progress.
- Providing regular updates on work of the working group to the FSNE Steering Committee and Network Team.
Communications & Outreach 40%
- Cultivate and support enhanced relationships with policy makers and FSNE policy-oriented partners. Help build FSNE’s mailing list dedicated to these topics.
- Work with FSNE Communication Director to create policy briefs, press releases and other resources needed to support the project. Includes conducting necessary research, writing, and editing.
- Work with FSNE Communications Director to create and distribute tools for the FSNE network to use during election cycles to engage candidates in substantive FSNE discussions and forums
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelors degree and a minimum of 8 years of experience in policy formulation and coordination related to integrated approaches to food, farm, fisheries, and forests sustainability and resilience.
- Knowledge of and experience with New England’s food systems, sectors, networks, and initiatives including FSNE, the New England Food Vision, and Wildlands and Woodlands Vision.
- Excellent facilitation and communication skills, including writing and public speaking in simple, clear language.
- Demonstrated project management skills.
- Experience with and commitment to racial equity, food justice, and dismantling white supremacy.
- Creative, holistic thinker capable of making connections and working productively across a wide range of ideas and activities.
- Ability to travel throughout New England, as conditions allow.
Salary
The salary for this position is an hourly rate starting at $31.73 at approximately 25 hours per week. This position will be remote from within New England with an administrative home at the University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute. This position is funded through June 2021, with the possibility of renewal depending upon funding and performance. This is an hourly position and does not provide benefits or paid leave/vacation.
About Food Solutions New England
Food Solutions New England is a regional, six-state network that unites the food system community around a shared set of values – democratic empowerment, racial equity, and dignity for all, sustainability, and trust – and strengthens the movement’s ability to achieve The New England Food Vision goals. The FSNE network is supported and coordinated by the UNH Sustainability Institute.
About UNH Sustainability Institute and Sustainability at UNH
As a public land-, sea- and space-grant institution, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) has been dedicated to the public good for over 150 years. Sustainability, defined as the collective commitment to human dignity for all people and ecological integrity in all places, is fundamental to the public good, and is a core UNH value strategic priority. The framework of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a key way we define and conceive of the breadth and interconnected nature of sustainability.
UNH is home to the oldest endowed, university-wide sustainability program in US higher education, established in 1997 through a generous gift by a visionary UNH alumnus. Today UNH enjoys national (and international) leadership in higher education in the field of sustainability, a result over two decades of work by many faculty, staff and students.
- One of only 9 institutions in the world (7 in the US) to have achieved Platinum, the highest level of achievement in STARS (the Sustainability Tracking and Rating System) managed by AASHE, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education)
- Ranked by Sierra Club as one of the top 10 “Cool Schools” (#9, 2020 ranking)
- Princeton Review 2021 Green Honor Roll (one of only 30 colleges and universities that received the highest possible Green Rating score (99)
Our work at UNH Sustainability Institute is to advance sustainability in all aspects of UNH’s mission, including upholding our national standing as a top-ranked institution for sustainability. This work consists of three interrelated elements:
- We connect and support staff and faculty to advance sustainability in our campus operations, across the curriculum, and in research
- We serve as the backbone organization for multiple regional sustainability networks
- Food Solutions New England
- NH Food Alliance
- NH Farm to School
- New England Municipal Sustainability Network
- We coordinate and support programs to directly engage students in sustainability – housed in what we refer to as the Changemaker Collaborative – this is our newest priority area
