November 9, 2021 Edit: This position has been filled.
Dated: August 13, 2021
August 30, 2021 Update: This position will remain open for at least two more weeks. Job listing will remain active until the position is filled.
Food Solutions New England (FSNE) seeks an experienced policy manager with demonstrated policy analysis, facilitation, communication, and project management skills within an integrated framework connecting food systems, land and forest conservation, and New England family-scale fisheries within a racial and social equity context.
The successful candidate will serve as a key liaison to a cross-cutting regional policy initiative that further integrates and coordinates activities, insights, strategies, and tactics across the issue areas of food, farms, forests, fisheries, and communities. The policy manager will work collaboratively with networks of advocates, researchers, community leaders, and decision-makers across New England to advance the goals of the New England Food Vision, the Wildlands & Woodlands Vision, and related efforts.
This position is based at the UNH Sustainability Institute that serves as the coordinating backbone organization for FSNE. This position will work closely with staff at the Highstead Foundation, which serves as the coordinator backbone of Wildlands & Woodland along with the Harvard Forest. Both initiatives have strong collaborations with many NGOs as well as state and federal agencies across the six-state region.
Roles & Responsibilities:
- Identify and recruiting state-level contacts with broad knowledge and connections to integrated policy activities in their state
- Assist in facilitating meetings on specific policy topics and advancing regional collaboration
- Synthesize group insights and recommendations to inform FSNE/W&W priorities and communications. Collaborate with FSNE/W&W staff and partners to regularly convene and coordinate key stakeholders from across the six states to catalyze regional policy activity.
This work includes:
- Develop integrated policy updates across the six-state region and within a national context. Work with FSNE and W&W staff to distribute these internally and to partner networks.
- Cultivate relationships and build strategic alliances among individuals, organizations, and agencies across the region and among the policy areas by serving as a ‘pollinator’.
- Facilitate the development of reports, position papers, and opinion pieces that highlight and frame key policy topics through an FSNE/W&W lens. Includes conducting necessary research, writing, and editing.
- Work with partners in the research community to identify and address key questions of relevance to FSNE/W&W policy priorities. Collaborate with researchers, including students and interns, to generate effective analyses and insights for policymakers, organizers, and advocates.
- Coordinate workshops, panel discussions, and convenings on key policy topics. Cultivate and support enhanced relationships with policymakers and FSNE policy-oriented partners. Help build FSNE’s mailing list dedicated to these topics.
- Provide project management to keep work on track, including developing and implementing timelines and team deliverables and milestones. Tracking and reporting on progress.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a field related to the position
- 5 years of experience in policy formulation and coordination related to integrated approaches to food, farm, fisheries, and forest sustainability, and racial and social equity
- Knowledge of and experience with New England’s food, forest, and fisheries systems, sectors within the food system, networks, and initiatives including FSNE, the New England Food Vision, Wildlands & Woodlands Vision, and related land conservation activities.
- Excellent facilitation and communication skills, including writing and public speaking in simple, clear language.
- Demonstrated project management skills.
- Experience with and commitment to racial and social equity, food justice, and dismantling white supremacy.
- Creative, holistic thinker capable of making connections and working productively across a wide range of issues and activities.
- Ability to travel throughout New England, as conditions allow.
- Knowledge of and deep commitment to the natural and cultural landscapes of New England.
Preferred Qualification:
- Advanced degree in a field related to the position responsibilities
Work Location:
Based at the UNH Sustainability Institute in Durham, New Hampshire. It is expected that this position will function as a work-from-home role with some in-person activities if/when it is needed and if/when is it safe to do so. The FSNE staff is currently functioning as a distributed work-from-home team.
Compensation:
This is a .75 FTE (30 hours per week) position that pays $31.73 per hour. This is a non-benefited temporary position through June 30, 2022, with the potential for renewal contingent upon funding and performance.
Apply:
To apply, please submit resume, cover letter, and three references via the UNH hiring portal here.
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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 of 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
