Director, Office of Inclusive Excellence

Director, Office of Inclusive Excellence

Department:
Office of Inclusive Excellence

Reports To:
Chief Diversity Officer

Position Type:
Staff

Position Summary:
The Office of Inclusive Excellence is deeply committed to creating an inclusive campus environment for all members of the New Jersey Institute of Technology community where a sense of belonging is fostered and sustained. The Office of Inclusive Excellence was founded at NJIT in the Spring of 2023 under the leadership of the inaugural Chief Diversity Officer and is well positioned and resourced to be a valuable contributor to the NJIT campus community and its external partners. We achieve our mission through the collaboration and partnership with internal and external stakeholders to collectively work toward greater equity, inclusion and belonging for our diverse campus community.

The Office of Inclusive Excellence at New Jersey Institute of Technology seeks applicants for a Director to join its team The Director for the Office of Inclusive Excellence works collaboratively to lead and drive inclusive engagement at New Jersey Institute of Technology, specifically in the development and implementation of programs, training, policy, and assessment.

In response to the NJIT Campus Climate Survey in 2022 there is a critical need to build an office infrastructure and staffing at NJIT that supports diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) initiatives, programs, and members of our campus community. The Director role will oversee office initiatives, carrying out all programmatic DEIB initiatives. The Director will oversee initiatives such as Courageous Conversations, Heritage Day Celebration Events, MLK Day of Service and Learning, Annual Lecture: Distinguished Voices for Equity, student work study employment, supervision of the Associate Director of Diversity and Inclusion and the day-to-day operations for the Office of Inclusive Excellence, while also being a partner to various campus stakeholders and direct resource to students, serving as a representative for key university signature events.

The Director for the Office of Inclusive Excellence will help identify and evaluate strategic priorities and culturally transformative and sustaining plans, programs, and practices that foster belonging and promote a climate that is: critically reflective, authentic, solution-based and advances intercultural learning and cultural humility while challenging institutional inequities and barriers to community well-being and belonging.

Structurally, the Director is supervised by the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) and supervises the Associate Director for the Office of Inclusive Excellence. The Director will work in partnership with the CDO to manage the day-to-day operations for the Office of Inclusive Excellence and work closely with the Chief Diversity Officer as the CDO leads and fosters institutional diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) alignment, strategy and vision across all University Academic Dean and Cabinet areas and external partnerships.

Essential Functions:
- Supporting the CDO, Cabinet Members and Academic Deans and faculty leadership, in a shared governance model, in the development of a DEIB strategic vision that identifies needs, advances priorities and strengths and eliminates barriers with actionable solutions to sustain inclusive excellence and transformative practice throughout the institution.

- Serving as a leader and facilitator in DEIB training and development for faculty, students and staff and providing consultative and collaborative approach to ensure DEIB capacity among institutional members in the areas such as policy, assessment, and resources for intentional practices and policies that specifically promote DEIB and create change on the campus community.

- Developing, managing, and maintaining a high level of programming engagement on campus by overseeing and supervising the Associate Director for the Office of Inclusive Excellence in the implementation of key programming such as Heritage Month programming, MLK Day of Service, student leadership retreats, identity-based pre-commencement ceremonies, and religious educational programming. In addition, the Director will participate and engage in campus-wide events and programs such as Convocation, Commencement, Open House, Homecoming, Alumni Weekend, etc.

- Support the CDO in working closely with faculty to foster inclusive classroom practices and a redesign toward inclusive curriculum and pedagogy through training and development, lecture events, seminars, etc.

- Leverage the 2022 Campus Climate Report to develop a DEIB dashboard to track data and assess campus climate and being culturally responsive to the campus climate report recommendations.

- Providing a broad range of DEIB support, advice, resources, and direction to all members of the NJIT community to ensure our campus community moves toward greater equity, inclusion and belonging.

- Fostering relationships that influence positive change and demonstrate a commitment to DEIB, particularly with the academic colleges and senior leadership.

- Work closely with the Associate Director for the Office of Inclusive Excellence to create a DEIB peer educator program to engage students in DEIB efforts on campus and advance DEIB capacity among our student community.

- Engage with internal and external stakeholders to help ensure NJIT's vision for DEIB is regionally, nationally, and globally prominent.

- Foster a DEIB lens in relationship to STEM and bring a focus on how to advance DEIB in the STEM discipline, particularly identifying ways to advance engagement among women and underrepresented populations in STEM.

- Perform other duties as assigned.

- The ideal candidateis expected to have direct higher education experience in DEIB programming, engagement, assessment, process, and policy with the skillset to achieve DEIB program goals and objectives; ensures DEIB recommendations are aligned to institutional DEIB strategic priorities and plans and reflect current best practices; ability to track and leverage data to inform best practices and make recommendations to improve campus climate; the leadership capacity to suggests changes and implements approved changes to the DEIB programs. The candidate will have experience and knowledge of DEIB concepts and ability to convey DEIB concepts to others and will demonstrate the capacity to be a change agent for culture and belonging at NJIT.

Prerequisite Qualifications:
- Candidate will hold a master's degree in higher education or appropriately related field that is directly connected to DEIB with at least 5 years' experience in a DEIB role. Skills and abilities in DEIB that are acquired through a combination of education, training, and experience; or a combination of education, training and experience which would lead to the competencies required for successful performance of the position's essential duties.

- Candidate must possess proven ability to effectively work with a culturally, and ethnically diverse faculty, staff, and student community. They are expected to have excellent oral, written and cross-cultural communication skills along with strong information technology literacy skills in areas such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams etc.).

- At the university's discretion, the education and experience prerequisites may be exempted where the candidate can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the university, an equivalent combination of education and experience specifically preparing the candidate for success in the position.

Preferred Qualifications:
- Demonstrated success in leading campus climate surveys.

- Demonstrated success leading DEI and campus climate initiatives, particularly ones that foster a sense of belonging for members of the campus community.

- Experience working in a high paced campus environment.

- Strong background in interpersonal conflict resolution or mediation.

- Familiarity with current DEI research literature.

Bargaining Unit:
Non-Aligned

Range/Band:
10

FLSA:
Exempt
Full-Time

EEO Statement:
As an EEO employer, NJIT is committed to building a diverse and inclusive teaching, research, and working environment and strongly encourages applications from individuals with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and women.

Diversity Statement:
As a Minority Serving Institution and Asian-American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution, diversity is a core value of NJIT and we are committed to make diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, part of everything we do. We celebrate the diversity of our university community and recognize the cultural and personal differences each member of the community brings to NJIT. We strive to cultivate an inclusive campus culture that promotes excellence among our faculty, staff and students. Building a robust and diverse community is critical to NJIT’s continuing status as a premier institution of higher education and a leading polytechnic university.

To apply, visit https://njit.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/5424?c=njit





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