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The Right Question Institute (RQI) seeks a collaborative and strategic Executive Director to lead the RQI team in executing its mission to make democracy work better by teaching a strategy that allows anyone, no matter their educational, income, or literacy level, to learn to ask better questions and participate more effectively in decisions that affect them. The new leader will collaborate closely with RQI’s program leaders, founding co-directors, and board to set the strategic direction of the organization and to ensure its financial and organizational sustainability.   About RQI The Right Question Institute occupies a unique place in the landscape of nonprofit organizations. Over the past 30 years, RQI staff have created and continue to refine a transformative educational strategy that makes it possible for all people to learn to ask better questions and participate more effectively in key decisions that affect them.   The Right Question Institute provides simple, dynamic, and powerful methods for improving teaching and learning, increasing voter engagement, fostering self-advocacy skills in a range of settings including the legal system, and strengthening patient participation in their own health care. RQI’s methods are used across a wide range of fields by thousands of schools, nonprofit programs and services. RQI has received strong funding support from small and large foundations, consulting earned income, book royalties, and generous private donors.   RQI’s innovative methods are delivered through educational institutions, service organizations, public agencies, community-based organizations, and health care providers all over the country and across the world. RQI’s materials, trainings, web-based resources, and consulting services provide a remarkably cost-effective way for organizations to strengthen the ability of people they work with to make their voices heard and advocate effectively for themselves, their families and their communities.   RQI envisions a vibrant democracy in which all citizens– even those farthest from power– can effectively advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities. Individual citizens confidently participating in their common and ordinary encounters with public agencies and services will produce examples of what RQI calls “Microdemocracy,” a new starting point for democratic action and the cornerstone of a strong foundation for a more just society.   Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, RQI has an annual budget of $1.4M. RQI employs a core staff of nine and is supported by a cross-sector, nine-person board of directors, college and post-graduate interns, consultants, and other professionals in the field. RQI values its intentional and thoughtful organizational culture, which is characterized by collaboration, inclusivity, openness, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to innovative, iterative thinking centered on learning and continuous improvement. RQI strives to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.   The Opportunity The hiring of a newly-created Executive Director role represents an important moment in RQI’s history. RQI is a strong organization that has a proven track record and significant recognition for its work. Staff members are experienced, highly competent self-starters who share a passion for RQI’s mission and genuinely enjoy working together. The board of directors is also deeply passionate about RQI and invests significant time and financial resources to support the mission and programs.   Having built and sustained the organization for three decades, co-founders Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana are eager to step back from organizational management so that they can fully focus on advancing the thought leadership and public argument for RQI’s groundbreaking ideas and practical methods for creating a more just and equitable democracy. RQI believes that in order to create a healthier democracy we need to ensure that all people can make their voices heard and have a say in decisions that affect them. The work begins with more students learning to think for themselves in the classroom and continues with strengthening the ability of all people, no matter their level of education or income, to advocate for themselves and hold decision-makers accountable. Dan and Luz are excited for the upcoming transition, and they look forward to welcoming a new leader who will bring the skills and capabilities that RQI needs to ensure long term sustainability.   This is a unique opportunity for an energetic, collaborative, and strategic leader to play an important role in advancing the shared vision for RQI and the impact it can have in communities around the world. Through a focus on strategic planning, fundraising, business development, and organizational growth, the incoming Executive Director will add their complementary skill set to RQI’s existing strengths and assets to help the entire organization set and achieve its shared goals.   Role of the Executive Director The Executive Director (ED) will bring a balanced approach to leadership, combining an understanding of, and connection to, RQI’s core work with key strengths in organizational growth, strategy, and development. The ED will be inspired and motivated by RQI’s mission and able to speak in a compelling way about the work and impact, while also bringing strategic focus and business acumen to the organization. The ideal candidate is a collaborative and team-oriented leader who values process and relationship building and seeks input at all levels in planning and decision-making.   Reporting to the board of directors, the Executive Director will be responsible and accountable for overall management of the organization. They will oversee operations and drive strategy, framing, and focus, while preserving and nurturing RQI’s culture of personal growth and mutual support. Using a collaborative, inclusive, and responsive approach to staff supervision, the ED will work with RQI’s senior staff team to jointly establish goals and provide resources and needed support to achieve results. Similarly, the ED will work in partnership with the co-founders to successfully navigate their transition from broad organizational leadership to new roles focused on theory development and program delivery and to ensure the success of the ED in the role as RQI’s organizational leader.

Overview of the Organization and Head Start Program   Founded in 1834, Children’s Friendbegan as a home for abused children and has evolved into one of the state’s most innovative human service agencies.  Guided by its mission, Children’s Friend is the innovative leader in improving the well-being and healthy development of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable young children. By reaching children in their earliest years and by working with the entire family, Children’s Friend helps children grow up in the best possible environment while assisting their families to become self-sufficient.   With sites in Providence, Pawtucket, and Central Falls, Children’s Friend is a wide-reaching, well-regarded community leader that provides a broad array of services for children and families. These include: clinical services; adoption; foster care; parent education; Early Intervention; nurse family visiting for high-risk newborns; Nurse-Family Partnership; Healthy Families America; WIC; Early Head Start, Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, and Head Start; State-funded Pre-K; a summer learning and enrichment program; child care, including therapeutic child care for children with special needs; and a variety of family support and family preservation programs.   Children’s Friend is a well-resourced organization with significant administrative strengths and a cutting-edge internal infrastructure.  The organization has received awards for being a Best Place to Work and a Healthiest Employer in Rhode Island.  Staff enjoy a culture of innovation and empowerment and the freedom to take risks.  Additionally, Children’s Friend is a Council on Accreditation-accredited agency and a founding member of the Child Welfare League of America.    The largest Head Start program in Rhode Island, Children’s Friend’s Head Start program provides comprehensive child and family development services while promoting school readiness in low-income preschool children. Services include education, health, nutrition, social services, and other child and family supports. Due to the program’s success in reaching so many of the most vulnerable children in its catchment area and because of the wide array of organizational wrap-around services, the program enjoys a strong reputation within the community.   The Opportunity   Children’s Friend is seeking a Vice President of Programs / Director of Head Start (VP / Director) to provide culturally competent leadership and vision for the development and implementation of its high quality prenatal / birth through five family support and educational program. The VP / Director will have the opportunity to guide this highly-respected and well-known program with an exceptional track record of success. The VP / Director oversees all areas of the Head Start and Family Support program operations including the establishment and implementation of program goals, and relationships with funding sources and other state, federal, and community-based organizations.  Reporting to the Chief of Programs, this is a senior leadership role that will often participate in the executive leadership and decision making process.    

Overview of the Collaborative   The Early Educator Investment Collaborative (the Collaborative) is a national early childhood funder collaborative that has come together to transform the early childhood education workforce. The Collaborative envisions a country in which there is no opportunity gap among children, and every child makes significant and sustained gains in cognitive, social, and emotional development through their early care and education experience. As a group of early childhood funders, the Collaborative is committed to eliminating the systemic racism that has held early childhood educators in poverty and limited the access of children of color to high-quality early childhood education in their communities.   To achieve this vision, the Collaborative seeks to ensure every young child in an early care and education (ECE) program has an educator who is well prepared, possesses competencies needed to promote healthy learning and development, and is compensated appropriately.   The Collaborative is enacting two strategies to fulfill its vision: - Educator Preparation: Under this strategy, the Collaborative is working to transform how institutions of higher education (IHEs) prepare ECE teachers. - Compensation: Under this strategy, the Collaborative is working toward an increased and appropriate compensation for ECE professionals. The Collaborative is represented by a Steering Committee of funders and informed by an Advisory Committee of experts, with deep experience in early childhood. The Collaborative is fiscally sponsored by TSNE, an organization that provides grants and financial management, consulting, and training services to strengthen nonprofits.     Role of the Director   The Director will bring a substantial level of knowledge in and passion for ECE, and deep knowledge of the ECE workforce. This includes an understanding of the demographic composition of the ECE teaching workforce in the U.S., the status of access to competency-based preparation for lead teachers, the historical antecedents and barriers to appropriate compensation for the workforce, and the impact of external forces – including, but not limited to, systemic oppression and the racialized and gender wealth gaps, and how these affect the stability of the ECE workforce.  The Director reports to the Steering Committee (SC), the governing body for the Collaborative, under a mutual agreement with TSNE.   The Director will also demonstrate a proven track record of leadership, execution, and consensus-building, to lead the Collaborative forward toward its goal of dramatically of eliminating the opportunity gap by improving the status of the ECE workforce via increased compensation and competency-based preparation. The Director will be the nexus and day-to-day leader of the Collaborative, skillfully implementing the Collaborative Steering Committee’s dual strategic focus on competency-based preparation and compensation for lead ECE teachers.  The Director will engage directly with the communities of intended impact. This includes, but is not limited to, working with the ECE workforce itself, individuals working in IHEs that prepare the workforce, and policymakers, advocates, and grassroots organizers working to increase workforce compensation and access to competency-based preparation.  The ability to effectively engage and comfortably communicate with many different audiences is essential.  As the first staff member for the Collaborative, an entrepreneurial spirit and demonstrated capacity to be a “self-starter” will be necessary to thrive and succeed.    The Director will have the flexibility ability to hire one full-time equivalent position(s) for support staff to assist with content and logistics or another identified need.      

Location: Raleigh, North Carolina                           Overview of the Organization Population Health Improvement Partners (Improvement Partners) was founded in 2009 in North Carolina with a simple purpose: help public health organizations and communities build their capacity to continuously improve and ensure measurably better health. Improvement Partners has expanded statewide and nationally and grown its reputation as sought after experts in improvement science, who are knowledgeable and easy to work with thought-partners, coaches and expert advisors. The organization seeks to improve health on a massive scale, and enhance the ability of health organizations to address health equity, ultimately changing the world. Improvement Partners is problem solving together for a healthier tomorrow and delivers expertise that is adaptable and gets population health results. Improvement Partners has evolved into a nonprofit consulting practice with deep improvement science and project management expertise, addressing systems-level change in the public/population health space, and partnering with groups with specific domain expertise in key sub-sectors of public/population health that have the infrastructure to manage work with very large clients and complex multi-stakeholder collaborations. Most Improvement Partners staff function as consultants and coaches.   Improvement Partners currently has nine staff members and has experienced strong national expansion in the last five years, including work that has broadened to include hospitals, health systems, federal government-based projects and a greater share of new work emerging outside of North Carolina. Improvement Partners has the benefit of 501c3 charitable status through its fiscal sponsor agency TSNE MissionWorks. The organization operates as an independently directed nonprofit led by an executive director and advisory board under a mutual agreement with TSNE MissionWorks. For more information about Population Health Improvement Partners, visit https://improvepartners.org/.   The Opportunity Never before in our lifetimes has the United States and the world been as intensively focused on the issues at the heart of Improvement Partners mission - population health and health equity. Improvement Partners, through its support to partners and clients, targets an impact over the next three years on ten million lives and over $500 million in health savings.   Improvement Partners has had phenomenal success generating repeat clients and word of mouth referrals in a rapidly evolving healthcare and public health market context and is actively building the platforms its next leader will need to undertake more active and intentional business development activity.   The new leader will devote significant focus to growing Improvement Partners impact through external relationship building and business development in targeted domains within population health, identified through a recently completed strategic planning process.   The Advisory Board of Population Health Improvement Partners seeks a visionary, systems thinker capable of broadly building and maintaining business partner, funder and stakeholder relationships to grow the organization’s impact, while rapidly building trust in its collaborative internal team environment that is marked by both excellence and accountability.   Projects and Services Population Health Improvement Partners work is exciting, important and high impact. Recent projects have been engaged with: - Helping entire communities across North and South Carolina eat healthier and be more physically active; - Supporting hospitals across the US to ensure more mothers and babies enjoy the countless benefits from breastfeeding; - Assisting families and clinicians in 10 states improve care for the most medically fragile children so they can survive and thrive; - Helping clinics across the US develop systems to screen and refer families to get help addressing important social determinants impacting their children’s health; - Empowering the Maternal and Child Healthcare workforce across the US to tackle the most vexing challenges in their states with the latest quality improvement, systems science and evidence-based tools; - Providing Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Training Centers, and states across the US, with the skill sets needed to apply Quality Improvement and innovation tools to improve screening and treatment; - Supporting 23 states in their bold actions to reduce infant mortality and disparities statewide. All the work of Improvement Partners includes purposeful attention to addressing health equity, and social determinants.   Sample Improvement Partners projects include: - Healthy People Healthy Carolinas (HPHC): Project partners The Duke Endowment, North Carolina Healthcare Association, South Carolina Hospital Association, and Improvement Partners undertook a bold, community-based initiative aimed at reducing unhealthy weight, diabetes, and heart disease by addressing the social determinants of health which contribute to these conditions. This program uses a coalition-building approach to help engage residents to improve their health and create sustainable, grassroots change. Between January 1 and June 30, 2019 HPHC coalitions implemented 61 evidence-based interventions in eleven North Carolina counties, impacting 550,000 individuals. - Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network (CoIIN) to Reduce Infant Mortality (IM). To help lower the U.S. infant mortality rate, Improvement Partners has joined the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Abt Associates to implement and support the project. (IM CoIIN) focuses on six strategic areas that are aimed at reducing infant mortality and eliminating health inequalities in birth outcomes in communities across the United States. The key role of Improvement Partners in the collaborative is to provide technical assistance on quality improvement methods and innovation as well as data collection and measurement via one-on-one coaching and collaborative-wide webinars and resource materials.