Fast Facts

Achieving the Dream is seeking a Director of Humanities Education Initiatives to lead a grant-funded project aimed at embedding humanities within community college education, enhancing partnerships, and promoting student success.

Responsibilities: The Director will manage the humanities transformation initiative, oversee project deliverables, and ensure effective faculty support while enhancing community partnerships.

Skills: Candidates must possess a Master’s degree in a humanities discipline or education-related field, five years of higher education experience, and demonstrated expertise in curriculum development and faculty coaching.

Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include experience leading curriculum redesign initiatives and a strong understanding of equitable teaching practices and community engagement.

Location: The position is remote with occasional travel required.

Compensation: $130000 - $145000 / Annually

Director, Humanities Education Initiatives

Position Details:

Position Type: 

Full Time, Exempt

Reports To: 

Executive Director, Teaching and Learning

Work Location: 

Remote 

Level of Travel Required: 

Occasional travel per department and organizational needs.

Limited Term of Employment: This position is grant-funded under a three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation. Employment is not guaranteed beyond the term of the grant.

Job Overview:

Achieving the Dream (ATD) seeks a dynamic leader to direct the Transforming Community College Education through the Humanities initiative, a three-year, $2 million Mellon Foundation–funded project. Reporting to the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, the Director will lead efforts to embed the humanities across institutional planning and instruction, strengthen partnerships with cultural and community organizations, and position the humanities as a catalyst for student success and community vibrancy.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Program Leadership and Management (40%):

• Direct the Mellon-funded humanities transformation initiative, aligning with ATD’s teaching and learning strategy.
• Oversee project deliverables, budget, and timelines.
• Supervise staff and ensure integration across ATD teams.
• Collaborate with evaluation and communications teams to track outcomes, document impact, and ensure timely reporting to the Mellon Foundation and ATD leadership.

Faculty Development and Direct Support to Colleges (30%):

• Provide coaching and support to participating colleges, helping them implement innovative teaching and learning strategies focused on humanities education and digital pedagogy.
• Work closely with faculty and staff to integrate equitable, inclusive, and student-centered teaching practices into the curriculum.
• Serve as a resource for colleges, providing subject matter expertise in pedagogy, curriculum design, and teaching strategies.
• Facilitate professional learning, seminars, and communities of practice.

Thought Leadership and Content Development (20%):

• Develop and disseminate field-facing resources—including toolkits, case studies, and presentations—that advance best practices in humanities-centered teaching and learning.
• Curate and contribute to ATD’s professional learning events and convenings, highlighting innovations in humanities education, digital learning, and AI integration.
• Represent ATD nationally through conferences and publications to elevate the organization’s leadership in teaching and learning innovation.

Partnership and Sustainability (10%):

• Cultivate relationships with external partners, including faculty, educational organizations, and cultural institutions, to extend project impact.
• Collaborate with internal teams at ATD, including the research, assessment, and communications teams, to ensure successful program implementation and dissemination of findings.
• Work with organizational leadership to identify and pursue potential funding and partnership opportunities that support teaching and learning program development.

Skills/Qualifications/Experience:

• Master’s degree in humanities discipline (language, literature, history, philosophy, the arts, etc.), or a master’s degree in education, curriculum design, or a related field, with deep humanities teaching experience.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in higher education teaching and learning, with a focus on humanities education and/or curriculum development.
• Experience leading humanities-based curriculum redesign or interdisciplinary learning initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to connect humanities education with workforce, civic, or community outcomes. 
• Expertise in faculty development, coaching, or instructional design.
• Strong project management and communication skills.
• Commitment to equity and inclusive teaching practices.

Core Competencies:

Collaboration: Demonstrates respect, humility, and willingness to collaborate when seeking to understand others and making decisions. 

Equity Mindset: Demonstrates capacity to recognize and address racialized structures, policies, and practices that produce and sustain racial inequities. 

Learning Orientation: Embraces challenges, new ideas and different perspectives as an opportunity to learn; continually seeks out and applies new learning to activate change or improvements. 

Systems Thinking: Defines the system and one’s role in the system. Sees relationships and the dynamic elements of the holistic system and executes work accordingly. Influences the system and maps connections to ATD’s external landscape.

Physical Demands: 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. 

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Achieving the Dream is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse work environment.Employment policies and decisions are based upon merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally- protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.