UNAVCO Program Director – Education and Outreach

Position Announcement
UNAVCO invites applications and nominations for the senior staff position of Director, Education and Outreach. We seek a visionary leader to sustain and enhance the Education and Outreach (E&O) mission of UNAVCO, a university consortium and NSF geodesy facility supporting geoscience research and education. UNAVCO E&O enjoys national recognition for excellence. The program portfolio includes:
• short courses and workshops for research and education,
• strategic support to scientists in developing broader impacts,
• in-residence programs for geodesy science community members and educators,
• professional development in geosciences for K-12 faculty, and
• RESESS student internships for diversity and workforce development.
The successful candidate will lead the UNAVCO community in promoting understanding of geosciences, fostering collaboration between scientific and educational communities, and increasing the number and diversity of students who will become the next generation of geoscientists, while serving on the UNAVCO Senior Management team.
• --Responsibilities
This senior staff position in Education and Outreach defines program direction consonant with UNAVCO’s strategic plan, and leads the program on behalf of the science community. The director develops geodesy as a tool to enhance knowledge of the earth amongst students and the general public, and programs that bring new people into Earth science, particularly from groups that are underrepresented in these fields today. The Director assures the effectiveness and efficiency of project and program management, and sustains relationships with sponsors. The position requires frequent and sometimes extended travel.
• --Required Qualifications
Candidates must have an earned doctorate in geosciences, science education, or a closely related field; expert spoken and written communication skills; and the ability to manage diverse staff and hybrid funding sources in a collaborative working environment.
• --UNAVCO Information
UNAVCO is a member-governed university consortium, an organization that is uniquely positioned to advance and support geodesy community science goals. In addition to 85 US academic members, UNAVCO supports more than 50 organizations at home and abroad as associate members that share UNAVCO’s mission and benefit from its programs and services. Before incorporation in 2001, UNAVCO existed under different organizational umbrellas for nearly two decades as the University Navstar Consortium, then primarily serving geophysicists and geodesists who study tectonic deformation using high-precision GPS technology. Over the last decade, UNAVCO’s scope has expanded significantly, serving new science communities – including those who focus on the deformation of ice, the Earth’s response to ground water, sea level, and other aspects of the hydrosphere, and renewed interest in imaging the structure of the atmosphere. At the same time, the toolbox available to the science community and supported by UNAVCO has expanded to include many new geodetic tools: advancing GPS towards mm-level global GPS geodesy and to streaming high rate observations; borehole strain meters and seismometers, expanded geodetic imaging using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging ) for Airborne Laser Swath Mapping, InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), and Terrestrial Laser Scanning, web services and cyberinfrastructure. At the same time, GPS is finding applications in a frequency range that used to be the sole provenance of seismology, as GPS moves from one solution per day to one solution per second, with high precision. These changes are part of a conscious strategy to meet the future needs of the science community.
This position is based at UNAVCO’s Main Office in Boulder, Colorado, one of the finest living environments in the West.
• --Nominations
Nominations should include the nominee’s name, position, address, email, and telephone number, and be submitted to the President’s Office at UNAVCO.
• --Application Procedure
Please include a letter of application, vita, statement of geoscience education and outreach interests and experience, and names and contact information (phone, fax, e-mail and mailing address) of at least three professional references. Questions should be directed to the Search Committee Chair, xxxx, or consult UNAVCO’s web page: www.unavco.org. To apply, visit www.unavco.org/careers.
• --Screening date
Screening of applicants who meet required qualifications will begin March 11, 2010 and continue until the position is filled.
• --UNAVCO is an Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity organization, with a strong commitment to the principles of diversity and, in that spirit, seeks a broad spectrum of candidates including women, minorities, Vietnam-era veterans, disabled veterans, and persons of disability. Persons of disability may request accommodation during the application and/or interview process through Human Resources. Phone: (303) 381-7515.