Program Manager, Sustainable City Year Program

The Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) seeks a highly motivated, organized, and action-oriented individual to manage grant- and contract-funded activity for the Sustainable Cities Initiative. The position will primarily manage the Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP). The position will also manage and participate in other SCI grant-funded activity.

SCYP is a nationally and internationally award-winning program that matches existing courses across multiple disciplines with multiple projects in a city over an academic year.

The scale and scope of the effort is inspiring for students, faculty, and community stakeholders, and is unlike any other program in the country. In addition to SCYP, SCI works on applied, interdisciplinary research and engages with policy-making at municipal, state, and federal levels to help create policy that better supports sustainability activities at the local level.

SCI is also developing international partnerships in China, New Zealand, and Europe and coordinates a Global Eco-City Study Abroad effort with courses in Ecuador, China, and Northern Europe.

Please visit the SCI website for more information about the program. To get a quick sense of the scale, scope and impact of SCYP, you can read articles written about the program on our website, including an article in the New York Times.

The Sustainable Cities Initiative (SCI) is a cross-disciplinary effort that integrates research, education, service, and public outreach to improve the design and development of cities and to serve as a model of sustainable city design for the nation. SCI works at a variety of scales from geographic regions to individual buildings and connects this work to students, scholars, funders, project partners, and policy makers. Service learning is a key aspect of this work. SCI projects have involved work with the departments of planning and public policy, architecture, landscape architecture, product design, business, law, journalism, civil engineering, economics, and arts administration.

The Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) is a significant and ground-breaking service learning-based program that directs existing courses across disciplines to serve a single city during an entire academic year. SCYP is currently in its third year. During those three years, more than 1,300 students from 75 academic courses in 13 departments have contributed more than 200,000 hours of work to the three SCYP partner cities (Gresham, Salem, and Springfield).

In SCYP, students and professors work directly on topics developed jointly by instructors and city staff, ensuring that student ideas and learning are indeed relevant to communities. The overall goals are to: 1) provide students with a real-world project to investigate; 2) apply their training; and 3) provide valuable service and movement to a local city ready to transition to a more sustainable and accessible future. While the idea is simple, its execution is complex, requiring considerable coordination and internal infrastructure to ensure that students get an enriching educational experience and that external deliverables are of the highest quality and carry the most significant impact.

This is a fairly radical re-conceptualization of the public university to do public good and is working across disciplines in ways that many think should happen, but rarely occurs in practice. We are seeking someone who can contribute to the entrepreneurial energy of SCI, yet manage one of our core programs in a disciplined, professional, and high quality way.

SCI's other activities include:

• Research: Many of SCI's members are national experts on issues of livability and sustainable cities. SCI is interested in developing more integrated and truly collaborative research, including relationships that span campuses. SCI's current research topics include Transportation Livability Metrics, Sustainable Suburbs, Active Transportation, Social Equity, and Urban Ecological Design.
• Policy Advising: Issues of sustainable city design and livability address significant national priorities of climate change, obesity, and general quality of life. SCI has been involved in the policy arena in multiple ways and seeks to strengthen its role in helping guide policy at state and national levels.
• Experts-in-Residence: This is an effort to bring national experts to Oregon for multi-day engagements with faculty, students, and the community on issues of critical importance. In 2009, Bill Wilkinson, one of the nation's experts in bicycle and pedestrian policy came to Oregon, and in May 2010, Professor Jonathan Levine from the University of Michigan came to Oregon to talk about transportation, land use, and zoning. The 2011 Expert-in-Residence was Gabe Klein, currently the Director of the Chicago Department of Transportation.

Responsibilities:

1. Direct the Sustainable City Year program (75%):

• Develop and maintain relations with Oregon cities.
• Coordinate the application and selection process for SCYP partner cities.
• Recruit faculty to participate in SCYP, matching courses throughout the university and at other OUS institutions with projects proposed by the partner city.
• Serve as the main point of contact for the SCYP partner city and for the professors involved in the program. Ensure that faculty, students, and city staff have the information and resources they need for a successful SCYP partnership. Arrange meetings and develop scope of work documents for each SCYP course.
• Develop documents, maps, descriptions, etc, to support the SCYP program.
• Recruit and work closely with student employees from SCYP courses who prepare and compile reports as part of the SCYP projects.
• Edit and format SCYP reports for submission to the city, along with handling communication regarding SCYP contracts.
• Work with the UO Libraries for SCYP support documents and archiving of project-generated work.
• Prepare and submit budgets for SCYP.
• Track and produce necessary paperwork for reimbursements and purchases related to SCYP.
• Supervise SCYP student staff (may include a Graduate Teaching Fellow and other hourly or volunteer student workers).
• Give presentations about SCYP to organizations in the partner city, potential partner cities, legislators, academic classes, and conferences.

2. Grant and proposal writing (5%):

• In partnership with SCI faculty and staff, coordinate funding development for SCI, including SCYP, through identification and writing of appropriate grant proposals to foundations, private sector organizations, and state and federal government sources.

3. Manage other grant- and contract-funded SCI activity in partnership with SCI directors and faculty (10%).

4. Student employee supervision (10%): Supervise and direct student staff - Graduate Research Fellows and hourly employees - to assist carrying out the above tasks.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Minimum 3 years program management experience
• Minimum 3 years accumulated work experience in project management, sustainability, and the built environment
• Minimum 1 year personnel supervision experience
• Experience with service learning activities
• Master's degree from an accredited institution in planning, public policy, architecture, landscape architecture, business, law or other field related to sustainable cities and the built environment
• Outstanding organizational skills and ability to manage several activities at once
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills
• Evidence of ability to work with varied audiences, including faculty, students, elected officials, city staff, and funding agencies
• Self-motivated, ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Energetic, passionate, and professional
• Work history in related fields and which demonstrates increasing levels of administrative and/or supervisory responsibilities
• Ability to travel within Oregon and occasionally elsewhere in the United States
• Ability to present work at national conferences
• Proficient user of Microsoft Office Suite

Preferred:

• Experience managing service learning activities
• History of successful grant writing
• Experience working with members of Congress and/or federal agencies
• Budgeting experience
• Working knowledge of graphic and layout software (e.g. Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)

Level of Appointment: 1.0 F.T.E.

Term of Contract: 1 year renewable contract; initial contract dates: 3/1/12 - 6/30/12; 12-month renewal thereafter dependent on need and funding.

Compensation: Salary Range: $50,000 - $60,000 (12 month annual rate); commensurate with relevant experience and education. The University of Oregon also offers a generous package of health and retirement benefits.

To Apply:

Each applicant must submit:

1. Letter of introduction addressing how and why the candidate is qualified for the position
2. Resume of educational and professional work experience
3. 2 names of references (letters of recommendation not required, but will be accepted)

Applications must be submitted electronically by email (preferably in PDF format) to Christina Wozniak.

This posting will remain open until filled; applications will begin to be reviewed on Friday, February 17, 2012.

The position is expected to start as early as possible in March 2012.

Inquiries about the position should be directed to SCI Executive Director Robert Liberty.

Candidates who promote and enhance diversity are strongly desired. The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.