By Sarah Nichols, MJE, JEA president
The Journalism Education Association seeks a passionate executive director to lead the largest association of scholastic media educators and advisers. This individual will have the opportunity to strengthen journalism and media literacy education through innovative and flexible approaches to engage volunteers, partners and funders.
The position begins July 1, 2022, and includes strategic planning, budgeting, fundraising and managing events. Candidates should be comfortable working remotely and able to develop resources sufficient to ensure the financial health of the nonprofit organization while purposefully and thoughtfully addressing the organization’s critical needs in diversity, equity and inclusion.
These efforts in particular will have support from the passionate and highly engaged board of directors, each of whom seeks to increase representation and help develop plans for sustainable and equitable change in JEA. The elected board members and appointed committee chairs serve three-year terms as volunteers leading many of the association’s programs and currently reside in nine different states across the country.
JEA’s executive director will continue essential leadership and management tasks such as overseeing the organization’s finances and headquarters staff, planning and executing JEA Advisers Institute and coordinating the National High School Journalism Convention with its co-host, NSPA.
For nearly a century, JEA’s leaders have demonstrated excellence in the classroom in addition to association management — essentially tackling the responsibilities of two full-time jobs as one person. This changes with the next executive director. The position will not include teaching duties. The next director will benefit from full-time engagement in association management to focus on moving the association forward and maintain a healthier work-life balance. The director leads JEA’s commitment to student press freedom and media literacy education, demonstrating understanding of and commitment to protecting First Amendment freedoms and scholastic media as an essential piece of education and civic engagement.
The executive director is an employee of Kansas State University, JEA’s host institution. This position, however, is not specific to Manhattan, Kansas, as the option to work remotely is another notable change from the current position. During the interview stage, finalists will have the opportunity to visit JEA headquarters, tour the area and visit with the office staff — caring, dedicated employees with a combined 50-plus years connected to the organization.
The added flexibility in the job’s physical location mirrors the flexibility candidates should demonstrate, along with curiosity, toward adapting to the evolving media environment, nonprofit community, educational landscape and economic conditions — all while balancing the need to make data-driven decisions with the desire to empower volunteer leaders.
The director should be prepared to embed diversity, equity and inclusion practices in JEA’s strategic and operational priorities in order to foster much-needed improvement and reflect the communities it aims to serve. This includes leading the charge with support and action from the board to focus on attaining accurate representation across multiple intersections of identity, from racial and cultural diversity to gender expression, sexuality, age and physical ability. From actively sourcing candidates for elected and appointed leadership positions to improving visuals on JEA’s website, seeking expertise from a more diverse group of workshop and convention speakers and finding other ways to amplify underrepresented voices, these efforts should touch every point of JEA’s programming and association communications.
The organization continues to change, both as a result of the pandemic and in spite of it. JEA experienced more than a full year without in-person conventions and underwent major shifts in some of its traditional operations. While this required adjusting to decreased revenue, the association also benefited from opportunities to tighten efficiencies, offer new resources and rethink past practices — all while adapting to the changing needs of its members. JEA remains healthy and strong.
The next executive director should be eager to grow the association, explore partnership and revenue opportunities and experiment.
We do not expect every candidate to meet all of these qualifications. This incredible opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to serve the scholastic journalism community to benefit teachers and their students at a critical time.
Candidates should apply here by Nov. 30, 2021.
Apply:
Job posting
Deadline:
Nov. 30, 2021
Lindsay Porter