New Economy Program Manager

Summary

This position will organize and implement sustainable economic projects and campaigns focused around solar and coal-impacted land redevelopment, while managing Appalachian Voices’ New Economy program in Southwest Virginia.

About Appalachian Voices

Appalachian Voices is a leading nonprofit advocate for a just economy and healthy environment in the Appalachian region, and a driving force in America’s shift from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. We envision an Appalachia with healthy communities and just, sustainable economies in balance with the region’s incomparable natural heritage.

Commitment to equity

Appalachian Voices is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion both in our work and in our organizational structure. We seek applicants who share and exhibit these principles. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to employment practices that ensure employees and applicants for employment are provided with equal opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other factor that is not related to the position.

What we do

Appalachian Voices promotes diverse local economies and thriving communities and defends the land, air and water of our region from the worst environmental threats. We work at the nexus of the ongoing shift from fossil fuels to clean, 21st-century energy sources — we fight mountaintop removal coal mining, fracked-gas pipelines and other threats to the people and places of Appalachia, and we advance energy efficiency, clean energy, and other economic solutions that create community wealth and sustain Appalachia’s mountains, forests and waters.

Our New Economy Program utilizes the following strategies to achieve our goals of realizing a just economic transition through securing thoughtfully targeted investments for sustainable economic and community development while ensuring robust and meaningful community engagement:

• Create a locally rooted solar industry in Southwest Virginia, prioritizing projects that save money and spur local enterprise development;
• Provide targeted technical assistance to communities seeking to transform coal-impacted land from liabilities to assets by connecting good ideas with funding, partners and resources to realize community vision;
• Work in coalitions for good policies at the local, state and federal level that support a just transition, including coal plant closure transition planning;
• Address the longstanding system of absentee land ownership in Appalachia that keeps our region stuck in extractive and destructive models;
• Build community resiliency and power through organizing across all of our program areas.

About the New Economy Program Manager:

We are seeking a dedicated and passionate professional to manage our New Economy Program. Success in this role requires the ability to work in multiple economic and community development contexts while remaining flexible, creative, and focused. Our New Economy program drives innovation both within Southwest Virginia and across the broader central Appalachian region. We provide movement-level leadership through multiple coalitions and workgroups; this position will provide key capacity for those efforts.

Ideal candidates are capable of management in both a programmatic and project level capacity. This position has the potential to supervise at least one full time position and will play an important role in shaping and implementing the strategic direction for the New Economy program. The Program Manager will provide leadership and capacity to move sustainable economic and community development projects from concept to implementation. Foundational to success in these and other responsibilities is the ability to learn new concepts quickly, effectively facilitate dialogue, build consensus, and listen deeply to the perspectives of partners and stakeholders. We seek a team-oriented person who is capable of implementing shared work while also being self-directed.

Strong candidates will:

• Understand, or be able to quickly learn, state and federal policies and programs that impact Central Appalachia;
• Value community engagement and organizing and know how to do it well;
• Show aptitude for project management, including project proposal development and creating and tracking budgets.

Specific workload includes: