Reporting to the President and serving as a member of the senior leadership team, the Vice President, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will contribute creative, dynamic, and forward-thinking strategy to lead Earthjustice to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and centering justice in our mission-driven work. Primary responsibilities include managing and providing strategic direction to the DEI Team consisting of a Sr. Director of DEI, a Director of DEI Learning & Development, a DEI Program Manager, and a DEI Team Manager.
Responsibilities
LEADERSHIP, MISSION, VISION, GOALS (30%)
- Lead ongoing development, implementation, and support of a comprehensive, integrated strategy that reinforces diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as key organizational priorities and builds on progress to advance clear DEI goals.
- Provide strategic and operational leadership for DEI initiatives including lifelong learning, assessment and evaluation, and ongoing work to support DEI work on individual teams.
- In partnership with the Executive Leadership Team and Internal Communications, evolve and implement the Revised Roadmap for Excellence in People & Management to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion practices across the organization.
POLICIES, CULTURE & COMMUNITY (30%)
- Partner with Human Resources, serving in an advisory capacity on tools used for recruitment, retention, talent development, career advancement, staff recognition and performance management.
- Lead as a champion of change and utilize change management best practices along with staff input, as needed, when implementing new projects/initiatives.
- Support the efforts on the part of Litigation Program leadership and teams through a lens of DEI to build collaborative partnerships that diversify networks for programmatic opportunities and recruitment pipelines.
- Advise and work with committees of the organization Board of Trustees to ensure that the governance process is aligned with and supportive of DEI goals and strategies.
- Partner with HR to analyze and report on results of Employee Satisfaction Survey and ensure appropriate action is taken on DEI-related input.
- Oversee and support staff with the creation and maintenance of Earthjustice affinity groups (AG) and employee resources groups (ERG).
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT (10%)
- Support the Director of DEI Learning and Development in creating and implementing an organization strategy to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies across the organization.
- Ensure that management and diversity, equity, and inclusion approaches are unified; work with departments and managers to incorporate equity and inclusion in their management practices.
- Manage DEI communications in collaboration with the Internal Communications team.
- Promote Earthjustice’s commitment to diversity and DEI learning to funders, the environmental community, and the broader social sector.
- Develop and manage a comprehensive portfolio of relationships among external equity-related organizations, with a focus on DEI, especially those in the environmental advocacy field.
MANAGEMENT (Essential Functions) (30%)
- Develop clear team strategy and goals, in alignment with Earthjustice strategy, mission, and vision, in collaboration with the DEI team.
- Partner with the HR and DEI teams to recruit and hire qualified candidates who fit position requirements and the work environment.
- Create and model a respectful and inclusive work environment for DEI team.
- Collaborate with DEI team and staff across the organization.
- Actively prioritize and contribute to DEI team members’ learning by encouraging training and professional development opportunities appropriate to role and co-creating development plans with each DEI team member.
- Provide DEI team members with consistent performance feedback – both positive and constructive – and serves as a coach and mentor.
- Foster a learning culture, by conducting collaborative debrief sessions after completion of significant stages of projects.
- Ensure direct reports with supervisory responsibility are properly executing required functions and have the tools and support of their manager to fulfill this expectation.
- Create and identify strategic opportunities for team building, encourage individual and overall staff engagement to strengthen teamwork, interaction, and collaboration.
- Value and leverage individual differences and talents to improve employee satisfaction and the quality of collective work.
- Celebrate successes and help team members to understand and manage setbacks.