Director, FLI Network (Center for Student Success)

Director, FLI Network

The Center for Student Success (CSS) seeks a strategic, deeply collaborative Director, FLI Network to lead the FLI Network as the primary communications, community building, and programmatic hub for the FLI community at JHU.

The FLI network was created in 2018 as a home base for our growing community of first-generation and/or limited income (FLI) undergraduate students and is open to all JHU students and community members. Since then, our rapidly expanding wraparound services for FLI students and work toward institutional readiness—now known as the FLI Initiatives—disclosed the need for a more clearly designated and easily visible hub for the FLI community on campus as well as prospective FLI students and their families and FLI alumni. During 2021-22, we repositioned the FLI Network at the center of the CSS with the following aims: to provide a coordinated core of social and educational programming, including signature events that honor and celebrate the FLI community; to shape and broadcast affirmative messaging about the strengths within the FLI community; and to supply an anchor for faculty, staff, family, and alumni engagement efforts. The Director, FLI Network has a key role in leading these core functions within the CSS.

Organizationally, this role belongs to the leadership team in the CSS and works in strong partnership with all CSS program heads. In addition to providing vision for and leading the implementation of the programming and communications work emerging from the FLI Network, the role serves as a lead communicator for the FLI community and educator for FLI outreach.

The FLI Network will have a programming arm and a communications arm, which must be meaningfully coordinated with the landscape of campus programming and the communications team within Homewood Student Affairs. The director will oversee the FLI Network team with four to five direct reports.

The Director of the FLI Network will be a highly visible presence within the CSS and across campus, demonstrating an investment in knowing students directly and engaging staff and faculty as key community members participating in the FLI Network. The Director will also be a primary liaison for prospective and current students and families, providing a warm connection through robust communications and programming for FLI students and families from their first experiences of JHU and through graduation and beyond.

The position reports to the Executive Director for Student Success in the Center for Student Success.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Management

• Directly supervise four to five full-time professional staff members, and support and develop all staff on the FLI Network team.
• Provide mentorship, guidance, and supervision for the FLI Network student advisory board.
• Develop annual program budgets.
• Align financial and human resources with priorities.

Strategic Planning

• Cultivate and promote a long‑range vision and mission of the FLI Network that is aligned with the principles of the FLI Initiatives and JHU's academic mission.
• Develop a strategic plan for and provide oversight for all communications and serve, alongside CSS leadership, as a lead communicator about the FLI community.
• Develop a strategic plan for FLI outreach to the campus community (faculty, staff, students) and serve, alongside CSS leadership, as a primary FLI educator.

Collaborative Partnerships

• As a member of the CSS leadership team, maintain a close current‑state knowledge of all programs within the CSS and collaborate closely with all other CSS program leads.
• Serve as the primary liaison for Undergraduate Admissions with a particular focus on communications outreach to prospective students and families for recruitment, yielding, and onboarding.
• Provide oversight for all social and educational programming that aligns with the overall objectives of community‑building and navigating the hidden curriculum.
• Serve as point of contact for alumni engagement efforts, working closely with Development and Alumni Relations and the Life Design Lab.
• Steward and/or develop partnerships with key offices: Counseling Center; Center for Health Education and Well‑Being; Student Transitions and Family Engagement; Center for Social Concern; Admissions; Student Financial Support.
• Develop and implement the FLI COMPASS webinar series with campus partners for FLI families and parents throughout the year to increase family engagement and provide community and support for FLI families.

Assessment

• Analyze data, identify trends and develop reports based upon assessment data (quantitative and qualitative). Work with staff to develop and implement program changes as needed. Link program objectives and assessment to the annual budget process.
• Keep abreast of national trends in higher education and remain current in the fields of retention and student success.
• Other duties as assigned.

Metrics and Accountability

• Retention and graduation rates for students participating in FLI Network programming.
• Engagement metrics of FLI students participating in signature events and social and educational programming.
• Affinity metrics for students participating in FLI Network programming.
• Student satisfaction for all programming within the portfolio.
• Growing the proportion of FLI students, faculty, families, staff, and alumni who engage in FLI Network programs and events.

Special Knowledge, Skills, or Abilities

• Exceptional interpersonal, oral, public speaking, writing, and listening skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in both faculty and administrative cultures.
• Strong budgetary, planning, organizational, supervision, and management skills and experience.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating, negotiating, and building consensus.
• Ability to use appropriate judgment when dealing with sensitive issues.
• Demonstrated success in a complex, multi‑layered, and data‑driven organization.
• Ability to work collaboratively with students, faculty members, and staff at all levels.
• Demonstrated experience developing, articulating, operationalizing, and assessing strategic priorities.
• Proven ability to cultivate trust and credibility with colleagues and to build positive and effective relationships.
• Proven track record of establishing strategic relationships to strengthen program and service delivery.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Student Affairs, Higher Education, Counseling, or related fields including a Humanities or Social Science discipline.
• Five years of experience leading, implementing, and managing programs of similar complexity.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma or graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

• Seven years of experience preferred.
• Terminal degree in chosen field preferred.

Salary: $75,100–$131,700 annually (commensurate with experience). Employment type: Full-Time. Schedule: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Location: Hybrid/Homewood Campus. Supervisor: Executive Director for Student Success.