Director, Community Dialogue Project

Job Description:

The Director, Community Dialogue Project is a strategic leader responsible for advancing the university’s institutional priorities for student learning, inclusive community, and open inquiry through collaborations, programs, and services that support the development and use of skills for effective communication, dialogue, conflict resolution, and multipartial facilitation within the entire Brown University community. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Campus Life and working in close, collaborative partnerships with colleagues across and beyond the Division of Campus Life, the Director leads the Community Dialogue Project in supporting the development of skills and strategies for communicating effectively, responding to conflict, engaging in interactional diversity, and pursuing mutual understanding of issues that affect the Brown community.

The Director develops and leads a campus-wide vision for the Community Dialogue Project that empowers sites of interactional diversity wherein participants can engage productively in difficult discussions and relationship building around challenging topics that sometimes arise in a diverse community. The Director plays a critical role in leading and leveraging dialogue frameworks and skills development to achieve greater engagement, connection and collaboration across differences, and helps the university community navigate challenging topics and moments. The Director provides training, education, and skill development to students, faculty, staff, and senior administrators in student-facing programs across campus on topics of effective communication, conflict resolution and transformation, dialogue facilitation, and mediation and leads others in providing dialogue facilitation, mediation, and conflict coaching. The Director recruits, trains, and supervises cohorts of graduate and undergraduate students, staff, and faculty engaged in CDP activities. The Director leads and develops this work grounded in principles and practices of social justice, equity and compliance in order to equip and enable participants to navigate and engage constructively in conflicts and difficult conversations within the Brown University community in affirming, empowering, community-building ways. This work is critical to support the university’s commitment to academic freedom as essential to the function of education and to the pursuit of scholarship. Occasional night and weekend work is required.

Job Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field and 6-10 years of relevant experience (e.g., higher education, student affairs administration, conflict resolution and mediation) required, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Certification in (critically conscious, multipartial) mediation or facilitation is required.

• Experience developing programs and initiatives that are responsive to the needs of a diverse university population including students from historically underrepresented groups.

• Experience overseeing conflict resolution, dialogue facilitation, and mediation in a higher education setting is strongly preferred. 

• Knowledge of principles, practices and theories of student learning and development; understanding of the cultural, social, and educational needs of the university community.

• Demonstrated ability to support a community of diverse perspectives and cultures in an inclusive environment.

• Strong interpersonal skills, including demonstrated ability to listen well and demonstrate sensitivity to, and empathy and respect for, diverse groups of people.

• Demonstrated experience supporting development of skills related to conflict resolution, dialogue facilitation, and mediation.

• Demonstrated experience developing systems and structures that center social justice and equity.

• Demonstrated ability to creatively and efficiently solve problems, using sound judgment, assuming ownership of a problem, and resolving challenges in a collaborative manner.

• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and work collaboratively and professionally across diverse constituencies.

• Demonstrated cultural humility.

• Demonstrated ability to handle matters with discretion, tact, and diplomacy.

• Demonstrated ability to multitask and prioritize well under time pressure.

• Demonstrated organizational skills.

• Demonstrated ability to work independently.

• Excellent written and oral c