Director, Civic Engagement

About North Park

Founded in 1891, North Park University is a Christian university affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church of over 3,200 students from around the country and the world. Located for over 125 years on the land of the Miami and Potawatomi tribes in what is today Chicago’s northside, NPU has recently been designated a Hispanic Serving Institution and is committed to serving diverse populations. Elevating North Park University’s core distinctives of Christian, city-centered, and intercultural, NPU values diversity among its faculty and is committed to building a racially and culturally diverse intellectual community, and strongly encourages the nomination and candidacies of persons who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color regardless of gender.

North Park University is located in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago, one of the most ethnically diverse zip codes in the United States. It is nine miles from downtown Chicago. The North Park campus has often been referred to as an oasis in the heart of the city – a place where students from urban, rural, and suburban backgrounds alike can call home. And all of this within the major metropolitan backdrop of Chicago: one of the world’s largest and most diversified economies, renowned for its museums and music, and voted best large city in the U.S. for four years in a row by Condé Nast Traveler.

Mission

The mission of North Park University is to prepare students for lives of significance and service through education in the liberal arts, professional studies, and theology.

Vision

Building on our core institutional identity—Christian, city-centered, intercultural—our vision is to create a university of uncommon character and enduring excellence, where faith, learning, and service meet.

Position Summary

The Director of Civic Engagement is responsible for supporting the strategic goals of the Center for Civic Engagement which embodies the mission to advance a city-centered ethos on campus and augment the university’s commitment to the just flourishing of cities. This position advances North Park University’s aspiration of becoming the leading Christian city-centered university by cultivating an ethos of civic engagement across campus through Catalyst, the city-centered curriculum, in conjunction with faculty. This individual will also support the Center’s community-facing goals by providing support for funded initiatives. This position reports to the Assistant Vice President for Civic Engagement who reports to the Provost.

Responsibilities

Campus-facing:

• Leads the Catalyst Hub which houses Catalyst’s Chicago-focused and Chicago-based learning experiences for North Park University students including Catalyst Courses, Catalyst on Campus, Catalyst Semester, and Crux.
• Oversees the growth of the Catalyst initiative, North Park University’s city-centered co-curriculum.
• Establishes and maintains relationships with community partners, initiating and maintaining memoranda of understanding, for North Park University students engaged in Catalyst educational programming.
• Serves as the primary resource for faculty in integrating the city of Chicago into academic curricula via Catalyst.
• Ensures students are educated to become respectful community members.

• Maintains logistical responsibilities for the city-centered curriculum and becomes the point of contact for problem-solving relating to Catalyst.
• Promotes and oversees the Catalyst Semester program, a city-centered cohort program that integrates classroom learning, internship experiences, and Catalyst sessions.
• Works with faculty to expand Catalyst Course utilization.
• Supports Catalyst on Campus programing which brings civic leaders to campus for lectures and discussions every other Wednesday during the academic year.
• Facilitates Catalyst orientation sessions for faculty and students.

• Participates in accreditation efforts relating to city-centered curriculum.
• Addresses and attends to risk management and liability issues relating to city-centered curriculum.
• Makes use of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) rubrics for civic knowledge and engagement to assess student learning in city-centered curriculum.
  
  

Community-facing:

• Searches for and supports grant applications for external funding for the city-centered curriculum.

• Supports new and existing grant-funded projects related to community engagement and community partner support.
• Provides grant management support for community engagement initiatives aligned with Catalyst’s program goals through stakeholder collaboration, public awareness, fund administration, eval