Director, Spatial Literacy Center & Lecturer

 

Job Title: Director, Spatial Literacy Center & Lecturer

Department: GIS Center

Campus Location: Main Campus

FLSA Status: Exempt/ Salaried

Position Type/ Work Schedule

• 2080 Hours per year
• 12 Months per year
• 40 Hours per week (Estimated)

About Us

At Colorado College, 2,300 students learn and live on our beautiful 99-acre campus in downtown Colorado Springs. We attract top students seeking new perspectives with an array of experiential learning opportunities possible only in an immersive learning environment. Here, students take only one class at a time to facilitate deep exploration of a topic. We call this the Block Plan. This unique approach allows members of our campus community to share a rhythm of experience as we work together to fulfill our mission.

Job Summary

The Director, Spatial Literacy Center & Lecturer provides strategic vision and leadership for the newly established Spatial Literacy Center by developing and implementing initiatives that promote spatial thinking, GIS competency, and data visualization skills across all disciplines; serves as a campus resource and advocate for integrating spatial literacy into teaching and learning by developing the capacity of faculty and students to apply spatial thinking in their own work; builds collaborative relationships with faculty and departments to advance the center’s mission of making spatial thinking accessible and relevant across the curriculum; supervises the Spatial Literacy Center Specialist and student employees; shares governance of Colket Center for Academic Excellence operations; maintains working proficiency with GIS platforms and spatial technologies to provide pedagogical guidance; and teaches courses related to GIS, spatial analysis, and/or spatial literacy pedagogy.

 

Responsibilities

• Strategic leadership:
  • Provide strategic leadership for the Spatial Literacy Center, establishing vision, priorities, and long-range planning that align with institutional goals and advances spatial literacy across the college. Oversees center operations, budget management, and resource allocation.
  • Directly supervises the Spatial Literacy Center Specialist and student employees, including hiring, training, performance management, and professional development.
  • Develops and executes initiatives that promote spatial thinking as a fundamental liberal arts skill.
• Academic student support:
  • Provide direct support to students through individual consultations, workshops, and group training sessions on spatial analysis, mapping, and GIS applications for academic work.
  • Coordinates with other Colket Center offices to provide integrated academic support.
• Teaching:
  • Teach up to 2.0 units on courses focused on GIS, spatial literacy or analysis, and/or data visualization as time and center needs allow.
• Collaboration:
  • Build and sustain collaborative relationships with faculty across disciplines to integrate spatial literacy into curriculum and research.
  • Lead faculty development workshops and ongoing professional learning opportunities focused on spatial pedagogies. Support faculty in developing GIS-based lab exercises and course materials.
  • Partner with ITS to manage software licensing, coordinate technical infrastructure needs, and ensure appropriate technological resources are available to support the center’s educational mission, while partnering with ITS to ensure GIS lab has the functionality and processing power to support campus needs.
• Professional engagement:
  • Maintain expertise in contemporary research and practice related to spatial literacy, GIS pedagogy, critical cartography, and emerging spatial technologies through scholarship, publications, attendance and presentations at professional conferences, and service to professional organizations.
  • Stays current on evolving spatial technologies, including UAS/drone platforms, remote sensing tools, and field data collection methods, to inform center programming and ensure the center’s offerings reflect contemporary practice.

Minimum Qualifications

Relevant Background and Formal Education: Demonstrated skills, competencies, and knowledge required for this job are most often acquired through the following practical experience and level of academic education and training.

• Master’s degree with demonstrated expertise in spatial analysis, GIS, or spatial literacy pedagogy.
• Mini