Kitsap Center Director

Position Title Kitsap Center Director About the University

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

About the Department

The WWU Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides tools, training, and resources to help small businesses grow and succeed. Our team of certified business advisors brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to bolster a supportive economic environment through no-cost, fully confidential, one-on-one advising, training, and market research. As regional subject matter experts, our team serves the Whatcom and Kitsap business communities in a strategic advisory and educational role. In Kitsap County, the SBDC is hosted by WWU, in conjunction with its headquarters SBDC in Bellingham. The Kitsap SBDC works collaboratively as part of the Washington SBDC network. Learn more on our website.

The SBDC and University Advancement Department supports Western's mission, which states that together with our students, staff, and faculty, we are committed to making a positive impact in the state and the world with a shared focus on academic excellence and inclusive achievement. We encourage applications from women, people of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and other candidates from underrepresented backgrounds and with diverse experiences interested in this opportunity.

About the Position The Kitsap Center Director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is responsible for leading a professional team delivering business development expansion throughout Kitsap County.

The SBDC Kitsap Center Director collaborates in fostering partnerships with corporate and community partners that align with Western’s core values of excellence, engagement, diversity, community service, integrity and innovation. Assisting the SBDC Executive Director, this position provides leadership for developing, sustaining and coordinating strong and effective relationships with the local city and county communities, as well as with relevant partners across the state and the region.

• Strives to promote growth, expansion, innovation, increased productivity, and management improvement in small businesses, prospective small businesses and within WWU and community partners

• Leads engagement with existing business and industry to identify and support opportunities resulting in diversification and growth of opportunities for WWU faculty, staff and students

• Effectively communicate WWU’s suite of assets to the business community

This is a full-time position based out of the Kitsap SBDC in Poulsbo, WA.

This is a hybrid (partially remote) position with critical in-person responsibilities throughout Kitsap County.

Duties/ Responsibilities

Community Economic Development (10%)

- Represent WWU & the SBDC to community partners, businesses, funding agencies, policymakers and the media

- Manages communications with local stakeholders, regularly present information to local stakeholders

- Serve as an advocate for small businesses

-Maintain a working/referral relationship with representatives of other federal, trib