Northwest Biocarbon Initiative Coordinator – (Olympia, Seattle or Portland, WA)
Organization: Climate Solutions
Position Title: Northwest Biocarbon Initiative Coordinator
Location: Olympia, WA
Hours & Compensation: Full-time. Salary commensurate with position and experience, includes excellent benefits.
Application Deadline: July 29, 2013
Organization Overview:
Climate Solutions’ mission is to accelerate practical and profitable solutions to global warming by galvanizing leadership, growing investment, and bridging divides. Since 1998, Climate Solutions has pioneered the vision and cultivated political leadership in the Northwest for the proposition that clean energy and broadly-shared economic prosperity can go hand-in-hand. Through our programs such as Business Leaders for Climate Solutions, New Energy Cities, Sustainable Aviation Fuels, and Northwest Biocarbon Initiative, Climate Solutions builds a powerful constituency for local, regional, and national action on climate and clean energy. Climate Solutions has offices in Seattle, Olympia, and Portland. For more information about Climate Solutions, visit www.climatesolutions.org.
Description:
The Northwest Biocarbon Initiative (NBI) program is dedicated to establishing the Northwest as a leading laboratory and incubator for biocarbon solutions (www.nwbiocarbon.org). In addition to rapidly transitioning off of fossil fuels (the first climate solution), we must also restore safe levels of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere by developing scalable strategies to pull carbon from the air and store it in soils, trees, and other plants (the second climate solution).NBI is building the movement to protect and increase carbon stored in forests, farms, communities, wetlands, coasts, and other ecosystems, in ways that are economically attractive and deliver multiple public benefits.
Climate Solutions is seeking a talented Coordinator to lead our NBI program in its movement-building work to:
§Engage and lead a diverse range of partner groups in communications activities connecting their work to Northwest leadership on the global biocarbon imperative, and to overcome key barriers to biocarbon solutions;
§Increase public understanding and the visibility of biocarbon as the second major solution to the climate crisis;
§Frame current scientific knowledge on biocarbon for public understanding, and identify key gaps in knowledge to help shape the research agenda going forward; and
§Educate policymakers—local, state, and federal—on the biocarbon imperative, and on specific policy actions they can take to support biocarbon innovation and Northwest leadership.
The NBI Coordinator will work in close consultation with Climate Solutions’ Director of Strategic Innovation, Eileen V. Quigley, who will supervise this position, as well as with NBI’s Steering Committee, which includes several key partner organizations. This position may be located in our Olympia, Seattle, or Portland office.
Responsibilities:
§Our NBI Coordinator will be the primary leader responsible for creating and implementing NBI’s annual work plan and for achieving the goals of the plan. The annual plan is developed in close consultation with Climate Solutions’ senior staff, particularly the Director of Strategic Innovation, and the NBI Steering Committee.
§The Coordinator will organize, facilitate, and ensure tracking of decisions and action items from meetings of the NBI Steering Committee and of other key NBI groups.
§Actively and consistently reach out to NBI partners and prospective allies to discuss NBI goals and objectives and engage them in NBI activities as appropriate, including recruiting NBI Innovation Partners.
§Engage a range of NBI constituents in communications activities, especially blog writing. The Coordinator will compile and write the NBI E-digest on at least a monthly basis.
§Lead NBI in advocating policy targets that are: a) focused and well-defined enough to be successfully adopted by our policymaker champions; and b) have enough narrative power to speak to the urgency and global scale of the biocarbon imperative.
§The Coordinator will, at a minimum, supervise NBI interns, and will possibly supervise one or more staff as the program grows.
§Consistently add new contacts to the NBI contact list and manage the NBI list in the database.
§Set up Steering Committee meetings, creating agendas, taking notes at meetings, and capturing and disseminating action items.
- Additional duties may be assigned within the course of the work.
Qualifications:
Skills and Knowledge:
- The Coordinator needs, first and foremost, demonstrated skill and a significant track record building and coordinating coalitions or partnerships.
§S/he must be a skilled communicator, able to deeply understand complex technical issues and to translate them for public understanding.
§Strong, clear, accessible writing and verbal skills are a must.
§Excellent understanding of policy and policymaking.
- Strong commitment to the mission and vision of Climate Solutions.
- Excellent project management and organizational skills, the ability to multitask and move smoothly between strategic discussions and management of coalition processes to translating and executing outcomes from discussions.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Highly energetic, organized, focused, reliable, hard-working.
- Maturity and an ability to deal with experts, scientists, thought leaders, and policymakers.
- Analytical, clear thinker who can translate complex problems for clients in a clear and objective manner.
- A self-starting individual with a can-do attitude and a sense of humor.
- Ability to work effectively both independently and with a team in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
- Ability to operate desktop computer and Microsoft Windows and Office Software, including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and specialized software applications in a network environment.
Experience:
- At least four years of experience, including a primary leadership role, coordinating groups to achieve shared goals and objectives.
§At least two years of experience advocating, advising, analyzing or making public policy.
- At least one or two years of experience in supervisory roles.
- Experience facilitating group processes, scoping complicated projects, breaking down tasks, resources, and deliverables into work plans with timelines required.
Education and Training:
Bachelor’s Degree at a minimum. A Master’s Degree in environmental systems, eco-biology, or public policy would be applicable, but is not required.
Licenses or Certificates:
Possession of, or ability to possess, within 3 months, a driver’s license and auto insurance.
How to Apply:
§Email a résumé, cover letter and at least three professional reference contacts in PDF format to[email protected].
§Please put NBI PROGRAM COORDINATOR as the subject line of the email and address the cover letter to Eileen V. Quigley, Director of Strategic Innovation.
§Please label the cover letter and resume with your last name.
§In the body of the email, please let us know how you found out about the position.
§The position will remain open until July 29, 2013.
Climate Solutions is committed to equal opportunity in employment and promotion for all qualified persons without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, military or veteran status, the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability, pregnancy and childbirth, family responsibilities, or any other basis protected by applicable laws, regulations, or guidelines relating to discrimination in employment.
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