THE ROLE
Leadership
The Director of National Programs and Outreach for K-12 reports to the Chief Administrative Officer and the Chief Academic Officer (CAOs) of the Clerc Center and serves on the Clerc Center’s leadership team, providing counsel on matters affecting education for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind students across the nation. The successful applicant serves as a transformative academic leader, locally and nationally, providing direction to the National Programs and Outreach team, and supporting collaborative efforts both within the Clerc Center and with partners across the country. The Director engages University leaders on areas of intersection including research; bilingual education; equity, diversity and inclusion; outreach; and professional studies.
As a member of the national services leadership team, the Director provides leadership and guidance to the CAOs in the development of the Clerc Center’s strategic plan and ensures that priorities are based on input from the broad range of Clerc Center constituents in compliance with requirements of the Education of the Deaf Act (EDA).
The Director works in a collaborative shared leadership team with the Directors of National Programs and Outreach (Early Intervention and K-12), and the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research to lead the Clerc Center’s comprehensive national services.
Innovation
The Director will have multiple areas of focus for the term of the next strategic plan cycle including:
• School Partnership for Transformation Initiative: This program creates partnerships with schools and programs serving deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf blind students to work collaboratively to review instructional offerings and strategies, professional development opportunities, and additional areas of need at the request of the school. The Director will lead program assessment efforts and then develop tailored proposed action plans for program development, training, technical assistance, and family engagement. Program support may be short or long term and engage trainers, mentors, and cohort learning teams to support the continued growth and development of partner schools. Through this work, the Director also identifies common needs and frequently requested training content as well as innovative practices in partner schools, and together with the national services leadership team, develops plans for future content development on the Clerc Center’s National Learning and Engagement Platform.
• National Outreach Plan: The Director maintains a national leadership role through collaboration and partnership with national educational organizations and develops a multi-year conference and engagement plan, including conferences, exhibits, Board relationships, and collaborative efforts, to raise visibility of the Clerc Center’s work across key organizations and partner programs.
• Gallaudet University Regional Centers (GURCs): The Director leads planning and expansion efforts with the GURC Directors to build an outreach network for all levels of education and service, birth through post-graduate education. The GURCs will serve the Clerc Center’s priorities along
with the Gallaudet University strategic plan and support initiatives, outreach and programming – both virtually and face to face – for extraordinary learning and academic excellence across the lifespan, in a variety of educational environments, and continuously strive to meet the needs of
traditionally underserved populations.
• National Events: The Director will develop and lead a series of national webinars and engagement events for topics based on needs identified through public input and detailed in the Clerc Center’s Strategic Plan and Research Agenda; and needs identified through requests from school and programs. The overarching goal for the collection of programs is excellence in national deaf education to be achieved by identifying and sharing recourses through the school partnerships initiative, the GURCs, and the national learning and engagement platform. The core content will include instructional strategies; innovative approaches to content delivery, service provision, and family engagement; and strategies that engage students in anti-bias work and incorporates the core principles of equity, diversity and inclusion.