Chief Executive Officer

Center for First-Generation Student Success
Chief Executive Officer

Position: CEO
Organization: Center for First-generation Student
Success
Location: Remote
Reporting Relationship: The CEO will report
directly to a Governing Board.
Website: http://www.firstgen.naspa.org

THE OPPORTUNITY
The Center for
First-generation Student Success seeks a growth, movement building
CEO who has the capacity to vision, strengthen, and accelerate the
next phase of the organization’s work. The ideal candidate will
complement the Center’s leadership team and embrace change to
ensure the extension of the Center’s leadership position externally
while creating new relationships and establishing partnerships that
are closely aligned to organizational needs and impact goals. A
bias towards action and skill in communication and
relationship-building skills will be beneficial as it is imperative
for the Center to continue its growth in the advancement of
first-generation student success.

The Center for First-generation Student Success (Center) is
leading the FirstGen movement — elevating practice, knowledge, and
policy to create a nation where FirstGen students thrive. Today,
more than a half of America’s undergraduate students – 5 million —
are FirstGen, the first in their families to go to college. Yet,
FirstGen students are nearly 30% less likely to graduate than their
continuing-generation peers.

A college degree is the gateway to the American Dream. Higher
graduation rates lead to better job opportunities, which lead to
better earning potential, which leads to financial stability, which
leads to security for families raising the next generation of
college students. The number of FirstGen students entering college
is only projected to grow over the next decade. The Center exists
to meet the scale of this challenge by building and improving
systems to better support FirstGen students and raise their
graduation rates.

If you walk around most college campuses today, chances are many
of the students passing you by are one of the first in their family
to forge a path to a degree. They’re from city blocks, suburban
neighborhoods and rural communities. And they’re as diverse as
America itself. These students are smart, resilient, and they’ve
often beat the odds just to get to campus. Yet, they’re far less
likely to graduate.

This is a challenge we can address.

At the same time, higher education institutions are confronting
the reality that student success is the foundation for their
survival. With declining enrollment and funding, and rising tuition
student loan costs, institutions face increasing challenges to
deliver an education and degree that justifies the value
proposition for all students to succeed and thrive post-graduation.
FirstGen students are a moral and practical opportunity to both
expand and diversify their student bodies.

The Center for First-generation Student Success is uniting all
who want to see FirstGen students flourish. FirstGen students have
everything it takes to excel in school and life, if we do what it
takes to support them. THE FUTURE IS FIRSTGEN.

THE ROLE
The Chief Executive Officer will
report to the Board and is ultimately responsible for all aspects
of leading the organization. The CEO’s responsibilities are to:

• Spearhead strategic growth of the Center to serve the community
  of first-generation students, the institutional partners, and the
  societal benefits of the first-generation movement.
• Implement the process as a stand-alone 501c3 organization
  coupled with a strong operational partnership with NASPA.
• Recruit new and partner with existing board members to build an
  effective governance structure.
• Fundraise for major initiatives and sustainability, partnering
  with the Chief Growth Officer on increasing funding support across
  individuals, corporations, and foundations.
• Compel investments at a national level for the Center’s work
  through external relationships.
• Leverage and expand the Center’s network and advocacy through
  relationships and awareness of the first-generation movement.
• Partner with the program Vice President and team to empower
  ongoing success and improvement.
• Serve as the Center’s leading external ambassador to partners,
  institutions, funders, and policy makers.
• Refine the Center’s strategic planning and approaches as
  necessary, and ensure the organization has the necessary resources
  and capabilities to execute the strategy.
• Inspire, develop, and retain a mission-focused, high-performing
  team by empowering staff individually and collectively within a
  remote environment.

EXPERIENCES AND QUALIFICATIONS
Required

• Entrepreneurial, innovative, and growth-oriented leader with a
  passion for the first-generation movement.
• Demonstrated fundraising success across high-net-worth
  individuals, corporations, and foundation giving.
• Demonstrated policy experience and national networks across
  thought leadership and media.
• A personal commitment to justice, diversity, equity, inclusion,
  and belonging.
• Experience demonstrating growth of an organization through
  data, funds, and/or impact.
• Track record of partnering with other organizations to jointly
  pursue impact.
• Understanding of nonprofit accounting and nonprofit business
  models.
• Knowledge and awareness of the higher education sector.
• Capacity and experience enhancing the advocacy and awareness
  work of a mission complementary to the Center’s ecosystem.

Personal Qualities

• Synergistic
• Storyteller
• Authenticity
• Empathy
• Passionate
• Culture and Relationship Builder

Given the mission of the organization, an undergraduate
degree from an accredited college or university is strongly
preferred. However, we recognize that education requirements can
perpetuate racial, gender, socio-economic, and background
disparities due to access. We encourage all candidates with the
professional experiences, values, and skills outlined in this
position specification to apply.

HOW WE EMPOWER TRANSFORMATION AND DRIVE
IMPACT
Established in June 2017 as an initiative of
NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education) and The
Suder Foundation, The Center for First-generation Student Success
is leading the FirstGen movement, elevating practice, knowledge,
and policy to create a nation where FirstGen students thrive.
Through a master services agreement, the CEO and Center will
partner with NASPA on operational and infrastructure needs
including but not exclusively across finance, talent, benefits, IT,
etc.

Our Mission: The Center is uniting all who want
to see FirstGen students flourish. Together, we’re advancing
knowledge, practice and policy to create a nation where FirstGen
students thrive

Practice: Through our growing FirstGen Forward
Network, we currently partner with more than 350 institutions of
higher education, together redesigning their systems and culture.
We’re helping them move from running programs that support some
FirstGen students to becoming an institution that effectively
supports FirstGen students at scale across the institution.
Furthermore, the Network is building a dynamic national community
of proven practice and collaboration, with a comprehensive national
database of innovation, research and impact across higher
education.

Knowledge: Our model is built on solid,
data-driven approaches that are shared as best practices so
institutions, employers, governments, philanthropists and others
can better serve the more than 5 million FirstGen students seeking
to make their mark on the world.

Policy: We organize and advocate for policy and
thought leadership that expands awareness, opportunity and
resources for FirstGen students to access and succeed in higher
education and beyond — now and for generations to come. The Future
is FirstGen.

Research and Data
The Center promotes
research that examines supports and barriers for first-generation
students and institutional approaches to first- generation
programming. We are home to the Journal of First-generation Student
Success, the first academic peer-reviewed journal with a specific
focus on FirstGen student experiences and outcomes. We also produce
our own original research, including two acclaimed landscape
studies and fact sheets with national data about first-generation
students.

Engagement
Our Center Online Learning
offerings and virtual and in-person conferences and events offer
limitless opportunities to engage. Signature events include:

First-Generation College Celebration: co-hosted
with the Council for Opportunity in Education, this annual November
event reaches an audience of millions and brings together college
and university campuses from around the nation to celebrate and
recognize their first-generation students.

First-generation Student Success Conference:
each year, hundreds of scholars, leaders, philanthropic partners,
and advocates who care about first-generation student success come
together to learn, network, and share experiences from the
field.

COMPENSATION
The target salary package is
$300,000 to $350,000.

The Center has provided a compensation range that represents its
good faith estimate of what the organization may pay for the
position at the time of posting. The salary offered to the selected
candidate will be determined based on factors such as the
qualifications of the selected candidate, internal salary equity
considerations, and available market information at the time of
hire, but not based on a candidate’s protected status.

APPLICATION
To apply, please email Angie
VanGorder Angie.VanGorder@KornFerry.com