Program Manager, Center for Just Environmental Futures

Stanfordlivetickets; Palo Alto (CA); Hybrid; USD 116,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is seeking a Program Manager to lead the Research Practice Hub and coordinate Transformative Learning and Arts & Culture initiatives. You will build equitable partnerships with community organizations, supervise the phased launch of core program areas, and ensure research practice aligns with community-identified needs.

The role reports to the Futures Center Managing Director and requires a strong ability to navigate complex stakeholder networks, while

Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD preferred) and/or equivalent scholarly and professional accomplishments in community-engaged partnerships focused on sustainability and environmental justice.
• Experience with community-engaged learning principles and practices in higher education contexts, with sensitivity to equity and reciprocal partnership models.
• Genuine commitment to a supporting role, enabling the success of others' work.
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain productive relationships with faculty in a University setting.
• Proven ability to manage multiple time-sensitive projects with competing deadlines while maintaining quality.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with diverse actors within and outside the organization, including academia, nonprofits, private and public sectors.
• Flexible, collaborative, growth-minded, and able to navigate ambiguous environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and implementation of the Research Practice Hub, coordinating four core program areas and ensuring community-centered impact.
• Design, execute, and manage Hub projects with faculty, community partners, and student researchers; manage resources and timelines.
• Build and sustain authentic partnerships with community-based organizations, policymakers, and other stakeholders.
• Establish participatory research frameworks and ethical guidelines centering community co-researchers and data sovereignty.
• Develop evaluation frameworks to assess community impact and partnership equity; report findings in accessible formats.
• Train staff, community partners, students, and stakeholders in CBPR and ethical engagement practices.
• Support place-based experiential learning connecting students with environmental justice contexts and diverse communities.
• Collaborate to integrate multiple knowledge systems, including Traditional Ecological Knowledge, into programming.
• Integrate arts and culture perspectives across scholarship, research practice, and transformative learning.
• Develop multi-year strategic plans and budgets for phased program launches with equitable partnership principles.
• Track and report program outcomes and write content for proposals, grants, and communications.

Skills

Community engagement

Stakeholder engagement

CBPR

Project management

Curriculum development

Partnership development

Education

Advanced degree in sustainability or related field

Job description

This position has been deemed critical by the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Dean’s Office and is exempt from the hiring pause.

This position is based on Stanford’s main campus with consideration given to the option for a hybrid work schedule (partially onsite 3 or more days a week), subject to operational need.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa.

About Us

The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability works toward a world where humans and nature thrive in concert and in perpetuity. The school has a three-part structure:

• Academic departments and programs educate students and create new knowledge across areas of research that are crucial for advancing the long-term prosperity of the planet and people.
• Institutes bridge scholarship at Stanford and beyond, bringing multiple viewpoints to bear on urgent challenges.
• The Sustainability Accelerator serves as a launchpad for sustainability solutions, turning innovative ideas into transformative and scalable technologies and policies that will substantially improve the quality of human life and our planet. The Sustainability Accelerator is rooted in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and works across the University and with external partners to drive solutions from the lab into the world.

The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is dedicated to creating and supporting a community with the richness of experience and background needed to create solutions that benefit all people, particularly those most affected by environmental damage and climate change. For more information, please click here.

The Sustainable Societies Initiative (SSI) draws together researchers from across the University to address a central challenge in sustainability – how do we accomplish the social, economic, cultural transformations needed to create societies that are truly sustainable? These complex, integrated, human-centered challenges require deep engagement with key actors – governments, business, civil society, and diverse communities – to develop research that will yield the insights and pathways needed to enable and propel transformation. They require a readiness to address the many different dimensions – political, institutional, behavioral, technological, historical as well as environmental and ecological – that are important to success, and to use an integrative social-environmental systems approach in doing so.

The Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures (Futures Center), situated within SSI, will serve as the intellectual and cultural hub for interdisciplinary communities of faculty, staff, and students focused on equitable and sustainable futures. The Center will advance this work through field-shaping research, education, and impact initiatives that seek to understand, repair, and prevent societal harms caused by environmental degradation, climate change, unequal access to the benefits of biodiversity, and histories of marginalization. Through four core activities— Scholarship, Research-Practice, Transformative Learning, and Arts & Culture—the Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures will define and deepen the university’s role in advancing the fields of environmental justice and climate justice, with local to global benefit.

The Program Manager, in partnership with Center leadership, will develop, administer and implement the Research Practice Hub, and will coordinate Center initiatives for Transformative Learning and Arts and Culture. This role is central to advancing the Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures' mission to bridge academic scholarship with community-engaged practice, creating meaningful pathways for collaborative knowledge production and equitable partnerships. The Program Manager will serve as the primary architect and operator of the Research Practice Hub, overseeing the phased launch of four core program areas that center community expertise and ensure research responds directly to community-identified needs. Additionally, the Program Manager will work collaboratively across the Center to support the development and integration of innovative educational experiences and creative programming, ensuring that research practice, transformative learning, and arts and culture function as interconnected pillars of the Center's work. This position requires a skilled relationship-builder and strategic thinker who can navigate complex partnerships, center equity and justice in all programmatic decisions, and operationalize the Center's vision for scholarship that serves communities most affected by environmental harm. The position will report to the Futures Center Managing Director.

Responsibilities will include:

• Lead the development and implementation of the Research Practice Hub, overseeing the phased launch and ongoing coordination of four core program areas: Participatory Research Support, Community-Led Research (Science Shop), Science Communication & Public Engagement, and Global Policy Lab
• Design, execute, and manage Hub projects that integrate faculty PIs, community partners, and student researchers, coordinating resource allocation, stakeholder engagement, and project timelines to ensure meaningful community impact and timely delivery
• Build and sustain authentic, reciprocal partnerships with community-based organizations, grassroots groups, and policymakers through ongoing outreach, including regular visits to regional sites, that identifies partner priorities and translates community needs into collaborative research opportunities and learning objectives
• Establish and maintain participatory research frameworks and ethical guidelines that position community members as co-researchers and knowledge creators, centering community expertise, data sovereignty, and community benefit while honoring both academic rigor and community wisdom
• Develop and implement evaluation frameworks to assess community impact, research quality, and partnership equity, ensuring findings are shared in accessible, actionable formats that support community-led decision-making and partners' goals
• Train and mentor staff, community partners, students, and stakeholders in community-based participatory research (CBPR), asset-based approaches, and ethical engagement practices, fostering capacity for collaborative research and civic leadership within partner organizations
• Support the design and execution of place-based, experiential learning opportunities that connect students with diverse environmental justice contexts, frontline communities, and alternative governance models, in partnership with academic programs, SDSS Experiential Learning team, Haas Center for Public Service, and Office of Community Engagement
• Collaborate with academic and community partners to develop and assess curriculum and programming that integrates multiple knowledge systems, including Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous epistemologies; develop assessment tools, collect feedback, and make recommendations for curriculum improvements in collaboration with Dean's office
• Integrate arts and cultural perspectives throughout activities, coordinating cross-functional programming that weaves artistic expression and creative voices throughout scholarship, research practice, and transformative learning as essential pathways for advancing environmental and climate justice
• Develop and manage multi-year strategic plans, timelines, and budgets for phased program launches, establishing operational systems, policies, and procedures that ensure community-centered approaches and equitable partnership principles
• Track and report on program outcomes, community impact, and progress toward Center goals; write and edit content for proposals, research grants, peer-reviewed publications, and program communications

In addition to the minimum qualifications listed below, our preferred qualifications include:

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD preferred) and/or equivalent scholarly and professional accomplishments in community-engaged partnerships focused on sustainability and environmental justice
• Demonstrated experience with and deep understanding of community-engaged learning principles and practices in higher education contexts, with demonstrated sensitivity to power dynamics, equity, and reciprocal partnership models
• Genuine commitment to a supporting role, with satisfaction derived from enabling the success of others' work
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain productive working relationships with faculty in a University setting.
• Proven ability to establish priorities, manage shifting demands, and handle multiple time-sensitive projects with competing deadlines while maintaining quality and stakeholder relationships
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with a diverse set of actors within and outside the organization, including academia, nonprofits, private and public sectors.
• Flexible, open-minded, collaborative and growth mindset with ability to navigate an ambiguous environment.

The expected pay range for this position is $116,000 to $150,000 per annum.