Director, Belonging, Equity and Inclusion-Alumni Engagement and Development

Occupational Summary

Reporting to the Associate Vice President Organizational Performance & Business Operations, the Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Alumni Engagement and Development leads diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for the Office of Alumni Engagement and Development (AED) as well as advising various alumni and volunteer boards and committees. He/she serves as the principal convener upholding Duke’s and AED’s values, an expert on diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion practices, a monitor in creating a more diverse and inclusive work environment, and an expert in promoting more diverse and inclusive alumni and volunteer boards and committees. He/she advises the Vice President, the senior leadership team, and alumni and volunteer board and committee members regarding their work on Duke’s behalf.

Work Performed

Leadership Internal and External

• Design, build, and evaluate a DEI program for AED, both internally and externally focused, that begins with strategy and moves through implementation and evaluation. Build a team and develop partnerships in support of the strategy.
• Develop, implement, monitor, and revise AED’s policies and practices in accordance with Duke’s values and policies to promote an inclusive and respectful culture, a welcoming environment, and excellence through diversity.
• Work with the Vice President and senior leaders to develop and model actions and assess outcomes in alignment with the University’s racial equity commitments and AED’s values.
• In partnership with leaders across Alumni Engagement and Development, proactively engage alumni, parents, friends, donors, volunteers, and affinity and identity groups as key partners to support Duke’s and AED’s DEI goals. Develop and support initiatives to increase diversity and inclusion of both volunteer and donor pools.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for AED’s programming for alumni, parents, friends, donors, alumni and volunteer boards and committees, and volunteers.
• Oversee volunteer code of conduct, including training volunteers and staff. Manage violations of the code in partnership with the Office of Institutional Equity and other Duke partners.
• Serve as a partner and subject matter expert in supporting and advancing the University’s campaign initiatives in social and racial equity.
• Work directly with AED and campus leadership in providing counsel or corrective action when addressing, confronting, or mitigating behaviors or actions that are not in alignment with AED’s and Duke’s core values.
• Support and serve AED’s Belonging and Equity Committee.
• Review, monitor, and update AED’s strategic framework.
• Lead AED in preparing the AED portion of the Duke Annual Report on Racial Equity (DARRE) and collaborate with institutional partners.
• Analyze and make recommendations from the data provided by the University’s biannual climate assessment.
• Working with AED’s Office of Multicultural Advancement, develop and deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs for alumni and volunteer board and committee members.
• Partner with the Associate Vice President of Marketing, Communication, and Stewardship to ensure that alumni and volunteers are informed of the university’s progress on Duke’s DEI initiatives.

Policies, practices, and programs

• Working with AED’s human resources team, develop initiatives to support, guide, and enhance the experiences of underrepresented staff. Design, build, and evaluate a program that focuses on attracting, developing, retaining, and advancing a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work force.
• In collaboration with AED’s human resources and talent development teams, develop and present DEI and equitable hiring approaches including implicit bias training and education to all hiring managers and interview committees as well as best practices for increasing the diversity of applicant pools and how to maintain an environment that supports retention.
• Advance a safe and respectful environment both internally and with external constituents through training, reporting, and managing organizational response and remediation efforts.
• Collaborate with university-wide subject matter experts to ensure programming is complementary to, and in support of, Duke’s institutional diversity and inclusion goals.
• Evaluate organizational procedures and processes and recommend changes to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Working with AED’s Offices of Multicultural Advancement and Talent Development, develop and deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs for staff.

University partnerships

• Represent AED at leadership meetings, programs, and trainings provided by the Office of Faculty Advancement and the Office of Institutional Equity.
• Provide information for the University’s biannual climate assessment.
• Partner with the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and other senior leaders (including AED and DEI leadership in schools and units) to collaborate on strategies and initiatives to enhance programming for Duke’s large alumni and volunteer base.

Direct and manage work of DEI staff

• Carry out all supervisory requirements from recruitment to performance evaluations.
• Provide clear direction on work responsibilities and accountability.

Exemplify leadership and manage administrative support and programmatic partners to success.

• Representative duties: Appropriately represent Duke University as “employer” to direct reports and direct reports as “employees” to Duke University.

• Programmatic duties: Ensure alignment of given programmatic, departmental, vertical, and/or organization-wide activities with AED strategic goals, priorities, and expectations.

• Financial duties: Exercise fiduciary responsibility for given individual, programmatic, departmental, vertical, and/or organization-wide activities in accordance with Duke’s financial policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations.

• Personnel duties: Supervise direct reports in accordance with Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations.

• Personnel duties: Hire and onboard new employees (and offboard separating employees) in accordance with programmatic, departmental, vertical, and organization-wide priorities, Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations.

The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this classification. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties required of personnel so classified.

Skills:

• Exceptional ability to organize, establish objectives and priorities, and achieve goals.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

• Ability to work with diverse groups of university constituents to achieve goals.

• Demonstrated management, motivational, collaboration, and pragmatic consensus building skills.

• Ability to coordinate varied programs and projects simultaneously.

Competencies:

• Leadership: Ability to effectively manage and guide group efforts. Inspire teams to succeed. Develop the vision and direction of the team. Generate broad internal and external support for the mission, vision, and goals of the office.

• Organizational awareness: The ability to understand and learn organizational relationships and dynamics and use them to achieve objectives. Demonstrate organizational savvy by enrolling key opinion leaders to support or sponsor one’s objectives.

• Decisiveness and judgment: Predict how highly complex decision will affect key stakeholder groups (internal and external) and develop strategies to build support for the decision and overcome obstacles. Use principles, values, and sound business sense to make decisions and set priorities in accordance with university objectives and strategies.

• Shares knowledge: Enable the organization to share knowledge more effectively. Recognize and acknowledge the knowledge contribution of others. Identify and develop strategies to encourage and enable collaborative working within the organization and with partners. Foster a knowledge and information rich culture within the organization.

• Collaborating with others: The willingness and ability to work with others to achieve shared success. Forge consensus to reach goals. Foster a cooperative team environment. Establish partnerships with other departments and major stakeholders.

• Managing change: Ability to help others recognize and acquire the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors intended for personal and career growth.

• Integrity and ethics: Act in an honest and trustworthy manner. Behave in an honest, fair, and ethical manner. Demonstrate accountability for actions. Serve as a role model of ethical behavior by conforming to the highest ethical standards and practices. Champion organizational values.

• The University’s guiding principles and expected behaviors are ones that the chief diversity officer must model for the staff and programs under his/her purview: Respect | Trust | Inclusion | Discovery | Excellence

Minimum Qualifications

Education

A Master's Degree in higher education, sociology, social work, psychology or other related field is required. A Ph.D. is preferred.

Experience

Work requires a minimum of 7 years of experience with progressive responsibility diversity, equity and inclusion education, training and development. Experience designing and implementing DEI initiatives in higher education or a complex institution.

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.