Chief Program Officer

Martha O'Bryan Center

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Job Summary

Do you want to lead a robust and diverse team nationally recognized for its efforts to move people out of poverty?  Do you want to build inclusive and equitable environments where children are educated, caregivers are socially and economically mobile, and families are healthy, stable, and able to thrive?  As Chief Program Officer, you will be responsible for providing strategic leadership to MOBC’s programs and services which feature innovative two-generation supports, Nashville’s busiest foodbank, a robust clinical counseling and social services team, and best-in-class elementary, middle, high school, and post-secondary programming.  As leader of this team, this position is responsible for management, supervision, and support for the foundational agency programs and services. 

This position is a part of the executive leadership team at MOBC, led by the CEO, and therefore takes part in the planning and visioning process at MOBC. 

Key areas of responsibility are implementation and integration; contract compliance; program fidelity; data and evaluation; community partnerships; and professional development for teams and program leaders.

Job Responsibilities

The critical features of this job are described under the headings below. They may be subject to change due to changes in our business processes or other business-related reasons.

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Leads MOBC’s established suite of 20+ programs and services across nine sites.
• Directly supervises and manages four Senior Leaders: (Director of Early Learning, Senior Director of Elementary and Middle School, Senior Director of High School and Post-Secondary, and VP of Families and Communities).  Responsible for interviewing, hiring, and training; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.
• Works with the Senior Director of Data and Evaluation to track and analyze program performance.  Oversees compliance.  Ensures programs and services reach anticipated outcomes and impact.
• Reviews programs for quality improvement.  Regularly visits sites and reviews files.
• Strengthen and enhance the fidelity of program models.  Oversees the overall direction, coordination, professional development, and evaluation of teams and departments.
• Works to increase consistency and quality in customer experience.  Ensures all programming sites and services are warm, inclusive, creative, safe, and inspiring.
• Helps grow and launch new initiatives and opportunities, including MOBC’s new early learning center, launched in 2023. 
• Ensures all Center programs are in line with the mission by overseeing the implementation, and evaluation.
• Works collaboratively and facilitates the flow of information and integration by attending and/or conducting meetings with other Martha O’Bryan Center staff members, partners, and others.
• Provides regular reports and assistance to the COO.  Ensures program and service accountability through clearly defined objectives/outcomes and regular reporting.
• Represents and promotes the Center at various meetings and community functions by developing and maintaining relationships with neighborhood residents, local representatives, community partners, and other public officials.
• Collaborates with Directors to build annual budgets.  Assists in monitoring expenditures to ensure the operations of the Center are within the approved programmatic budget; makes recommendations to the COO for approval of expenditures or reductions in order to comply with budgetary requirements. 
• Researches funding opportunities and writes proposals for grant requests in partnership with the COO, Senior Director of Data and Evaluation, and MOBC’s grant writers. 
• Works closely with the Human Resources department on personnel management issues relating to assigned departments.
• Provides direct support to the COO.  Should there be an extended absence of the COO, the CPO fills that position, reporting to the CEO.
• Responsible for traveling to all worksites.

Qualifications

About the Martha O’Bryan Center

Martha O’Bryan improves lives by solving the root causes of generational poverty.  Our history and experiences have shown that entrenched poverty stems from interconnected drivers: low-performing schools, a lack of out-of-school-time programming and college access resources, limited and inconsistent employment opportunities, and fractured family support systems.

We directly serve more than 8000 individuals a year, helping vulnerable families overcome these obstacles by providing high-quality educational opportunities, excellent two-generational services, regional system-change leadership, and advocating for the laws and systems that help families advance. 

We are a growth-focused organization due to our commitment to a comprehensive strategy to reduce poverty.  We expand the landscape of opportunities through client voice/experience, innovation, and best-emerging practices. 

Recent accomplishments from just this last year include:

• MOBC opened a new two-generational community center in the heart of Cayce Place. Designed to house our Family Success Network, this building includes an expanded Early Learning Center, adult education classrooms, enhanced career spaces, counseling and wellness offices, a family library, and community recreation spaces.
• Martha O’Bryan Center was selected as one of fifteen nonprofits nationally by the Aspen Institute’s 2Gen Accelerator Community for demonstrating some of the country’s strongest, front-edge solutions to dismantling inequities and forging new pathways to prosperity across diverse communities.
• Earlier this year, as the backbone agency of the Tennessee Alliance for Economic Mobility (TAEM), MOBC launched the largest benefits cliff demonstration project in the country.  Serving as a public-private collaborative of 32 partners across seven Middle Tennessee counties, TAEM works directly to combat the benefits cliff by combining whole-family supports with a first-of-its-kind transitional benefit, which mitigates the cliff effect through direct payments to a family’s childcare, housing, healthcare, and food security providers. The Federal Reserve called the project, “one of the most, if not the most, comprehensive pilots we’ve ever seen around benefits cliffs.  It’s very ambitious.”
• Recognizing this opportunity, MOBC has partnered with the Kresge Foundation to launch a new nationwide initiative called Beyond the Cliff.  Beyond the Cliff will work to increase awareness of the benefits cliff, mobilize employer strategies and solutions, and establish a national learning network of peer benefits cliff pilots and initiatives to share best practices and co-develop a unified vision of change.

Additional Information

How to Apply

Apply online at https://marthaobryan.org/careers/

Details

• Date Posted: January 31, 2024
• Type: Full-Time
• Job Function: Executive Leadership
• Service Area: Children / Youth
• Salary Range: $115,000-$135,000