Executive Director, Harris Social Impact Fellowship

Harris School Social Impact Fellowship Executive Director

The Executive Director provides strategic, programmatic, financial, and operational leadership for the Harris Social Impact Fellowship (HSIF), a flagship initiative of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Reporting to the Associate Dean of Executive Education and Partnerships and working in close partnership with the Faculty Director, the Executive Director holds independent authority over the Fellowship's programmatic direction, multi-year growth strategy, fellow experience, partnership portfolio, and operations.

The Executive Director manages a complex stakeholder ecosystem spanning faculty across multiple UChicago units, research centers, fellows, alumni, external host institutions, peer programs, and the Harris senior leadership team. The role exercises decision rights on selection, partnership scope, budget allocation within the program, and staff hiring within the program team. The Executive Director ensures academic rigor, programmatic excellence, measurable impact, and financial sustainability as HSIF scales and expands its systematic impact across sectors. The Executive Director represents the Fellowship to senior University leadership, external partner institutions, and academic and policy audiences, safeguarding its reputation while advancing Harris' mission to develop evidence-based leaders committed to social impact.

Responsibilities

• Serves as strategic co-architect of the fellowship curriculum and experience in partnership with the Faculty Director, leading annual program design cycles, faculty engagement strategy, and integration of interdisciplinary research centers across UChicago to ensure academic rigor, innovation, and institutional alignment.
• Independently leads the strategic design and evolution of the Fellowship as a flagship Harris initiative, ensuring alignment with School priorities, University-wide initiatives, and the multi-year growth strategy approved by Harris leadership.
• Drives the design and decision work on strategic expansion initiatives, including external placement diversification, applicant-pool engagement mechanisms, and the exploration of sector-level platform infrastructure to position HSIF as a national bridge between STEM talent and social impact pathways.
• Sets and protects the academic and experiential standards that define the HSIF model, exercising independent judgment on program design questions within the framework established with the Faculty Director and Associate Dean.
• Manages a multi-directional stakeholder ecosystem internally across Harris and the broader University, including faculty principals, research center directors (Urban Labs, BIP Lab, Mansueto Institute, and others), University career services, admissions, finance, OLC, and senior University leadership.
• Develops and manages a portfolio of strategic institutional partnerships with external research organizations, social impact employers, government and policy institutions, peer fellowship programs, and host placement sites, independently negotiating scope, expectations, and deliverables while safeguarding program quality and the Harris brand.
• Represents the Fellowship to senior University leadership, advisory stakeholders, external partner institutions, and academic and policy audiences, ensuring cohesive messaging, institutional alignment, and executive-level stakeholder confidence.
• Produces program-substance materials that inform institutional advancement work, including impact data, programmatic updates, briefing materials, and presentations used by the Alumni Relations and Development team in donor stewardship; participates in donor-facing convenings when program substance requires it.
• Navigates competing priorities and timelines across academic, operational, and external stakeholder groups, exercising judgment on escalation, sequencing, and de-confliction without daily oversight.
• Leads national recruitment strategy, including brand positioning, strategic outreach partnerships, pipeline development with high-quality undergraduate programs, and data-informed yield management to ensure cohort quality, intellectual diversity, and long-term alumni impact.
• Owns the full selection process, including application review architecture, interview protocols, and final cohort formation decisions in partnership with the Faculty Director.
• Oversees the full lifecycle fellow experience from recruitment through alumni integration, establishing professional standards, leadership development frameworks, mentorship structures, and crisis management protocols.
• Builds and stewards the alumni community as a strategic asset to the Fellowship, designing engagement mechanisms that compound across cohorts and strengthen Harris' standing in the STEM-to-public-sector pipeline.
• Directs all operational systems for the Fellowship, including governance protocols, compliance oversight, cross-unit coordination, and scalable infrastructure to support multi-cohort growth without compromising fellow experience quality.
• Develops and implements program operations, including protocols for information flow, decision rights, escalation pathways, and operational handoffs across the Fellowship team, faculty leads, host institutions, and University units.
• Owns risk management planning for the program, including identification of operational, reputational, and partnership risks; design of mitigation protocols; and exercise of judgment on when to escalate to the Associate Dean or Dean.
• Supervises program staff and external consultants, setting performance standards, overseeing workload distribution, and building internal operational capacity. Currently manages one full-time direct report plus rotating consultants and student staff, with team scope expected to grow as the Fellowship scales to multiple cohorts and expansion workstreams.
• Holds hiring authority for program staff and consultant engagements within the program team, in alignment with Harris HR processes.
• Holds full fiscal accountability for a multi-million-dollar program budget, including multi-year financial planning, scenario modeling, cost-per-fellow analysis, and margin protection across program activities.
• Exercises independent budget allocation authority within the approved program budget, including decisions on placement partnerships, recruitment investment, alumni programming, and operational resourcing.
• Develops financial models for expansion scenarios, including external placement diversification, applicant-pool engagement programs, and platform infrastructure design work, in coordination with the Associate Dean and Harris finance.
• Works with the Faculty Director to design and oversee a comprehensive impact measurement framework, including fellow outcomes, partner engagement metrics, longitudinal alumni career tracking, and program-level performance dashboards, presenting findings to senior Harris leadership and the Faculty Director to inform strategic and resourcing decisions.
• Organizes flagship Fellowship events, including capstone presentations and the annual alumni retreat; represents the Fellowship at external conferences, peer-program convenings, and academic and policy venues, enhancing Harris' visibility and reputation as a leader in evidence-based social impact training.
• Maintains deep working understanding of faculty, research, and staff dynamics across UChicago in order to engage effectively on committee work, cross-unit initiatives, and information flow.
• Plans and develops program objectives and/or content. Researches and identifies trends and needs and establishes program directions accordingly.
• Develops and administers program budgets and recommends or makes budgetary recommendations.
• Serves as a key resource for program information. Resolves problems or questions referred by program staff, University administrators, or other contingencies.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Experience:

• Significant professional experience in program leadership, higher education administration, public policy, or related fields with director-level scope.
• Proven track record in strategic planning, multi-year program development, and scaling complex initiatives across institutional boundaries.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating with senior academic leaders, executive directors, and research principals across on-campus institutions, off-campus think tanks, government entities, or non-profit organizations focused on research, evaluation, or policy.
• Background working with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior faculty, external institutional partners, and high-engagement community or alumni constituencies.
• Experience supervising staff and managing consultant relationships, with demonstrated ability to build operational capacity as programs scale.

Preferred Competencies

• Conceptualizes, plans, and executes complex, multi-faceted programs with minimal oversight, exercising sound independent judgment on strategic and operational questions.
• Navigates complex stakeholder ecosystems with competing agendas, with strong instincts for sequencing, escalation, and de-confliction.
• Entrepreneurial orientation toward program-building, with capacity to design and operationalize new initiatives from concept through delivery.
• Exceptional leadership, vision, and team-building abilities, with the ability to inspire and mentor emerging leaders.
• Strong organizational discipline and relationship-building skills across hierarchies and institutional boundaries.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to brief senior leadership, represent the program externally, and produce program-substance materials of institutional quality.
• Familiarity with data analytics, impact measurement frameworks, and public policy research methodologies.
• Sound judgment on confidential and reputational matters affecting the program, fellows, and Harris.

Working Conditions

• Chicago-based role at the University of Chicago, with a hybrid work arrangement.
• Some evening and weekend work in connection with Fellowship programming and events.
• An estimated 10% overnight travel.