Assistant Director of Engagement, Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR)

Old Dominion University is seeking an Assistant Director of Engagement for the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR) in Norfolk, VA. This role involves supporting collaborations with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, advancing coastal resilience through community engagement, and managing initiatives for climate adaptation. Candidates should have a relevant graduate degree and considerable knowledge of climate change impacts and resilience practices.
Posting Details

Posting Details

Job Title

Assistant Director of Engagement, Institute for Coastal Adaptation
and Resilience (ICAR)

Department

COASTAL RESILIENCY AUTHORITY

Position Number

GP609A

Location

Norfolk, VA

Job Summary

The Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience ( ICAR )
in the Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation ( OERI ) at Old
Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, is inviting applications for an
administrative and professional faculty Assistant Director for
Engagement to support ICAR’s collaborations with the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation .

ICAR advances the practice of coastal resilience and adaptation by
engaging with communities, organizations, and businesses to develop
and deploy solutions based on integrated, innovative, and applied
research. This position is part of a unique collaboration with the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation ( CBF ) funded by the Commonwealth of
Virginia. As such, this position provides unique opportunities to
advance applied, community engaged research in Virginia’s coastal
zone as well as an expectation to provide technical capacity and
assistance to Virginia localities, Commonwealth agencies,
businesses, and nonprofits. The ICAR Assistant Director for
Engagement will fill a critical gap in Hampton Roads for outreach,
coordination, technical assistance, and scientific synthesis and
integration capacity on coastal adaptation and resilience issues.
The objectives of the Assistant Director of Engagement for ICAR are
to communicate effectively about coastal adaptation and resilience
external to and internally within ODU, to facilitate and conduct
community-engaged research that supports inclusive resilience, to
connect communities for knowledge exchange, and to support the
development of the resilience workforce. This position requires
providing vision for ICAR’s engagement portfolio and designing
programs and projects with minimal supervision to implement
practices for climate adaptation and coastal resilience. The
successful candidate will manage existing ICAR engagement
initiatives but also convene teams of faculty and community members
to develop, write proposals for, and manage engagement in
innovative initiatives requiring co-production in communities for
resilience and adaptation.

Position Type

FullTime

Type of Recruitment

General Public

Minimum Qualifications
• Graduate degree in a field related to disaster and climate
resilience and adaptation (e.g., science and risk communication,
geosciences, atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences,
geography, planning, emergency management, landscape architecture,
public policy, public health, coastal engineering, or another
related field).
• Considerable knowledge of hazards and climate change and their
impacts, including but not limited to erosion, coastal storms, sea
level rise, nuisance flooding, and extreme heat.
• Considerable knowledge of planning and practices to reduce the
risks of hazards and climate change and adapt to their impacts
across social, economic, and environmental systems.
• Considerable knowledge of use-inspired research practices,
including co-production of research with stakeholders.
• Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills, including
skill in communicating science and/or technical information to
non-scientists and skill in using a computer and virtual meeting
technologies.
• Skill in building partnerships, networking, group facilitation,
and collaboration.
• Skill in facilitating, conducting, and communicating applied
research with communities.
• Skill in incorporating the diverse perspectives of multiple
communities, including communities that have been historically
marginalized and/or excluded, into resilience and adaptation
projects and programs.
• Ability to work with academic faculty to synthesize and
integrate research across disciplines and to assist academic
faculty in incorporating applied community needs and input into
innovative research.
• Ability to write interdisciplinary grant proposals and manage
grant budgets.
• Ability to flex communication style to multiple cultural
environments.
• Ability to collate financial paperwork and produce project
progress reports.
• Ability to work independently and as a part of a team.

Preferred Qualifications
• Ph.D related to disaster and climate resilience and
adaptation (e.g., science and risk communication, geosciences,
atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, geography, planning,
emergency management, landscape architecture, public policy, public
health, coastal engineering, or another related field).
• Considerable work experience that includes documented
experience in public engagement, including engagement with
historically marginalized, under-represented, and other vulnerable
communities and people. This work experience could be in higher
education, local or state government agencies, private sector
resilience service contracting, nonprofits, and/or research center
settings.
• Working experience in one or more of the following content
areas: coastal resilience, climate resilience, science and risk
communication, geosciences, atmospheric sciences, environmental
sciences, geography, planning, emergency management, disaster
recovery and resilience, landscape architecture, public policy,
public health, coastal engineering, or another related field.
• Working experience with grant applications and successful grant
management.

Conditions of Employment

Job Open Date

03/26/2025

Open Until Filled

Yes

Application Review Date

04/30/2025

Job Close Date

Special Instructions to Applicants / Additional Materials
Required

Interested candidates should attach the following with their
online application:
• A statement of engagement philosophy .
• In your application for the Assistant Director for Engagement
position, please include a 1-page statement that outlines your
philosophy on engaging with a variety of audiences. Your statement
should:
• Explain your general approach to stakeholder engagement,
including key principles that guide your work.
• Describe how you tailor engagement strategies to meet the needs
of different audiences, including government staff, scientists,
neighborhood residents, or businesses.
• Highlight any methods or tools you use to foster effective
communication and collaboration.
• Share an example of a successful engagement initiative you’ve
led or participated in, and what you learned from the
experience.
• A sample of a written communication product tailored for a
non-academic audience
• Please provide a 1-page sample of a written product
demonstrating how you would effectively communicate a coastal
resilience topic to an audience of local decision-makers (for
example, these could include local government staff, homeowners,
renters, businesses, or non-profits). Your sample may take any
written format and may include graphics. Examples could include
news letters, a fact sheet, social media posts, print outs of
content for a web page, or more; just be aware our systems cannot
accept video. You may either use a prior product you have created
for other purposes or create a new product for this prompt, but
your sample should:
• Identify a relevant coastal resilience issue and its
significance.
• Communicate the potential impact of the issue on
decisions.
• Highlight any key data, information, or findings in a way that
is appropriate for your audience.
• Propose actionable recommendations or next steps that the
decision-makers could consider.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the audience by using language
and framing that resonate with their decision-making
processes.

For additional information regarding the position, please contact
Search Committee Chair Carol Considine, Director of Applied
Projects, ICAR (cconsidi@odu.edu). Review of applications will
begin on April 30, 2025. The position will remain open until
it is filled.

Criminal Background Check

The final candidate is required to complete a criminal history
check.

Department Information

ICAR was launched by an interdisciplinary group of faculty
in 2018 to leverage over eight years of ODU investment and
leadership in coastal adaptation and resilience scholarship. Buoyed
by a $3 million endowment by Joan Perry Brock, ICAR hired an
executive director in 2021 and embarked on an organization process
to build an interdisciplinary center focused on leading fundamental
and applied research, education, and engaged partnerships to
develop practical solutions to the challenges coastal communities
face. In 2023, ICAR launched its faculty, student, and community
partner affiliation program focused on sea level rise and climate
science, social science and policy, flooding and built
environments, and the health dimensions of coastal resilience. ICAR
catalyzes the action needed to build vibrant communities, strong
economies, and healthy ecosystems across the Commonwealth of
Virginia despite natural hazards and climate change ( https://oduadaptationandresilience.org/
).

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to saving the Chesapeake Bay, with more than 91,000
members around Virginia. The CBF advocates for effective,
science-based solutions to pollution impacting the Bay, its rivers,
and its streams. CBF engages on climate resilience and adaptation
in recognition that climate change and its resulting impacts could
lead to additional pollution loads to the Bay. As Virginia’s
localities, organizations, businesses, and people act to implement
solutions that reduce climate change risk, CBF seeks to ensure that
these actions also benefit the outcome of Virginia’s clean water
blueprint (
https://www.cbf.org/how-we-save-the-bay/chesapeake-clean-water-blueprint/state-watershed-implementation-plans/virginia/index.html
).

Equity Statement

It is the policy of Old Dominion University to provide equal
employment, educational and social opportunities for all persons,
without regard to race (or traits historically associated with race
including hair texture, hair type, and protective hairstyles such
as braids, locks, and twists), color, religion, sex or gender
(including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions),
national origin, gender identity or expression, age, veteran
status, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation or
genetic information. Individuals from minoritized communities,
women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to
apply.

Reasonable Accommodation Request

If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable
accommodation, please contact the Office of Institutional Equity
& Diversity at (757) 683-3141.

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner
discriminate against employees or applicants because they have
inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of
another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access
to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as
a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of
other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise
have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is
(a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance
of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an
investigation conducted by the employer, or © consistent with
contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

ODU Statement

Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk, is Virginia’s
forward-focused public doctoral research university with more than
23,000 students, a top R1 research ranking, rigorous academics, an
energetic residential community and initiatives that contribute 2.6
billion annually to Virginia’s economy.