Executive Director for Curriculum Design and Moderation in Washington, District of Columbia at The Aspen Institute

ABOUT US

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization whose purpose is to ignite human potential to build understanding and create new possibilities for a better world. Founded in 1949, the Institute drives change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve society’s greatest challenges. It is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, as well as an international network of partners.

THE CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP

The Center for Leadership exists to ignite and nurture leadership potential in its constituents, building meaningful connections that generate lasting impact. Its work is to inspire, challenge and support leaders with different perspectives to understand how and where they can make a difference and live lives of deeper meaning and greater individual and collective impact. By supporting, connecting, and incubating leadership programs across the Aspen Institute, it fosters a global community of courageous and well connected leaders in real relation with one another working across their differences in service of a better world.

ABOUT THIS ROLE

The Executive Director for Curriculum Design and Moderation is a leadership position within the Center for Leadership responsible for curriculum, moderation, and shared leadership learning resources, reporting to the Executive Vice President for Leadership. This role will serve as a stewart for the practices that underpin the Aspen method - that rely on thoughtful curriculum, skilled moderators and shared practices and resources to support strong dialogue- and develop the systems that support this method across Institute programs.

Since these elements have been managed mostly within individual programs, the Executive Director for Curriculum Design and Moderation will provide expert guidance for shared standards and stronger collective learning across all Center for Leadership programs, contributing to a culture of collaboration and shared stewardship. In this sense, the Executive Director for Curriculum Design and Moderation will lead the shared leadership learning practices that connect Aspen programs and help ensure strong standards for seminar practice and moderator development across the Institute. This position is remote and reports to the Executive Vice President for Leadership. The salary for this position is $237,000 - $250,000.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

The Executive Director for Curriculum Design and Moderation will work closely with Center for Leadership program leads and senior moderators on:

Shared Program Practices

• Lead and steward the learning practices that define Aspen seminars and fellowships.

• Lead on the thoughtful use and development of seminar design principles, leadership texts, and moderation practices that sustain meaningful dialogue.

• Strengthen shared practice across the Institute while supporting learning across programs.
  

Program Design Partnership

• Serve as a convener and coordinator of curriculum design support, and thought partner to programs developing or evolving seminars, bringing expertise in seminar-based leadership development and moderator practice.

• Connect learning across design efforts so programs can benefit from one another’s experience.
  

Moderator Corps Stewardship and Development

• Provide Institute-wide leadership for the development and stewardship of the Aspen moderator corps

• Develop and manage shared approaches to moderator development, training, and accountability

• Support a culture of reflective practice among moderators through communities of practice, shared learning forums, and norms that encourage growth and feedback.
  

Shared Standards and Governance

• Establish and steward shared frameworks that guide:

  • curriculum and program development of Aspen programming

  • moderator development, deployment, evaluation, and community

  • shared understanding of high-quality moderation

  • fairness and consistent quality while respecting the distinct context of individual programs.

Learning Infrastructure

• Lead the development of shared tools, systems, and resources that help the Center capture learning across programs and strengthen moderator development over time.

Production Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight of the production team, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.

• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary production team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Serve as a senior organizational representative on production matters, building relationships with strategic partners.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO THRIVE

• 15+ years of senior leadership experience in leadership development, higher education, nonprofit, or mission-driven institutions.

• Demonstrated ability to lead and steward organization-wide practices across diverse programs or portfolios.

• Deep expertise in seminar-based, text-driven learning methodologies and dialogue-based leadership development.

• Significant experience designing, evolving, and evaluating curricula for leadership programs.

• Extensive experience developing, training, and mentoring moderators.

• Track record of building high-performing practitioner communities and fostering cultures of continuous learning and feedback.

• Experience establishing standards, evaluation frameworks, and accountability systems for moderators.

• Ability to balance consistency and quality with flexibility for programmatic context and innovation.

• Strong judgment in navigating complexity across diverse programs.

• Ability to translate qualitative learning and practitioner insight into scalable resources and institutional knowledge.

• High emotional intelligence, humility, and a commitment to values-based leadership.

• Orientation toward collaboration, stewardship, and long-term institutional impact.

• Willingness and ability to travel, as much as 20 % at certain times of the year.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave.

The Aspen Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all District and federal laws. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected veteran or disabled status and will not be discriminated against.

The Aspen Institute welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs, including the interview process. If you would like to request accommodations or hav questions about accessibility, please email hrsupport@aspeninstitute.org or call 202-736-2127 in advance of your visit. Requests for ASL or CART services should be made at least two weeks in advance when possible. We will make every effort to fulfill requests, subject to availability.