Commissioners and Directors Association Executive Director

Job Title: Executive Director

Location: Remote with occasional regional and national travel. Candidate must reside in one of the six New England States (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT)

Position Type: Full-Time

Summary of position:

The Baker Center for Children and Families (also known as Judge Baker Children's Center), promotes the best possible mental health of children and families through the integration of research, intervention, training, and policy.

The New England Association of Child Welfare Commissioners and Directors (NEACWCD), housed at the Baker Center for Children and Families, is seeking an experienced, collaborative leader to serve as its next Executive Director.

NEACWCD is a member organization comprised of the six public child welfare agencies serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. For nearly 40 years, the Association has brought child welfare leaders together to learn from one another, solve shared challenges, and advance innovative policy and practice through collaborative initiatives, research, strategic partnerships, and peer learning.

The Executive Director serves as a trusted advisor, facilitator, and connector for Commissioners and Directors across the region. This is a unique opportunity for a leader who enjoys bringing people together, building relationships across systems, identifying emerging opportunities, and turning ideas into meaningful regional work. The Executive Director also connects New England leaders with emerging research, promising practices, national experts, and technical assistance resources. Current priorities include advancing a kin-first culture and support for kinship caregivers; promoting authentic engagement of youth and families with lived experience; and fostering cross-state collaboration related to permanency, workforce development, and child welfare outcomes. These priorities will continue to evolve in partnership with NEACWCD's members. The incoming Executive Director will join NEACWCD during a planned leadership transition and will have the opportunity to work alongside the current Executive Director for a period of onboarding and relationship transition.

Why This Role Is Different

NEACWCD is not a traditional direct-service organization. Its members are the six public child welfare agencies of New England, and the Executive Director's role is to help those leaders accomplish together what may be difficult to accomplish alone.

The position offers unusual access to state and national child welfare leadership and the opportunity to shape regional initiatives, bring new ideas and resources into New England, and build partnerships that strengthen policy and practice across state lines.

NEACWCD is a small organization with a large reach. The Executive Director must be equally comfortable thinking strategically with Commissioners and national partners, facilitating a multi-state conversation, developing a new initiative, managing a grant or budget, and attending to the practical details necessary to move the work forward.

Essential duties :

• Builds trusted relationships with Commissioners, Directors, and other senior child welfare leaders across the six New England states.
• Works with members to identify shared priorities and translate them into regional initiatives, learning opportunities, and practical strategies.
• Designs and facilitates leadership meetings, multi-state learning collaboratives, institutes, and peer-learning opportunities.
• Creates space for candid discussion, differing perspectives, shared learning, and consensus-building among six independent state agencies.
• Monitors emerging federal policy, research, and promising practices and connect members with national experts and technical assistance resources.
• Builds and maintains partnerships with federal agencies, foundations, universities, national organizations, and peer associations.
• Develops and leads grant-funded initiatives and oversee consultants, partners, project teams, evaluation, and reporting.
• Provides leadership for the New England Youth Coalition and promote authentic engagement of youth and families with lived experience across Association initiatives.
• Oversees the Association's finances, contracts, operations, grants, and organizational sustainability.
• Represents NEACWCD in regional and national initiatives and conferences.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelors degree in social work, public administration, public policy, human services, child welfare, behavioral health, organizational leadership, or a related field; Masters degree preferred.
• An equivalent combination of education, professional experience, and demonstrated expertise may be considered.

Experience:

• Minimum of 810 years of progressively responsible experience in child welfare, human services, public systems, nonprofit leadership, policy, or a related field, including significant leadership experience and work with senior organizational or government leaders.
• Demonstrated understanding of child welfare, human services, public systems, policy, or a closely related field.
• Experience leading complex initiatives, grants, partnerships, or cross-organizational work.
• Experience with grant writing and resource development, including identifying funding opportunities, cultivating funder relationships, and developing proposals to support organizational priorities.
• Experience with financial oversight, contracts, grants, and organizational operations.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, complex projects, and deadlines while working independently.
• Strategic and systems thinking, with an ability to see connections across policy, practice, funding, workforce, courts, families, and communities

Training:

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, virtual meeting platforms, and other technology commonly used to support communication, collaboration, presentations, and project management.
• Familiarity with virtual and in-person meeting facilitation tools and practices.

Ability and willingness to travel throughout New England and periodically attend national meetings, conferences, and other professional events, including meetings and events outside of standard business hours when required by member needs or Association initiatives.

Logistics

Open Date: Open Until Filled

Benefits

We offer Medical (Blue Cross/Blue Shield), Dental and Vision options; 50% discount on monthly MBTA passes, immediate enrollment into retirement, with company contribution (4%) and match up to (4%) after 2 years of employment. We offer opportunities to get involved in various department/organization improvement committees and activities. For a full list of benefits please visit our website at bakercenter.org/benefits

Diverse and multilingual candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions or any other characteristic protected by law.

For more information, please contact Maria Gagnon at mgagnon@bakercenter.org or 603-759-6123.