The Wallace Center at Winrock International is a national leader in sustainable regional food systems development. Our mission is to develop partnerships, pilot new ideas, and advance solutions that strengthen communities through resilient farming and food systems. The Center both builds and strengthens the links in the emerging chain of business and civic efforts focused on making good food—food that is healthy, green, fair, and affordable—an everyday reality in every community. Our work is guided by our organizational values:

• Honoring community knowledge and leadership
• Protecting ecological integrity and resiliency
• Centering diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Fostering authentic partnerships and collaborations
• Prioritizing local and regional economic solutions
• Strengthening market transparency and integrity
• Cultivating a supportive and optimistic work environment

Through its Resilient Agriculture & Ecosystems (RAE) initiative, the Wallace Center operates the Pasture Project (www.pastureproject.org) which works to advance and integrate regenerative grazing as a scalable, market-driven solution for building healthy soil, viable farms, and resilient communities in the Upper Midwest. The Pasture Project works with farmers, land managers, public agencies, and farm organizations to build resources, provide technical assistance, and remove barriers for expanding the use of regenerative practices that yield win-win outcomes for farmers, communities, and the environment.
 

As part of the RAE team, the Program Associate 1 will support the implementation and administration of the Wallace Center’s multiple regenerative grazing and agriculture activities in the Upper Midwest of the United States. This position will provide backend support (e.g. project management requirements, scheduling, subcontract administration, etc.) for all programmatic activities, as well as support for initiative communications (e.g. website updates, social media and blog content development, online community of practice administration, etc.)

This position offers the opportunity to positively impact agriculture in the country’s largest conventional agriculture regions, thus impacting broader environmental and economic outcomes. The Center is actively building strategies for centering racial and economic equity in our food systems work and seeking candidates eager to forward that mission. The Center is committed to building a diverse staff and strongly encourages applications from candidates of color.

Essential responsibilities will include:

• Develop and maintain the required program management tools (i.e. project charters, risk registers, etc.) for active Pasture Project grants.
• Maintain and manage the administrative requirements for all active subcontracts, sub agreements, memoranda of understanding, etc. including scheduling check-in meetings, managing monthly reporting/invoicing, and completing all close-out activities.
• Oversee Pasture Project and RAE web and social media content to ensure effectiveness, including coordinating new content (e.g. blogs, posts, press releases, etc.) and structural changes (as needed) on a consistent basis.
• Support the launch and maintenance of RAE’s interactive online community of practice platform and resource library; provide support for onboarding of new users and troubleshoot challenges;
• Collect and curate relevant articles, audio-visual pieces, published research, decision-support tools, and other relevant resources to support Pasture Project activities, social media postings, and website developments;
• Provide administrative and logistical support (e.g. scheduling meetings, coordinating event logistics, editing materials, overseeing file management, travel logistics, supplemental research, taking notes, etc.)
• Assist with monitoring and evaluation activities, including data collection, entry and management on the Pasture Project’s DevResults platform.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications:
This is an entry-level position with room for on-job training and professional development. Candidates who meet most qualifications and experience but not all are still invited and encouraged to apply.  

Education:

Minimum BS/BA in agriculture, soil science, animal science, economics, environmental science/policy, rural development, or related fields OR professional or lived experience that demonstrates the capacity to fulfill the position’s responsibilities.

Experience:
At least one year of professional experience or lived experience in relevant areas:

• Regenerative Agriculture Systems: Basic knowledge of and/or experience with livestock and cropping systems (ideally including large-scale commodity cropping systems) focused on triple bottom line outcomes.
• Administration: Experience working for a U.S. non-profit organization or similar for-profit entity, including familiarity with managing basic organizational activities, internal relationships, and administrative responsibilities.
• Communications: Experience generating, disseminating and managing high quality written content and editing for online and traditional media.
• Research: Demonstrated ability to aggregate research from known sources to support unique research on a topic or opportunity.
• External Relationship Management: Experience positively communicating and working with diverse stakeholders, ideally in the Upper Midwest.

Skills:

• Demonstrated writing skills (English fluency) for published content designed for a variety of audiences and mediums, proposal preparation, reporting and other assigned tasks.
• Strong time management and organizational abilities for completing detailed administrative, communications, and other assigned tasks.
• Ability to creatively and consistently drive engagement through online outreach and content development.
• Excellent interpersonal and speaking (English fluency) skills to work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and communities.
• Takes initiative, self-starter, and self-directed as well as the ability to work effectively in a team.
• Ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple concurrent tasks.
• Ability to quickly learn new policies and procedures, and to navigate the language of contracts and compliance.
• Proficiency using Microsoft Office software, including: Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.