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YWCA Kalamazoo is on a Mission!

At YWCA Kalamazoo, we look for people who want to make a difference and do something that MATTERS. YWCA Kalamazoo is your ally who is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities. When you work for YWCA Kalamazoo, you become part of a worldwide movement: eliminating racism and empowering women.

Simply put, YWCA Kalamazoo draws together members who strive to create opportunities for women's growth, leadership, and power to attain a common vision of peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all people.

Our employee-centric philosophies focus on taking care of you and promoting a healthy work-life balance. We offer a benefits package tailored with YOU in mind!

* WHAT YOU'LL DO:*

*PRIMARY FUNCTION: * The Senior Director of Research, Evaluation, and Program Development is a strategic executive leader. This position serves as an inspiring thought partner, supporting YW programs to integrate research and evaluation into practice, and supporting the sector to benefit from the YW's findings.

* QUALIFICATIONS:*

• Master's degree in social work or related field required, including applied research, OR
• PhD strongly preferred in social work, early childhood, public health or related field 
• Experience bridging the research-practice divide through implementation science and practice
• 10+ years of developing and executing social service programs
• Personal or professional experience related to at least one of the agency's service pillars
• Demonstrated experience in all of the following: designing and executing impact evaluations; strategic planning; personnel supervision and growth; conducting needs assessments; facilitating research partnerships; leading direct service teams

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Centers anti-racism, feminism, and trauma-responsive leadership in all activities, including in leadership, partnership, and research.

Consults on research design and implementation, including development and direct facilitation of groups, interviews, and surveys when necessary

Collaboratively develops, manages, and forecasts departmental budget

Serves as the principal writer for research funding opportunities

Manages funded research projects in accordance with contractual requirements

Collaboratively creates and executes agency-wide research, evaluation, and program development protocols

Ensures all programs agency-wide are supported with a collaboratively created, rigorous, measurable logic model

Ensures all tools and interventions used agency-wide are vetted and either a) evidence-based or b) if no appropriate tool/intervention exists, have an actionable plan to develop the evidence-base

Maintains a comprehensive roster of the tools and interventions used across the agency, including confirmation (and citations) for whether the tools/interventions have been evaluated with like-populations to the communities served by YWCA Kalamazoo

Ensures research methods deployed are an effective, rigorous blend of qualitative and quantitative methods, and that the analysis and discussion around results uses best practices

Leads the organization's research-to-practice strategy, including:

In partnership with the PIs and program teams, identifies what needs assessments, evaluations, and research studies would be strategic in furthering the agency's mission

Identifies research/practice gaps, and ways the organization can bridge the research-practice divide internally and externally

Ensures the strategy for organizational studies to be shared publicly for maximum impact

Secures, facilitates, and monitors rese