Director of Community Care & Wellbeing at Texas Hillel

Director of Community Care & Wellbeing

Texas Hillel

Role Overview 

Enrich the lives of Jewish students by joining Texas Hillel as Director of Community Care & Wellbeing. In this innovative and distinctive role, you will lead with vision in continuing our efforts to center students’ wellbeing in all of our work by providing community care and case management, and acting as a resource for staff and students.  We see care for the whole person as a fully integrated component of our responsibility to nurture Jewish community. Our intentional dedication to student wellness has become a hallmark of Texas Hillel’s culture.

The Director of Community Care & Wellbeing will build an engagement strategy that enfranchises students around their personal well being, work with student leadership, colleagues, and University partners in developing comprehensive wellness strategies, and interface with our Hillel therapist to promote access to clinical services. While this role will include a certain amount of “triage”, it is not a counseling role. Under your leadership, Texas Hillel will incorporate work with mindfulness, stress management, personal growth, and more within an intentionally Jewish framework. You will also take point on crisis management to ensure that students have timely access to appropriate resources.

You will thrive in this role if you are enthusiastic about realizing vision, leveraging strategic campus partnerships, and applying your skills and passion to our specialized setting, serving a burgeoning Jewish community on a premier college campus. The Director of Community Care & Wellbeing is a member of our senior staff, as well as the Jewish Student Life team, and reports to the Executive Director.

What You’ll Do

• Build meaningful relationships with undergraduate and graduate students oriented toward wellness promotion and deepened involvement in Jewish life. On a regular day, you might spend time speaking with students one-on-one over coffee, or in small groups during an event.
• Create strategies with students and colleagues to infuse a well-being framework into current Jewish life experiences at Texas Hillel, with a global view toward offerings supporting social, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.  This might include attending a student leadership meeting to workshop a challenge, or strategizing around an upcoming program or event.
• Connect students with supportive resources including Hillel's mental health counselor. Identify and strengthen student support networks via family, friends, and University resources.
• In the event of a crisis, act as the lead staff member for crafting a response in partnership with the senior staff.
• Collaborate with on-campus partners to advocate and promote campus wellness including the Texas Offices of Wellness and Crisis Intervention, Student Affairs, etc.
• Provide training and consultation to Texas Hillel colleagues, building a unified culture on our team and equipping our staff to offer appropriate student support.  This could include a one-on-one conversation about a specific student concern, or running a skill-building exercise during a staff meeting.
• Participate fully as a Hillel professional in the Jewish communal life of the campus, facilitating Jewish life through meaningful observances of Shabbat and Holidays and in coordination with major campus events.

What You’ll Bring to the Job

• Strong relationship building skills and accessibility to students from diverse backgrounds.
• A desire to support students in their time of greatest need.
• Experience training or empowering college students to design opportunities to promote social, emotional, or physical wellbeing.
• An attitude of proactive communication and collaboration.
• Expertise in leading complex conversations around mental health and wellness.
• A commitment to Jewish pluralism.
• Strong entrepreneurial spirit, a willingness to take risks and learn from your wins as well as your losses.
• Capacity to create space for a diversity of perspectives and allow all student voices to be heard.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of professional work experience, with a minimum of three years post graduate work.
• Master’s Degree in social work, public health, or a related field.
•  Experience in a Jewish professional, higher education, or mission-driven organizational capacity is a plus. Past Hillel experience is a plus.
• Ability to work collaboratively as part of a complex team, both within an organization and with external partners.
• Ability to work autonomously and manage multiple projects.
• Excellent time management skills.

What You’ll Receive

• Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace. The salary range for this role is $68,000-72,000.
• A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, Group Supplemental Retirement Annuity (GSRA), pension plan, life insurance, Long Term Disability (LTD), Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
• Outstanding professional development, mentoring, and skill building opportunities.
• Opportunities for travel regionally and abroad.

About Texas Hillel

Texas Hillel at The University of Texas at Austin was founded in 1927 and has a long history of community service and programmatic innovation, serving approximately 3,000 Jewish students in the Austin area. The Topfer Center for Jewish Life at the Abe & Annie Seibel building was opened in 2006 and hosts a full array of award-winning student groups and events. Governed by a statewide board of directors, Texas Hillel enjoys strong partnerships with the UT Austin campus and community organizations. Long recognized by Hillel International and The University of Texas at Austin for innovation, Texas Hillel is adjacent to the UT-Austin campus and enjoys a strong partnership with The University and the wider Jewish community. 

About Austin

Recently named the #1 city to live in, Austin is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Austin has a young and mobile Jewish community of approximately 20,000. Much of the community’s Jewish life is centered at the Dell Jewish Community Campus in Northwest Hills, including three synagogues, the JCC, a community day school, Federation and subsidiaries. Austin is the live musical capital of the world, home to SXSW, Austin City Limits and more. Located in the geographic center of the state, Austin is 200 miles from Dallas and 170 miles from Houston. It offers the amenities of a large city with a distinct flavor that makes Austin unique. Austin is the capital of Texas, and UT-Austin is the flagship campus of the UT System with 50,000 students.