Associate Program Director, Learning Through Drama

Primary Location: Office of Senior University Dean for Academic Affairs, CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT)

About the role

The CUNY Creative Arts Team (CAT) is an arts-in-education program at the City University of New York (CUNY), serving more than 9,000 people annually in New York City. CAT uses theatre strategies to engage, inspire, and educate in a variety of settings, including schools, after-school programs, college campuses, community-based organizations, and government facilities.

Learning Through Drama (LTD) is a program of CAT that provides in-school workshops for middle and high school students in public schools around New York City. In duos, LTD Actor Teachers create drama-based sessions whose learning objectives include social-emotional, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. Curriculum is developed weekly in conversation with the school community and in response to the interests and needs of the young people.

The Associate Program Director (APD) will report to the Program Director (PD) and assist in executing the full scope of the Learning Through Drama program. This includes assisting in the management and training of eight to ten Actor Teachers and eighteen MSW apprentices, maintaining relationships with school communities, and ensuring curriculum quality.

Responsibilities

• Understand, maintain, develop, and represent Creative Arts Team/Learning Through Drama pedagogy
• Assist Program Director in planning and steering Learning Through Drama programming
• Assist Program Director in hiring, training, and managing about eight to ten Actor Teachers, whose responsibilities include creating weekly curriculum to be implemented in schools
• Assist Program Director in establishing and maintaining relationships and regular communication with administrators and teachers at 12 to 15 NYC public high schools and middle schools, including in-person meetings in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens
• Assist Program Director in creating and maintaining systems to collect program data, including evaluations
• Assist Program Director in managing up to eighteen MSW interns, whose responsibilities will include case management
• Secure workshop schedules at each school that fulfill contractual requirements, educational goals, and programmatic needs
• Have an on-site presence in schools in Queens, The Bronx, and Brooklyn to facilitate new program-to-school relationships, fulfill funder requirements, and support other administrative programmatic needs. In-school presence may be required up to five days per week
• Communicate schedules, including last-minute changes, to Actor Teachers, school staff, and funders
• Interface with DYCD Connect and AirTable to ensure data is entered accurately and on time
• Prepare internal files for periodic funder audits
• Attend weekly team meetings at CAT and participate in weekly Curriculum Lab with Actor Teachers
• Attend periodic meetings with full-time CAT staff and contribute to strategic planning
• Represent CAT (along with other full-time staff) at K-16 Initiatives staff meetings (the unit within CUNY where CAT is based)
• Co-facilitate curriculum training as needed with the Program Director for Actor Teachers during September curriculum intensive and weekly Monday meetings
• Co-facilitate weekly sessions with Program Director for MSW student apprentices
• Correspond and have weekly check-ins with MSW candidate Field Supervisors
• Facilitate relationships between MSW Student Apprentices and school staff
• Along with PD, create and maintain digital and physical systems to document curriculum
• Schedule short-term residencies as they arise throughout the school year
• Fill in for Program Director in their absence
• Implement periodic short-term residencies as they arise during the school year, to be negotiated with PD and CAT leadership
• Occasionally facilitate workshops in schools as a substitute for Actor Teachers
• Represent LTD at conferences as appropriate and needed
• Other duties as assigned

Work Sites

The Associate Program Director must be available to be on-site (at CAT offices in Midtown Manhattan or in a school anywhere in NYC) five days a week. Work sites will be at CAT on Mondays and Wednesdays, at schools as needed, and remote only when workload allows. School sites are as follows and are subject to change:

• 999 Jamaica Avenue, Brooklyn
• 925 Astor Avenue, The Bronx
• 1180 Rev James A Polite Avenue, The Bronx
• 109-95 98th Street, Queens
• 101-01 Rockaway Boulevard, Queens
• 121-10 Rockaway Boulevard, Queens
• 1700 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11213
• 99 Terrace View Avenue, Bronx, NY 10463
• 3000 E Tremont Ave, Bronx, NY 10461
• 14-30 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106

Requirements

• 5+ years experience creating and implementing original drama-in-education work with young people
• A minimum of one year in administration or education
• Expertise in, and ability to communicate about, drama education
• Excellent administrative capabilities
• Previous work with young people

Preferred Qualifications

• Undergraduate or graduate degree in applied theatre, arts education, arts administration, or education
• Local knowledge of NYC communities
• Multilingualism, particularly an ability to facilitate in multiple languages

Pay

$58,000 - $63,000

Benefits

RFCUNY Employee Benefits and Accruals