City of Chicago Mayoral Fellowship

About the role

The City of Chicago Mayoral Fellowship is a 12-month research, technical assistance, and project coordination-oriented fellowship dedicated to supporting a citywide, place-based initiative to foster thriving for the City of Chicago’s children, youth, and young adults. AIR is currently seeking a full-time Fellow to support this project, which is a partnership between the City of Chicago and the American Institutes for Research. The project centers on co-creating a shared citywide agenda that aligns existing initiatives, builds on what’s already working, and identifies gaps and opportunities across the developmental continuum.

Responsibilities

• Support project coordination between AIR and the City of Chicago, including participating in relevant City and AIR project meetings and coordinating across City agencies, AIR staff, and community partners to support collaboration and alignment.
• Support project-related meeting activities (e.g., draft agenda, briefs, and meeting materials, support facilitation, meeting design, and follow-up items).
• Support asset mapping work (e.g., information gathering, tracking, synthesis, and coordination with partners).
• Draft briefing materials, summaries, and internal communications for Mayor’s Office leadership and partners.
• Conduct background research and synthesis of information to inform policy and planning discussions.
• Contribute to the development of reports that describe and interpret findings for the city, community partners, and other relevant audiences.
• Represent the organization in interactions with state, local, and site-based staff; potential clients; and partner organizations.
• Work on collaborative project teams and lead tasks.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public policy, public administration, public health, social policy, education, or a related field.
• At least three years of relevant professional experience in policy, government, nonprofit, research, technical assistance, or project coordination roles.
• Demonstrated interest in public policy, cross-sector collaboration, place-based systems change, and improving outcomes for children, youth, young adults, families, and communities.
• Experience working in or with Chicago-based organizations, agencies, or communities.
• Familiarity with strategies to support youth and young adults from a variety of cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds.
• Experience collaborating with youth serving entities, researchers, or professional associations is preferred, but not required.

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work with individuals at all levels and from a variety of backgrounds.
• Ability to lead and contribute to projects, organize tasks and timelines, and work effectively with others to achieve project goals.
• Strong solution-focused orientation in overcoming challenges.
• Comfortable working independently and as a member of a team.
• Great attention to detail, commitment to accuracy and quality, and strong work ethic.
• Able to identify, review, consolidate, and translate resources and practices into practical strategies or tools.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to collaborate efficiently in both virtual and in-person work environments.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Interest in developing skills related to research, evaluation, or data-informed decision-making.

Disclosures

• Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the U.S. on a full-time basis.
• Employment-based visa sponsorship (including H-1B sponsorship) is not available for this position.
• Depending on project work, qualified candidates may need to meet certain residency requirements.