Head of Education (Program Administrator II)

 

Salary: $45,000 - $60,000

 

Employer: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, The University of Oklahoma

 

Category: Education

 

Location: Norman, Oklahoma

 

Type: Full Time Experienced

 

Description

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (SNOMNH), University of Oklahoma (OU), is seeking a Head of Education.  This is an excellent opportunity for a creative, experienced and trained educator.

 

Basic Purpose/Job Function

Responsible for administration, leadership, and management of the Education Department including coordination, development, implementation and evaluation of museum’s educational and interpretive programs and of the Discovery Room and Volunteer Program.  This position also has significant budget management duties and must strategize program funding utilizing multiple funding streams.

 

Responsibilities

• Responsible for leading the education department, including developing departmental vision, goals, priorities, and strategic plans.
• Responsible for managing education department personnel, including supervising, inspiring, training, hiring/firing, and providing professional development for staff and creating a positive, team-oriented, productive work environment.
• Responsible for projecting, preparing, and administering budgets for all educational areas/programs.
• Responsible for coordinating, developing, implementing and evaluation of museum educational programs, events and activities.
• Responsible for developing, maintaining and daily operation of Discovery Room and programs.
• Responsible for oversight of the Volunteer Program in collaboration with the Volunteer Coordinator including developing and implementing the volunteer training program.
• Participates on select exhibit teams to review, develop, and/or evaluate traveling and in-house exhibits.
• Participates in developing, designing and writing grant proposals for educational programs in collaboration with museum Development Officer, curators and/or other museum/university staff/faculty.
• Participates in service to the museum community and professional organizations at the local, state, regional, and national levels.
• Maintains a high level of communication and interaction with the Associate Director, the Head of Exhibits and the Head of Security and Facilities Operations.

               

Supervision of Others

Supervises 8 professional staff of museum educators, education assistants, and education scheduler and additional part-time, seasonal and special project staff.

 

Supervision Received

Receives supervision from the Associate Director.

 

Requirements

Preferred qualifications include a masters degree with an emphasis in earth, life, or social sciences, education, museum studies, or related discipline with a minimum of 48 months (with supervisory experience) in a museum, zoo, science center, environmental education center, or similar institution.  Leadership and management skills are paramount. The successful candidate also will have demonstrated forward-thinking museum educational ideas, programs and practices, the ability to work in a team environment, management of multiple priorities and strong communication, planning, budgeting and coordinating skills. The position is permanent with full benefits; salary depending on education, experience, skills, knowledge and interview. Qualified applicants must apply online for Requisition Number 06731 at https://jobs.ou.edu .  Please attach a letter of interest addressing the above qualifications and responsibilities, a detailed resume and a list of three professional references.  EOE/AA

 

Employer Information

The SNOMNH mission is to inspire minds to understand the natural and cultural world through collection-based discovery, interpretation, and education. All of the museum’s programs and exhibits are weighed against this mission statement and inspiration occurs through the discovery of new knowledge and the sharing of this knowledge through public programs and exhibits.

 

First established in 1899, the SNOMNH is a university governed state museum of natural history with a budget of $8 million and a professional staff of 100 in a state-of-the-art facility of 195,000sf that opened in 2000. There are nearly 7 million objects in collections of earth, social and life sciences. SNOMNH is a teaching, research, heritage preservation, and exhibition facility, with 65,000 square feet of public programs and exhibit space. Thirteen scientists serve as curators of the museum’s collections and educators at the University of Oklahoma, and a full-time exhibits and public programs staff of 41 are dedicated to providing the finest of outreach programs to the people of Oklahoma. Over 140,000 people visit the Museum each year. It is accredited by the AAM.

 

The museum educational efforts are at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate classes. Much scholarly work on Oklahoma’s natural and cultural history is based on the museum’s collections and its world-class curators, with foundational books on archeology, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, Native Americana, fossil history, and biodiversity. The holdings—including the largest collections of anthropology, classics, vertebrate, invertebrate and botanical fossils, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians—provide objects and specimens to illustrate the state’s scientific and cultural history.

 

Informal education through permanent and traveling exhibits and classroom activities, lectures and publications reached 75% of Oklahomans over 15 years and millions more across the US.  Topics range from Native American art to fossils, to understanding world cultures, to natural history, to the history of life in Oklahoma.  The education staff and curators use collections to develop programs for school groups and teachers that cover the full range of the museum’s disciplines, such as Explorology, which provide field experience to children K-12. The Explorology program presents extensive summer programs offering field experiences to K-12, while also traveling to schools across Oklahoma with natural history programs that immerse students in the natural world. Teacher workshops, classes, field trips, outreach to schools, and hands-on experience are keystones of the program. There is large and vibrant program for school age children and their teachers (25,000/yr participants). Additional programs include classes taught to teachers by museum curators, public lectures by curators throughout Oklahoma and across the nation, and an educational film series. More than a 1,000 Native Americans participate in programs annually, including preservation of disappearing languages through the annual Native American Language Fair.