Executive Director, Wheelock Educational Policy Center, Wheelock College of Education and Human Development

Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development is a top-ranked college that focuses on cross-disciplinary research experiential learning and community engagement. We seek to empower our students faculty and staff to reshape the systems that impact learning and human development more firmly centering them in justice diversity and belonging. To learn more about our college visit Wheelock is one of the 17 schools and colleges that are part of Boston University one of the leading private research and teaching institutions in the world today. With more than 37000 students from all 50 states and 145 countries BU is among the largest independent universities in the United States. To learn more about Boston University visit .

About the Wheelock Educational Policy Center

Across the country policymakers face urgent decisions that shape millions of childrens futures. They need insights and evidence they can trust to get the call right. Yet researchers and policymakers often operate in parallel not in partnership leaving critical insights untapped and missing chances to connect in ways that drive lasting change.

The Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC) at Boston University is built to close that gap. We cultivate relationships and facilitate partnerships others cant. We co-create research agendas with policymakers and practitioners balancing academic precision with real-world timelines. And we deliver rigorous high-impact educational research with practical insights that system leaders can act on.

WEPCs work has informed teacher licensure policy advanced efforts to diversify the educator workforce and shaped national conversations on reading policy. We are now at an inflection point growing in reach deepening our partnerships and launching new initiatives and we are seeking an Executive Director to lead us into that next chapter.

About the Role

The Executive Director is the embodiment of WEPCs mission the person who holds the bridge between the world of rigorous academic research and the world of high-stakes policy decisions. This is not a traditional research center director role. It is an outward-facing relationship-driven leadership position that demands equal parts strategic vision fundraising tenacity and the interpersonal skill to build trust with faculty funders partners and policymakers alike.

The ED operates with significant autonomy to drive WEPCs growth and strategy while functioning as a genuine partner to the Faculty Director keeping them informed earning their confidence and ensuring that the centers direction reflects both research excellence and policy relevance. The best person for this role will think about WEPCs work every day act decisively and bring others along without needing to be the loudest voice in the room.

This is a rare opportunity to shape a young high-potential center at a critical moment and to do work that matters for students educators and the systems that serve them.

Position Logistics

Term: 3 years with continued commitment contingent upon additional funding.

Location: Boston-based hybrid preferred fully remote considered for right candidate.

Essential Functions

Strategic Leadership and Policy Orientation (30%)

• Establish and maintain WEPCs strategic direction and ensure the Centers work is consistently oriented toward policy relevance and real-world impact. This includes:
• Develop lead and periodically refresh WEPCs multi-year strategic plan setting annual and mid-term goals and operational priorities in alignment with the Centers mission and Boston Universitys broader strategic direction.
• Serve as WEPCs chief policy sensibility providing consistent expert guidance that helps faculty and staff frame research questions translate findings and position work in ways that will resonate with decision-makers and drive meaningful policy impact.
• Function as the in-house policy advisor and sounding board for research and communications before they reach external audiences ensuring that WEPCs outputs reflect both academic rigor and practical policy relevance.
• Oversee WEPCs portfolio of external partnerships with state agencies school systems nonprofits and policymakers at a strategic level stewarding existing relationships identifying new opportunities and ensuring continuity and depth across the Centers network.
• Represent WEPC as a thought leader and spokesperson in national policy spaces conferences and convenings contributing to the Centers visibility and reputation as a trusted partner at the intersection of research and policy.
• Establish and maintain productive working relationships across Boston University including with leadership at the Wheelock College of Education and relevant University-wide functions ensuring WEPC is well-positioned institutionally and poised to benefit from cross-university collaboration.

Center and Staff Leadership (30%)

• The ED is accountable for the organizational performance culture and operational effectiveness of WEPC. This includes:
• Lead manage and develop WEPCs professional staff across multiple work groups fostering a high-performing mission-driven culture of collaboration accountability and continuous improvement.
• Serve as a talent champion for WEPCs core faculty building the partnership infrastructure managing external relationships and handling the administrative and logistical dimensions of research partnerships so that faculty can focus on the design conduct and management of research.
• Establish annual and mid-term operational plans and goals for the Center; monitor progress allocate resources and adjust plans as needed to ensure WEPC meets its commitments and advances its strategic priorities.
• Develop and maintain the Centers budget with signature authority; make strategic resource and expenditure decisions ensure fiscal responsibility and report on financial performance to the Faculty Director and College leadership.
• Manage significant financial and external risks associated with the Centers partnerships funding relationships and programmatic commitments engaging senior university leadership as appropriate.
• Oversee the launch and development of new initiatives including WEPCs Policy-Aligned Research Agenda Building Lab (PARABL) ensuring they are well-positioned appropriately resourced and aligned with the Centers strategic goals.

Development and External Relations (40%)

• Build and sustain the partnerships and external relationships that ensure WEPCs long-term sustainability and impact. This includes:
• Build and steward strategic relationships with foundations individual donors and institutional funders investing in these connections with the same intentionality and depth as research partnerships and serving as the Centers primary development officer.
• Oversee the identification development and pursuit of grants gifts and other funding opportunities; work in close collaboration with faculty and staff to craft compelling proposals and ensure rigorous stewardship of investments.
• Cultivate both project-specific and general operating support working toward a self-sustaining funding model with a near-term goal of $1 million in annual revenue.
• Develop and execute a communications strategy that advances WEPCs public profile and thought leadership including contributions to public-facing publications policy briefs and media engagement in close collaboration with faculty and staff.
• Represent WEPC externally through speaking engagements conference participation and convenings actively building the Centers presence and influence within the education policy field.
• Ensure effective handoff and continuity of existing funder and partner relationships during leadership transitions and across the life of the Centers work.

About the Candidate

WEPC is seeking a leader who combines deep policy fluency with the relational instincts entrepreneurial drive and operational maturity to lead a growing research center at a pivotal moment. The ideal candidate is not necessarily someone who has held an Executive Director title before but they bring a clear and compelling through-line of experience at the intersection of education policy and research-practice partnership and they are ready to lead at this level.

The successful candidate will bring a track record of building and sustaining high-stakes relationships with funders policymakers and practitioners. They will be equally comfortable in a meeting with a foundation program officer a state superintendent a tenured faculty member and a junior staff member and they will know how to earn trust and bring out the best in each. They understand how policy decisions get made how research needs to be framed and timed to be useful and how to help others develop that instinct without heavy-handed direction.

This person operates with genuine autonomy and sets their own agenda but functions as a true partner to the Faculty Director keeping leadership informed and invested surfacing decisions that require alignment and building an institutional relationship grounded in confidence and mutual respect. They bring an entrepreneurial orientation to a university setting: they are nimble and decisive but they also understand that operating within a large institution requires strategic patience political awareness and the skill to navigate internal complexity without losing external momentum.

WEPCs ED is a humble leader someone who sees their role as creating the conditions for others to do exceptional work. Faculty feel supported and freed to focus on research. Staff feel like owners of the mission. Partners feel like genuine collaborators. The ED is the connective tissue of the Center: visible externally steady internally and consistently oriented toward the outcomes that matter for students.