Collaboration Specialist

Please see Special Instructions for more details.

Position Information

Position

Full Time/Part Time

Full Time/Part Time Full Time

Job Type

Job Type Regular

The New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute ( FWRI ) seeks a full-time Collaboration Specialist to work with community-based conservation collaborative groups and networks around the state of New Mexico on organization, administration and capacity building, and to contribute to building the FWRI’s Collaboration Program. The position requires a bachelor’s degree in Forestry, Environmental Sciences, or Environmental Education, or a closely related field, with coursework in human dimensions, or an equivalent amount of work experience.

The Collaboration Specialist will work closely with the Collaboration Program Manager and other FWRI staff to promote and support collaborative groups and networks in New Mexico and neighboring states. The Specialist will organize and administer sub-regional networks, on the Connecting for Conservation (C4C) model, and will link place-based collaboratives and sub-regional networks with multi-state networks, such as the Southwest Collaborative Support Network and the Western Collaborative Conservation Network.

The job requires working with colleagues in public agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the New Mexico State Forestry Division; with staff at non-profit organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and the Forest Stewards Guild; with farmers, ranchers and soil and water conservation districts; with businesses; and with landowners and community members in rural, suburban and urban areas.

The Collaboration Specialist also will coordinate with partners at other SWERI institutes in Arizona and Colorado, and with partners in the Forest Restoration Triangle ( FORT ) from New Mexico Highlands University and New Mexico State University. The mission of the FWRI is to promote practices that advance adaptive management, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and improve ecosystem function.

The Collaboration Program complements FWRI expertise in monitoring, geospatial information systems, outreach, economics, and ecological restoration. The FWRI is one of three Southwest Ecological Restoration Institutes ( SWERI ), with partner institutes in Arizona and Colorado. The FWRI is located on the campus of Highlands University in historic Las Vegas, NM. Highlands University, a Hispanic Serving Institution, offers a comprehensive education to a diverse student body, and Highlands faculty are actively involved in research, service and outreach.

Las Vegas is located at the foot of the picturesque Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and offers small-town charm, a healthy environment and abundant year-round outdoor recreational opportunities in nearby national forests, state parks, and wildlife refuges. Santa Fe, New Mexico’s capital, is an easy 60-minute drive to the west, and Taos and Albuquerque can be reached in less than two hours.

• Serve as a specialist in collaborative practice in the FWRI’s Collaboration Program;
• Attend face-to-face and virtual meetings of collaborative groups, and maintain a register of activities each group is involved in. This will require travel around New Mexico;
• Assist collaborative groups in building collaborative capacity, keep track of the needs of each group, and of organizations and projects that provide resources to collaborative groups;
• Work productively with federal, state, tribal, and local land managers, private landowners, representatives from environmental and conservation organizations, farmers and ranchers, business people, and others who participate in conservation collaboratives;
• Produce materials that can benefit collaborative…