Director, Laurie M. Tisch Center Food, Education & Policy

Posting Summary

The Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy (Tisch Food Center) is housed at Teachers College, Columbia University Department of Health Studies and Applied Educational Psychology, Program in Nutrition. The Program in Nutrition was founded in 1909 and welcomes diverse students, empowering them to become nutrition leaders through a rigorous curriculum and supervised worksite practice. Graduates use research, advocacy, and behavior change strategies to inspire healthy physical activity and food choices, to prevent and manage diet-related medical conditions, to transform the food system, and to improve food access for all.

The Tisch Food Center was launched in February, 2013 and is a leader locally, nationally, and internationally, particularly around food and nutrition education in schools and school meals.

The Tisch Food Center works to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system by designing innovative studies, developing novel food and nutrition curricula, creating relevant and practical tools for our stakeholders, and engaging with schools, communities, and policy makers. We believe that food and nutrition education has a crucial role to play in empowering people to understand and navigate the food system, as well as to become advocates for change on personal and policy levels.

The Tisch Food Center seeks a Director to oversee all research and policy advocacy work and to supervise all staff. The Director’s primary role is to raise funding for research and advocacy work and to supervise this work. The Director will work closely with the Faculty Director of the Tisch Food Center, Pamela Koch, EdD, RDN.

• Supervise all Tisch Food Center staff. This includes having weekly check-ins with two full-time staff and assigning projects, reviewing work, providing feedback, and monitoring progress.
• Write grant proposals. This includes conducting research on possible grants, working with the Tisch Food Center faculty director on conceptualizing research projects, working with the Office of Sponsored Programs on government grants and the Office of Institutional Advancement on foundation grants to prepare all grant documents, which include research design and methods, budgets, and biographical sketches.
• Ongoing monitoring of grants that includes budget reports, progress reports, and other reports as requested by the funder.
• Write research and policy briefs, report and journal articles, present at conferences, and write policy papers. This includes writing manuscripts to submit to peer-reviewed journals, writing reports for the Tisch Food Center, and preparing presentations for conferences.
• Advise master's and doctoral students working at the Center. This includes having weekly check‑in meetings, assigning projects, providing feedback, and monitoring progress.

• BA/BS from an accredited four‑year college or university in Nutrition, Food Studies, STEM Studies, or Education.
• At least five years of experience working in food systems, school‑based research, and/or policy advocacy with a strong record of obtaining grants and contracts and supervising projects.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Comfort and desire to work in racially and ethnically diverse communities.

• Experience with communication, website development, and social media.
• Experience working on collaborative projects with external partners.

$105,600 - $132,000

Hybrid

The salary range reflects the College’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the compensation for the position at the time of the job posting. Salary decisions are dependent on several factors including but not limited to market and organizational considerations, experience, and qualifications of a selected candidate as well as internal and external equity.

Our benefits contribute significantly to the total compensation package that includes medical, dental, vision, and supplemental insurance plans; flexible and hybrid work schedules; tuition remission; life insurance; short and long‑term disability insurance; an exceptional employer retirement matching program; health savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts (FSA), Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility, and a robust Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Teachers College maintains a hybrid work environment, which provides employees with flexible work arrangements while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in‑person college‑campus culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite or in a hybrid model (a combination of in‑office and virtual days). Employees are expected to live within a 150‑mile radius of the College.