Director of Community Education and Green Pathways

The Director of Community Education and Green Pathways leads the strategy, design, and implementation of Canopy’s community education, workforce development, and capacity-building programs. This role ensures that Canopy’s education and green pathways initiatives advance the organization’s goals of inspiring future generations, strengthening technical and stewardship skills, expanding access to green career pathways, and building lasting community and organizational capacity to sustain a healthy urban forest.

The successful candidate will steward and grow an integrated continuum of programs that span early childhood through 12th grade education, youth leadership and paid internships, adult education, and community-based training, inspiring and preparing current and future generations of environmental advocates, stewards, and green-career professionals. In addition to individual learning outcomes, this role emphasizes community capacity building, ensuring that schools, community organizations, and partner institutions emerge from Canopy programs with the technical knowledge, confidence, and tools needed to independently lead and sustain green initiatives.

The Director of Community Education and Green Pathways reports to the Executive Director and manages Canopy’s two Bilingual Environmental Educators, Youth Leadership Programs Manager, and Community Education Coordinator. Together, this team oversees and advances the following education and green pathways programs:

• Early Childhood, Elementary, and High School: In‑school lessons and Wellness Tree Walks. We prioritize offering our services to schools with high need, as determined by state and school data.
• High School: Teen Urban Foresters (TUFs). The TUF program offers paid internships to local high school students, prioritizing East Palo Alto (EPA), eastern Menlo Park, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) applicants. The TUFs participate in tree planting days, outreach projects, enrichment sessions, and leadership training.
• High School: Junior Forester Leadership Program. An after‑school nature play and education program for EPA elementary students, co‑led by East Palo Alto high school students.
• Community: Tree Walks and a yearly UC Climate Steward / Community Forestry School (CFS), both open to attendees from any local city. Tree walks are free and led by certified arborists. CFS is a 9‑week course for adults to learn about urban forestry from industry professionals.
• Community: Additional various special events (e.g., Arbor Week Festivals) and presentations, depending on the year.
• Pathways: Oversee Canopy’s internship and fellowship experiences, ensuring interns are matched with appropriate mentors within the organization, have access to professional development opportunities, and are equipped with the tools, resources, and support needed to succeed and grow.

Working closely with the Executive Director and Leadership Team, the Director of Community Education and Green Pathways helps guide Canopy’s long‑term growth in community education and green pathways, ensuring the organization remains at the forefront of environmental education, community capacity building, and green workforce development.

In addition to deepening the impact of Canopy’s environmental education programs, this role strengthens the technical rigor of Canopy’s workforce development programs by aligning curriculum and training with workforce‑relevant skills, emerging best practices in urban forestry and climate resilience, and evolving community needs. The Director supports education staff in establishing program goals, creating performance plans, and identifying professional development opportunities, while ensuring all curricula are culturally sustaining, community‑rooted, and aligned with applicable school standards.

The Director centers Canopy’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) values, ensuring programs are inclusive, welcoming, and reflective of the communities served, and that speakers, volunteers, and participants represent a wide range of backgrounds, lived experiences, and technical expertise.

Canopy’s funding model includes grants, public…