Associate Program Director

Job Details

Location:

Sacramento, CA 95815

Position Type:
Full Time

Education Level: Bachelors

Salary Range: $70,304.00 - $78,000.00 / year

Travel Percentage:
Up to 50%

Job Category:
Education

Improve Your Tomorrow (IYT) was founded in 2013 with the mission to increase the number of young men of color (YMOC) to attend and graduate from colleges and universities. We envision a world where men of color are over represented in higher education, underrepresented in the criminal justice system, and leaders in their communities. By embodying our core values of Character, Service, Teamwork, and Liberation we work to combat academic inequities and build a college-to-community pipeline.

The Associate Program Director is a regional leadership role within IYT's College Access, Advising & Completion program. This position leads the delivery, quality, and consistency of College programming across five or more school campuses serving brothers in grades 6–12. The APD is responsible for building and sustaining a strong college-going culture at each assigned site — developing the Mentor Specialist team, stewarding school-site relationships, and ensuring that every brother receives the structured support and mentorship they need to graduate and transition into college.

This is a field-based leadership role requiring daily regional travel. The APD operates as IYT's primary program presence across their portfolio — coaching staff, leading structured programming, building partner relationships, and maintaining implementation fidelity simultaneously across multiple campuses. Strong people management, coaching instincts, and organizational systems are essential.

• Directly supervise and develop a team of College Advising Mentor Specialists and, where applicable, Ameri Corps Mentors — providing consistent coaching, structured observation, and performance support across all sites in portfolio.
• Conduct 1:1 coaching sessions with each Mentor Specialist; lead focused observation cycles that build instructional and relational capacity in alignment with IYT's program model.
• Model high-quality facilitation, mentorship practice, and student engagement — using each site day as an opportunity to develop staff skills, not just deliver programming.
• Set clear expectations for Mentor Specialist performance against national standards: service dosage, family engagement cadence, Salesforce documentation, and academic monitoring.
• Identify individual staff strengths and growth areas; build development plans that prepare Mentor Specialists for greater leadership within the IYT organization.

• Build and sustain a strong, consistent college-going culture at each assigned campus — ensuring brothers experience IYT as a Brotherhood that takes their academic futures seriously.
• Support where needed during on structured programming days each week: rituals (Brotherhood Clap, Creed, Family Love, announcements, energizer) and Member Development Workshop, co-facilitated with the site Mentor Specialist.
• Ensure programming is high-quality, grade-differentiated, and consistent across all sites.
• Champion IYT's Brotherhood identity across all sites — ensuring every brother feels a strong sense of belonging, purpose, and connection to a college-going peer community.
• Plan and coordinate regional college tours.

• Own the annual 8th grade pipeline handoff process — ensuring complete transfer of student data, relationship context, and engagement history to the High School APD by the end of each school year.
• Target 60% or higher conversion of 8th grade roster to IYT High School enrollment; maintain active outreach and re-engagement strategies throughout the spring semester.
• Partner with High School APDs to ensure continuity of every brother's IYT experience across the middle-to-high school transition — the relationship continues, even as the Mentor changes.

• Own the 12th grade college process across all portfolio sites:…