Community Development Extension Educator

Job Summary

The Community Development Extension Educator supports Eau Claire, Chippewa, and Dunn County governments in addressing county priorities through research-based education, facilitation, community engagement, and organizational and leadership development. The Educator works closely with county leadership to identify emerging needs, establish priorities, and advance initiatives that address locally identified opportunities and challenges. Priority issues may vary among the three counties over time.

Whenever possible, the Educator will work with county leadership to align priorities across the three counties to maximize impact and reduce the number of priority issues the Educator is supporting. Priorities will be established in partnership with county leadership and Extension program leadership and revisited regularly to ensure the scope and workload remain focused and manageable across the three counties.

The Educator's program focus is facilitation, community engagement, strategic planning, and organizational and leadership development. The Community Development Educator is not expected to serve as a subject‑matter expert in the county-identified priority issue areas. Instead, the Educator helps the counties access relevant expertise from local, state, and university sources.

The Educator helps counties identify, organize around, and advance priority issues. Examples include:

• Design and facilitate strategic planning, visioning, goal-setting, and action‑planning processes.
• Identify relevant research, data, and technical expertise to inform decision-making.

The Educator helps counties engage the people, organizations, and systems necessary to address priority issues and achieve desired outcomes. Examples include:

• Identify organizations, groups, and individuals working on one or more of the identified county priorities.
• Design and facilitate community engagement processes.
• Facilitate alignment and collaboration among county government, municipal governments, community organizations, businesses, residents, and other stakeholders whose involvement is relevant to county priorities.

The Educator works primarily with local governments and, when connected to identified county priorities, nonprofit organizations, coalitions, and other organizations to strengthen organizational capacity and leadership. Examples include:

• Design and deliver educational programs for organizational leaders, managers, boards, staff, and volunteers focused on leadership, communication, decision‑making, collaboration, and organizational effectiveness.

The Educator serves as a point of connection between county governments and the research, educational resources, and subject‑matter expertise available through Extension and the University of Wisconsin‑Madison.

Educators are expected to contribute to statewide efforts related to their area of expertise. Through statewide engagement, the educator remains connected to emerging research, promising practices, educational innovations, and professional networks that can be leveraged to support county priorities.

The main office for this position is located in Eau Claire, WI with a primary programming focus of Eau Claire, Chippewa, and Dunn counties; however, some programming may also be conducted over a broader geographical area.

It is anticipated this position requires work be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location.

This position may be required to work occasional nights and weekends to meet the program needs and…