Fellowship Coach
DETAILS
Location: Coaches can live anywhere in the US. Most of our fellowships are delivered virtually, with cohorts convening by Zoom four times a year. Fellowship coaches may be required to travel once or twice for a fellowship, for 1 to 2 days per trip. Travel expenses are covered by The OpEd Project.
Part-Time: Our fellowship coach role is a part-time contracted role, with typical contracts lasting 9 months, though occasionally there are shorter, three-month fellowship programs. The role is highly flexible and actual time commitment per week may vary, but our senior leaders report it takes them approximately 10-15 hours/week to achieve the key goals (including 3 op-eds by their mentees published per month).
Compensation: Starting at $2000/month.
ABOUT THE ROLE
As we continue to grow, The OpEd Project continuously builds our team of Public Voices Fellowship Coaches. We are predominantly working journalists, columnists, editors, authors and thought leaders with a track record of high-impact writing and extensive commentary experience, a gift for coaching and mentoring, a deep appreciation for The OpEd Project’s method and curriculum, and a commitment to The OpEd Project's mission of forging a more inclusive world. This part-time contracted role is equal parts work and passion. For most of us, the role complements our more traditional work as a journalist, writer, or teacher (we may have a column or book in the works, or may be teaching at a journalism school, for example). We are a tight-knit team of twenty-seven and growing, working with hundreds of partners nationwide, to broaden the demographics of voice and change who writes history.
Fellowship Coaches are assigned to lead our Public Voices Fellowships around the nation, in partnership with leading institutions such as Yale, UT Austin, Northwestern, and Ford Foundation. These fellowships are based on The OpEd Project's widely-acclaimed curriculum and methods, designed to accelerate the ideas and impact of underrepresented thinkers (including women), and to trigger meaningful change on a personal and collective level. We work in teams of three to mentor, train, and transform a cadre of exceptional thinkers into public intellectuals over the course of a year. We have a stunningly successful model. A video of one of our Public Voices fellowships is here.
Our Fellowship Coach positions are highly rewarding with a lot of flexibility. Coaches participate in weekly calls with OpEd Project teams across the nation, and forge relationships with approximately 10 high-level mentees with whom they communicate virtually and regularly throughout the 9-month contract period, on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. Coaches must manage time and expectations with efficiency and compassion, while always being responsive to deadlines. Coaches are expected to midwife at least 3 op-ed publications per month with and by their 10 expert fellows, who submit and edit drafts under the coach's guidance. Coaches initially pitch fellows' op-eds on their behalf to friendly editorial contacts that we share (or to the coach's own contacts if appropriate), and over time coach fellows to pitch themselves.
REQUIREMENTS OF THE ROLE
Editing & Coaching: Candidates must be able to successfully coach and edit ideas from their fellows, and craft them into viable op-eds. Sometimes this feels a bit like therapy. Sometimes it feels like trying to capture heady ideas before they disappear. Sometimes it feels like line-editing. Sometimes it feels like hand-holding. Once in a while it involves interviewing a blocked writer, to coax a worthy idea from its shell. At all times it involves a blend of compassion and pragmatism - what does it take to get the words into the world?
Pitching & Publishing: Coaches are expected to midwife at least 3 op-ed publications per month on behalf of their 10 fellows. Initially coaches pitch their fellows' op-eds on their behalf, to friendly editorial contacts (ours, or - when appropriate - the coach's). Over time, they will coach fellows to pitch themselves. An ability to work toward outcomes (op-ed publications and more) in a time-sensitive environment, on deadline, with compassion and reliability, is key.
Relationship Building: Some of this role is about building trust across borders—so the ability to create meaningful relationships with diverse thinkers from diverse backgrounds and fields, including scholars, activists, editors, and more, is key. A warm, authentic communication style, both verbal and written, is extremely helpful, as is a desire to create relationships with some of the world's most brilliant minds – including movement leaders, awarded professors at some of the country's most prestigious universities, key figures at think tanks, foundations, and nonprofits, as well as grassroots organizers and entrepreneurs.
Alignment with our Mission: We hope it goes without saying that coaches must have a clear, unambiguous alignment with The OpEd Project's mission, vision, culture and values. Candidates must embody and have an ability to create an experience of inclusion and people waking up to their own knowledge. Excitement to join an organization that demands and supports the process of understanding how inequities exist and are evolving in the world and how this shows up in our rooms.
Recent “Write to Change the World” completion: Fellowship coach candidates must have participated in our core “Write to Change the World” workshop in FULL within the last 12 months, to experience our most updated curriculum. A schedule of upcoming virtual workshop dates (as well as information about scholarship options for those in need) is here.