Vice President for Public Policy

May 29, 2009

The Wilderness Society (TWS) is seeking a strategic, experienced Vice President for Public Policy to lead the organization’s national policy program: a dynamic, highly effective, and vital branch of TWS work. Reporting to the Senior Vice President for Conservation, the Vice President is responsible for directing the analysis, development, and promotion of administrative and legislative policies that advance the mission of TWS, and coordinating TWS’s overall government affairs. As a member of the senior conservation leadership team, the VP for Public Policy is jointly responsible for ensuring the effectiveness of TWS in conserving our public lands, ready to address new challenges presented by changing political, social, and economic contexts. In this context of change, the Vice President for Public Policy will find significant opportunities to help shape the future of public lands conservation in this country.

The Wilderness Society

Founded in 1935, The Wilderness Society is the leading national land conservation organization dedicated to the preservation and proper stewardship of the nation’s 683 million acres of public land: our national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and vast western landscapes overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. The organization’s primary purpose is to protect the wilderness values of these lands. TWS does this by promoting designation of the wildest portions as wilderness, the highest form of land protection in this country, and ensuring careful conservation management of surrounding lands by the federal land management agencies and the American public.

To achieve its long-term goals, TWS has committed itself to building a geographically broad and diverse base of support far beyond the traditional environmental community. In addition to supporting and activating an assortment of grassroots constituencies drawn from every demographic group, the organization is dedicated to developing highly effective and strategic alliances with local communities, non-traditional partner groups, and political leaders from across the spectrum who will help move forward a strong land protection agenda.

The Wilderness Society has 400,000 members and supporters, an annual operating budget of $28 million, and is overseen by a 32-member Governing Council. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it operates nine regional offices around the country and has 175 staff, including policy analysts and legislative experts, ecologists, foresters, economists, campaign organizers, attorneys, writers, fund-raising professionals, and communications specialists.

The Society accomplishes its mission through advocacy at the Congressional, federal agency, and state government levels; through research and analysis; and through public education, outreach, and coalition building. Its goals include a better-informed and more actively engaged public; more supportive and vigilant legislators and public land managers; more effective laws, regulations and land management practices; an enhanced understanding of the consequences of various land-use strategies and decisions; and increased protection for all wilderness resources.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

The primary duties of the Vice President for Public Policy include the following areas of responsibility:

• In concert with the senior leadership team and conservation program staff, establish a strategic policy agenda that advances The Wilderness Society’s priority conservation goals and objectives, anticipates and responds to emerging threats to wild landscapes, and positions TWS for maximum impact on wilderness values of the public lands in the long term;
• Supervise a highly experienced and senior Public Policy department staff (consisting of 12 experts in federal public lands issues and additional interns), who together address administrative and legislative policy regarding the protective designation of wildlands, stewardship of the federal public lands, and issues of climate change, energy development and recreation on these lands.
• Provide leadership and ensure coordination of the organization’s government affairs work, working closely with staff from field, agency, research, and communications sectors of TWS;
• Collaborate with the VP for Regional Programs, the TWS Wilderness Support Center and affected TWS Regional Directors in the enactment of additional federal Wilderness designation legislation;
• Ensure that the TWS Public Policy team works closely with the Communications department to effectively communicate TWS policy concerns to the American public, government representatives and their constituents, in order to advance sound public lands policies,
• Serve as a key player within the senior staff’s cross-cutting conservation team, assuring that policy perspectives contribute to creative solutions to programmatic questions; establish a close, collaborative working relationship with other TWS Vice Presidents and provide timely communications within TWS on all significant public policy developments;
• Assist Membership & Development staff to develop effective fundraising proposals for the work of TWS generally and for the Public Policy department specifically;
• Provide the Governing Council, President, Senior Vice Presidents and executive staff with thoughtful, strategic policy counsel on a proactive and timely basis;
• Ensure a supportive environment within the Public Policy department that promotes employee professional and personal growth;
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with communications and legislative executives at partner organizations, and provide leadership to and actively participate in the Washington, DC conservation community.

Professional Qualifications & Personal Characteristics

The Vice President of Public Policy should ideally possess the following professional qualifications and personal characteristics:

• A demonstrated and extensive record of leadership in the development and implementation of comprehensive policy programs in a complex, multi-layered, intellectually charged work environment;
• 5-10 years’ experience in federal natural resource policy work involving Congress, Federal natural resource agencies, the White House and/or the Federal Courts.
• A dynamic, respected, creative leader strongly committed to the mission of The Wilderness Society;
• Demonstrated experience leading a group of high-powered staff, with strong sense of teamwork and collegiality;
• An effective communicator and listener, who brings a special blend of tact, political and diplomatic savvy to the position;
• Superb organizational skills combined with the ability to diplomatically prioritize multiple demands on time; experience managing budgets;
• Experience interacting with staff from foundations, donors and other funding sources

Education Requirement

• Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy, Political Science or a related field is required; Master’s degree is strongly preferred.

The Wilderness Society is an equal opportunity employer, and diversity is a core value. The Wilderness Society offers a competitive compensation and benefits package.

Please submit resume and cover letter via e-mail to: staffing@tws.org. Your e-mail must have the words “Public Policy Vice President” in the subject line.