Senior Program Officer, Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Senior Program Officer, Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (“Foundation”) invites nominations and applications for the position of Senior Program Officer (“SPO”) for Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities (“HESH”).

The Foundation is a not-for-profit, grantmaking organization that seeks to strengthen, promote, and defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies. It makes grants in four core program areas: Arts and Cultural Heritage; Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities; International Higher Education and Strategic Projects; and Scholarly Communications. Through the HESH program, the Foundation assists colleges, universities, and research institutes in training scholars and producing scholarship in the humanities broadly conceived; fostering practices of diversity and inclusion and promoting the social value of the humanities; responding to the economic, demographic, financial, and technological challenges affecting higher education; and expanding access and supporting degree completion.

Working closely with Senior Program Officers Dianne Harris and Armando Bengochea, the incoming HESH Senior Program Officer will be a leading voice on issues surrounding the role of higher education, particularly the humanities and liberal arts, in addressing some of the most difficult challenges facing society today. She/he/they must be conversant and comfortable within the many varied spaces of higher education, including institutions serving historically underrepresented groups, large research universities, small private colleges, comprehensive institutions, independent research institutes, and other education- and humanities-based cultural organizations. She/he/they must be bold and collaborative, providing forward-looking leadership that reinforces the role of the humanities in diverse and inclusive societies and supports those institutions and initiatives that creatively bring humanities scholarship to the forefront of public discourse. The SPO will supervise a small team of colleagues and, given that the Foundation is the nation’s largest funder in the arts and humanities, will oversee and manage a large and complex budget in partnership with Foundation leadership. Candidates should possess: a PhD in the humanities or social sciences or the equivalent combination of advanced education and experience; significant experience at the college or university level as a tenured faculty member and administrator; ability to imagine and address broad issues nationally and globally that will impact higher education and the humanities; and commitment to a collegial work environment and to collaboration with colleagues in all of the Foundation's programs and functional areas, among other qualities.

Evaluation of candidate materials will begin immediately and continue until a new Senior Program Officer is selected. Nominations and applications, which should consist of a curriculum vitae and a letter of interest, should be sent to:

Shelly Weiss Storbeck, Managing Partner

Julia Patton, Senior Associate

Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, LP

MellonHESHSPO@storbecksearch.com

The Foundation is an equal opportunity employer offering a competitive salary, generous benefits, and excellent working conditions.