Assistant Vice President, Alumni & Community Engagement

July 2025 | Hybrid / New York, NY
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The New School seeks an Assistant Vice President, Alumni and Community Engagement to lead efforts that foster deep connections between The New School and its various constituents.

About The New School

The New School is a new kind of university in New York City, one where scholars, artists, and designers come together to challenge conventions and create positive changes.

Since their founding in 1919, The New School has redrawn and redefined the boundaries of intellectual and creative thought as a preeminent academic center. With a rigorous, multidimensional approach to education, The New School dissolves walls between disciplines and helps nurture progressive minds. Students have the academic freedom to shape their unique, individual paths for a complex and rapidly changing world. The New School’s mission is to prepare students to understand, contribute to, and succeed in a rapidly changing society, thus making the world a better and more just place. At The New School design and social research drive approaches to studying issues of our time. The New School seeks to provide students with the tools needed to grapple with complex problems facing society and to pursue more fluid and flexible career pathways.

With leading-edge faculty and world-renowned alumni, The New School is committed to developing students who will have an impact on the world and address the most pressing social issues of our time. A legacy of commitment to creating a more equitable, inclusive, and socially just environment continues to drive their mission and work today.

The New School, with its main campus in the heart of Greenwich Village, takes full advantage of its location in one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world. The New School’s colleges and graduate schools include Parsons School of Design, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, the College of Performing Arts, The New School for Social Research, the Schools of Public Engagement, and Parsons Paris.

For more information about The New School, please visit www.newschool.edu.

About Philanthropy at The New School

Philanthropy plays an important role at The New School, with approximately $30m raised annually. These donations support a wide variety of  priorities with a focus on those that affect student-facing efforts, including scholarships and fellowships, internship aid and accessibility, health and wellness, and emergency needs. The New School believes that when students feel supported and have their basic needs met, they can shift their focus to their passions and better immerse themselves in a vibrant community, sparking lifelong connections and rewarding collaborations. Key funding areas include:

• Scholarship and Fellowships Funds: The New School’s diverse, engaged community is among its greatest strengths. The students are true changemakers, dedicated to using their intellect, skills, and interdisciplinary understanding of the world to make a difference both locally and globally. These extraordinary individuals are integral to The New School’s institutional health, and the university is deeply committed to welcoming all qualified candidates who seek a unique, rigorous academic experience, regardless of their economic circumstances.
• Scholarships and fellowships play a critical role in allowing The New School to fulfill this commitment, as many students in their community would not be able to attend without substantial financial aid packages. These awards also give students peace of mind, allowing them to focus on and progress in their studies and reducing the debt burden they face upon graduation.
• Professorships and Faculty Research: The New School’s faculty consists of prominent, globally respected artists, scholars, and researchers who affect countless lives through their teaching, mentorship, and professional pursuits. Through their efforts both in and outside of the classroom, The New School faculty members catalyze innovation on campus and around the world.
• Increasing the number of professorships and available research funds at The New School is essential for supporting faculty. Professorships recognize the contributions of outstanding educators and sustain their teaching and research, enabling them to convey knowledge to the next generation and develop creative solutions to improve the world.
• Interdisciplinary Centers and Institutes: Scholarly exploration and intellectual discourse have never been more vital to our society; asking complex questions is essential to unlocking global change. The New School’s centers and institutes carry forward our tradition of academic inquiry and transcend the confines of single disciplines to develop scalable solutions to many of the world’s most urgent problems.
• Members of our community collaborate to meet the challenges of the present and future, addressing topics including global migration, democracy, capitalism, and more. The New School’s centers and institutes build on the work of faculty, sponsor a variety of lectures and events, and enrich students’ educational experience by promoting bold creativity and groundbreaking scholarship. These centers and institutes provide a space for research, policy debate, and discussion among activists, artists, and innovators in all fields.

About the Position

Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Development and Alumni Engagement, the Assistant Vice President of Alumni and Community Engagement (AVP) will serve as a senior leader of the development and alumni engagement team. They will lead the departmental strategy for increasing engagement, cultivation, and stewardship of key constituents, including alumni, donors, parents, and philanthropic partners. With a deep understanding of the life cycle of each constituent group, the AVP will work together with colleagues to come up with comprehensive engagement plans that focus on engaging, cultivating, and stewarding these groups to promote stronger affinity and connection to The New School as well as its schools and programs.

This role will also manage a high performing team of eight and will be charged with developing in-person and online programming that engages The New School constituents in creative, tailored, and relevant ways. In addition, this role will oversee the department’s special events, which include not only the engagement, cultivation, and stewardship events, but also the department’s two annual fundraising events – Parsons Benefit and City Visionary Awards.

The AVP must be an enthusiastic and energetic leader who excels at comprehensive planning that focuses on building enduring internal and external relationships that align with the values of The New School. They must demonstrate a nuanced, sophisticated approach to advancement work and can call upon best practices within the industry, data analytics, and strong intuitive skills to apply to The New School context, leading to increased engagement. The AVP will lead a unified and strategic outreach effort to sustain and expand engagement among all The New School constituencies in partnership with university leadership, senior colleagues and other key stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with the SVP for Development and Alumni Engagement to design and execute an innovative alumni engagement strategy that directly supports The New School’s institutional vision and long-term development goals
• Strategize and oversee a comprehensive suite of alumni, parent, and donor engagement, cultivation, and stewardship activities throughout the year, including reunions/Alumni Days, receptions, regional gatherings, online events and learning opportunities
• Manage the department’s special events, including the two flagship fundraisers: Parsons Benefit and City Visionary Awards
• Strategically lead the engagement team in executing comprehensive volunteer programs, including the Alumni Council, parent, and event committees, student recruitment, and mentoring as well as a comprehensive peer-to-peer networking platform
• Lead, mentor, and empower a high-performing alumni relations team of eight, fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, and strategic thinking
• Partner with the AVP of Advancement Operations to utilize and optimize the department’s data systems to create reports and analysis of the team’s efforts and outcomes
• Oversee stewardship programming and the creation of donor communications to provide a seamless donor experience
• Build effective collaborations across the department and other areas of the university such as Office of Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice, Student Success, Enrollment Management, Marketing & Communications, and the Offices of the Deans, Provost and the President
• Direct the implementation of a strategic communications plan in partnership with Marketing & Communications colleagues to activate and engage a diverse population of constituents utilizing a multi-channel approach
• Serve as the primary custodian of alumni and parent information safeguarding privacy and confidentiality according to institutional policy and current laws

Key Qualifications

• Seven or more years of experience with increasing levels of responsibility working with alumni, donors, and other key stakeholders on engagement activities
• Three or more years of experience managing staff with a demonstrated ability to develop staff, while working effectively and collaboratively in a team setting
• Proven track record of measuring and significantly improving alumni engagement outcomes
• Strong knowledge of volunteer engagement, including strategies for cultivation, and stewardship
• Entrepreneurial approach to problem-solving, with demonstrated success in exceeding  goals
• High-level skills in consensus building, diplomacy, leadership, analysis and strategic planning and well-honed balance of ambition and humility
• Ability to work inclusively with individuals from diverse backgrounds
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills
• Higher education experience is strongly preferred
• Commitment to the mission of The New School necessary

Compensation

The salary range for this role is $150,000-$160,000. The New School is committed to providing an array of comprehensive benefits intended to meet the needs of faculty and staff and their eligible dependents.

Hybrid/Remote – Employees hired for this position primarily work remotely with the occasional on-campus presence required with advanced notice. Employees in this role will also be expected to use their best judgment to be on campus, when necessary, in order to best fulfill the responsibilities of their job descriptions.

The New School is strongly committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and particularly seeks applications from members of underrepresented groups, as well as candidates who share this commitment.

The New School is committed to creating and maintaining an environment that upholds and advances diversity and inclusion across all areas of employment, education, and access to its educational, artistic, and cultural programs and activities. We strongly encourage applications from individuals who share our commitment to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community.

To express interest, please submit your cover letter and resume in confidence below.

Jesse Bryan, Vice President, Development Guild