Community Resilience Center — Technical Support, Project Evaluation, and Communications Fellow

This position is part of the NOAA Coastal Resilience Fellowship Program, supporting the Climate Resilience Regional Challenge (CRRC) projects. The fellow will support the project: Enhancing the United Houma Nation’s Short-, Mid-, and Long-Term Coastal Resilience.

Host Organization: Community Resilience Center at The Water Institute
Location of Position: Coastal Louisiana – offices are located in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, depending on the fellow’s preference
Duration of Position: Two years (June 2025 to June 2027)
Annual Salary: $42,000
Benefits: Medical insurance, 11 paid federal holidays per year, 15 paid personal days per year, professional development training, travel funding, relocation allowance

Work Environment: 

The fellow is expected to work a hybrid schedule during a typical workweek: at the office on Tuesday and Thursday and remote on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A high volume of engagement and boundary-spanning work will also be done, and the fellow is expected to work flexible hours, which can include nights and weekends, while not expected to exceed an average of forty hours per week.

Fellowship Position Description:

The overall purpose of the fellowship will be to provide capacity to the Community Resilience Center at The Water Institute (Center) and to Dr. Kyle Whyte with the University of Michigan. The Center is explicitly working in a capacity-building role to support the United Houma Nation (UHN) in the implementation of their project. The fellow will focus on capacity-building and technical support, project evaluation, and communications.

• Capacity-Building and Technical Support: The fellow will provide additional capacity to complete technical support tasks; this can span a range of activities including social or biogeophysical data collection, data synthesis, geospatial analyses, and coordination and assembly tasks. These tasks will also include providing notes, reports, and any creative visual display of data and information collected or synthesized. Technical assistance will also include support in the design and implementation of community engagement. The fellow will also provide internal coordination support to the center, which will allow the fellow to see the breadth and depth of technical assistance and get exposure to operations and strategies for coordination in midsized nonprofits. Through this effort, the fellow will be exposed to all four phases of the  project. 
• Project Evaluation: These tasks will provide the fellow with an opportunity to see holistic project evaluation design and implementation. For this project, Dr. Whyte is the external evaluator. He will oversee all of the different aspects of the project and collect data around the efficacy and reach of the project. He will collect a range of data from United Houma Nation citizens, staff, Tribal leaders, and other community members and partners. This will include a range of data collection techniques such as focus groups, one-on-one interviews, observations, and surveys. Dr. Whyte is not located in coastal Louisiana, so the fellow will provide local support around data collection between Dr. Whyte’s scheduled visits and support data analysis and synthesis. This could include a range of techniques and methodologies, including transcription quality assurance, the use of manual and software coding, various statistical analyses, and data synthesis and sharing. Communication about the status of the project from an external evaluation perspective with United Houma Nation staff and citizens will be an important aspect of the project. The fellow will provide support in the sharing of the findings, including data visualization, development of communication materials and content (e.g., flyers, one-pagers, presentation slides), and outreach and engagement to directly share the findings. 
• Communications: Part of the fellow’s responsibilities will be codeveloping a plan for specific project outputs led by  the fellow that will either further the project (e.g., data access portals, story maps) or communicate findings from the evaluation portion of the project (e.g., policy memos, communication materials, videos, webinars). This project is rare in that despite being very large-scale, much of the conceptual and thought leadership will come from Tribal citizens. The need to document and share our lessons learned and successes are a critical part of being transparent with the citizens of the United Houma Nation and an essential portion of supporting other projects like this in the future.

Anticipated Travel:

The fellow will attend the peer-to-peer sharing event in 2027. The fellow will also regularly travel across the six-parish service area (St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard) to support the project and will  take at least one trip to visit with Dr. Whyte at the University of Michigan. Additionally, we will work with the fellow to identify their professional development goals and use that to guide selection of additional travel opportunities related to regional and national conferences and trainings.

Desired Qualifications:

These are desired, not required, qualifications. If you meet at least 75 percent of these, please apply!

• Minimum education: bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in social science, program evaluation, communications, education, or other related fields
• Local or regional knowledge to the six-parish service area (St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard) or familiarity with United Houma Nation culture, programs, and services
• Experience designing and implementing program or project evaluations
• Experience translating complex information into easily understood formats and language
• Experience collecting and synthesizing primary and secondary data
• Ability to meet deadlines while multitasking in a fast-paced environment
• Proficiency in a variety of computer applications including Microsoft Office and Microsoft Excel
• Strong written and verbal communication skills 
• Proficient in team coordination software (e.g., Teams, Google, Slack)

Fellow Mentoring:

The primary mentor will be Alli Haertling, a co-lead on the United Houma Nation project for the Community Resilience Center. The fellow will also be mentored by Renee Collini, director of the Community Resilience Center, and Kyle Whyte, evaluation lead for the project and a professor at the University of Michigan.

To apply, please upload the following materials in one PDF file:

• Resume (two-page limit)
• Statement of interest, where the candidate describes what they hope to gain from the fellowship experience and what they can contribute. Candidates should also highlight any connections to or special interests in the region, including Indigenous or local knowledge and relevant life experiences (500-word limit).
• Unofficial academic transcripts to show coursework (or joint services transcript for veterans)
• Two professional or academic references (names and contact information)