United Houma Nation Community Engagement and Outreach 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: The United Houma Nation
Location of Position: Houma, Louisiana
Duration of Position: Two years (June 2025-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 will work at the United Houma Nation (UHN) administrative headquarters alongside four project coordinators, the senior project manager, and the United Houma Nation’s nonprofit executive director. The staff work fully in-person. Given the high volume of engagement and boundary-spanning tasks, the fellow will be 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 fellow will be part of the United Houma Nation team implementing the project “Enhancing the United Houma Nation’s Short-, Mid-, and Long-Term Coastal Resilience.” The position will be multifaceted—working across multiple subprojects within the overarching effort with an explicit focus on community engagement and communications. 

The fellow will support the design and implementation of the engagement of Tribal citizens and other partners critical to the implementation of the project. This will run the range of integrating citizen input into the design of the central and satellite resilience hubs to identifying and implementing best practices to engage citizens in the development of a community-led migration strategy. 

The fellow will also have opportunities to learn about grant and contract management and interact with a range of contracted technical experts, increasing their exposure to various career paths and enhancing their network. 

Finally, the fellow will have opportunities to support development of different programs for United Houma Nation citizens that will be delivered through the new resilience hubs and enhance communication capacity. This programming could include vocational rehabilitation, youth education, business catalyst spaces, community gatherings, gardening and native plant education and practice, and programming for Tribal elders. 

Timeline

During the two-year fellowship, each of four phases (Phase One, Two, Three, and Five) will make significant progress, and each phase requires extensive community engagement. 

For the Central (phase one) and Satellite (phase two) Resilience Hubs, the bulk of the fellow’s time will overlap with conceptual design and construction and the beginning of program development. The fellow will support the team around coordination and implementation of the various community and partner-steering committees for each parish. This will include emailing, scheduling meetings, notetaking, developing content for engagement, and conducting engagement. Engagement will include a range of one-on-one meetings, mailers, newsletters, presentations, community meetings, group meetings, and in-person working sessions. 

For the communications enhancement (phase three) during the fellow’s tenure, the communications firm will develop their communications strategy and support the Tribe in implementing the new mechanisms. The fellow will play a role in understanding the various preferred modes of communication, limitations to different styles of communications, programming desired for blue skies activities, and lessons learned regarding communications in past disasters. This will include collecting information across all six parishes for a comprehensive approach as well as engaging with emergency managers from each parish and the United Houma Nation emergency manager to ensure that communications are fully integrated into disaster operations. 

The fellow will not work on any tasks in phase four (economic development).

For phase five (development of a community-led migration strategy), there will be intense engagement and completion of the draft community-led migration strategy during the fellow’s tenure. As with the other phases, the fellow will work closely with the coordinator and the steering committee to support the implementation of the developed engagement plan. This will include a range of engagement styles and locations, and the information will need to be clearly synthesized and integrated back into the migration strategy.

This project is rare in that despite being very large-scale, much of the conceptual and thought leadership will come from Tribal citizens. To ensure that the valuable knowledge gained is implemented in this effort, we will work with the fellow to codevelop a strategy and outputs (e.g., policy paper, briefing series, communications tool kit) for communicating lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations for funders and implementers of large-scale, community-led resilience projects.

Anticipated Travel:

The fellow will travel to the peer-to-peer sharing event in 2027. Project-specific travel will primarily be across the six-parish service area. We also will work with the fellow to identify specific networking and professional development opportunities that align with the fellow’s personal goals. This will ensure the fellow attends regional and national conferences and trainings that will build their skills and network to be mutually beneficial for the project and the fellow.

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 community organizing, biogeophysical science, building or social sciences, engineering, resilience, community organizing, journalism, communications, business, education, emergency management, 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, facilitating, implementing, and coordinating community engagement
• Experience translating complex information into easily understood formats and language
• 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 mentors will be Barbara Nemes, United Houma Nation nonprofit executive director, and Lance Foussell, the project’s program manager. The fellow will also work closely with four project coordinators that are responsible for implementing each of four project phases.

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)