HERON

Director

• Lead the development and execution of Heron's comprehensive research agenda across six program areas.
• Serve as a key thought partner to executive leadership on research strategy, community selection, and data-driven decision-making.
• Build Heron's reputation as a credible, innovative source of research and data on rural community health, persistent poverty, and community capitals.
• Build and lead a high-performing research team, including hiring and managing a data analyst and additional research staff.
• Collaborate closely with Community Partnerships Network, Outreach, and Investment teams to ensure research informs all aspects of Heron's work.
• Launch and continuously refine the Heron Community Data Library—an expert-advised set of community vitality indicators linked to human, natural, civic, and economic capital for every U.S. county.
• Partner with research institutions and experts to ensure data quality, accessibility, and usability.
• Create user-friendly tools and guides that enable community partners and other communities to access, interpret, and apply community capitals data.
• Maintain a comprehensive catalog of communities facing persistent poverty in the U.S.
• Establish rigorous, equity-centered parameters for identifying candidate communities for Heron partnerships.
• Track and report on the health of these communities over time using expert-supported methodologies.
• Collaborate with staff to identify and recommend priority communities for development.
•Lead the creation of comprehensive community health profiles for each Heron partner community in collaboration with community members, regional experts, and Heron staff.

Senior Director of Research