What are the responsibilities and job description for the Executive Director, Early Childhood Innovation Center position at Delaware State University?
General Description of the Position
The Executive Director provides active, day-to-day leadership for the Early Childhood Innovation Center (ECIC) and is responsible for the successful implementation, coordination, and continuous improvement of the ECIC’s statewide programs and services. The Executive Director translates the ECIC’s mission, grant commitments, funder expectations, and University responsibilities into clear priorities, completed work, consistent participant services, measurable outcomes, and timely deliverables.
This is a working executive position requiring both strategic leadership and direct engagement in the organization’s work. The Executive Director establishes direction, makes timely decisions, supervises and develops program leaders, reviews work products and performance data, resolves barriers, coordinates across organizational branches, and becomes directly involved when a deadline, vacancy, service concern, delayed assignment, or program risk requires executive attention.
The Early Childhood Innovation Center advances three primary strategies to support early learning professionals:
- Child Development Associate (CDA®): Support early childhood professionals in obtaining the CDA® as an initial milestone in their educational journey by providing the financial assistance, coaching, mentorship, and related supports required to earn the credential.
- Postsecondary Degrees: Transform access to higher education through scholarship and participant-support models that make degree attainment possible for an undercompensated workforce, while collaborating with institutions of higher education to strengthen and develop innovative early childhood educator-preparation programs.
- Career Advisement: Ensure early childhood professionals receive the information, planning, referrals, and support needed to enter, remain in, and advance within the profession.
Essential Functions & Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
1. Executive Leadership and Program Direction
- Serve as the ECIC’s working, day-to-day executive and programmatic leader, translating strategic priorities, grant requirements, funder expectations, and program goals into coordinated workplans with assigned responsibilities, deadlines, deliverables, and performance measures.
- Set organizational and program priorities; monitor progress; make timely decisions; remove barriers; and provide executive-level support or temporary coverage when a vacancy, urgent deadline, or significant program risk requires intervention.
- Work at both the strategic and execution levels by reviewing, editing, approving, and contributing to program implementation plans, participant guidance, reports, presentations, funder responses, and other critical programmatic deliverables, while assigning routine development and implementation work to the appropriate program leaders and staff.
- Set expectations for programmatic policies, participant-facing procedures, service standards, communication protocols, quality controls, and accountability measures; direct the appropriate program leaders to develop and implement them; and review their effectiveness. Collaborate with the Operations Officer on any policy, procedure, or system with fiscal, personnel, contractual, administrative, technological, or University-wide implications.
- Identify emerging risks and take corrective action before delays, backlogs, inaccurate information, or unresolved concerns affect participants, partners, funders, or the University.
- Foster a professional, collaborative, equitable, participant-centered, and solutions-focused culture grounded in ownership, accuracy, responsiveness, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Directly supervise the ECIC program leadership structure, including the Operations Officer, CDA® Programs Officer, two Scholarship Coordinators, and Career Advisement Coordinator, consistent with the approved organizational structure.
- Establish clear responsibilities, priorities, workplans, deadlines, decision-making authority, communication standards, documentation requirements, and performance measures for each direct report, and provide the direction, coaching, feedback, and support needed to hold staff accountable for ownership, sound decisions, and follow-through.
- Conduct regular leadership and staff meetings and review program activity, participant concerns, work products, data, workloads, deadlines, unresolved matters, and upcoming priorities to evaluate progress, identify gaps and risks, make informed decisions, and ensure staff have the support needed to complete their responsibilities.
- Set performance expectations, complete performance evaluations, recognize effective performance, and address missed deadlines, inaccurate work, communication concerns, failure to follow procedures, unresolved participant issues, or other performance concerns promptly and consistently.
- Monitor staff capacity and maintain continuity through workload redistribution, interim coverage, direct assistance when necessary, professional development, cross-training, succession planning, and opportunities for increased responsibility.
- Provide strategic direction and executive oversight for the statewide Career Advisement program; directly supervise the Career Advisement Coordinator; establish expectations for service delivery, participant support, outreach, partnerships, documentation, reporting, and outcomes; and approve the coordinator’s workplan, priorities, service standards, and performance measures.
- Charge the Career Advisement Coordinator with developing and maintaining a consistent statewide service model that helps early childhood professionals understand career pathways, credentials, degree options, funding resources, employment opportunities, apprenticeships, and advancement requirements; review and approve the model and significant changes to it.
- Review summary data and management reports on caseloads, participant contacts, service timelines, referrals, follow-up activities, unresolved cases, participant goals, and progress toward career and educational milestones.
- Provide executive guidance and remove organizational barriers when the coordinator escalates complex participant issues involving credentials, college enrollment, employment, qualifications, or career advancement, without assuming routine case-management responsibilities.
- Ensure the Career Advisement Coordinator uses participant feedback and program data to identify service gaps, recommend improvements to the statewide model, and measure participant outcomes; review progress and hold the program accountable for results.
- Provide strategic direction and executive oversight for the statewide Associate and Bachelor’s Degree Scholarship Program; hold Scholarship Coordinator(s) accountable for day-to-day administration and participant service; and establish expectations for application cycles, outreach, eligibility review, participant support, data management, reporting, and performance.
- Review and approve scholarship workplans, program calendars, outreach strategies, participant guidance, and significant programmatic policies or procedural changes, coordinating operational impacts with the Operations Officer.
- Review program reports and summary data on applications, processing timelines, eligibility and award decisions, incomplete or unresolved cases, participant progress, and program outcomes; require corrective action when needed; and approve exceptions, appeals, and complex cases requiring executive consideration.
- Provide executive guidance on escalated or complex participant issues involving documentation, enrollment, academic progress, continued eligibility, persistence, institutional transitions, and degree completion, while the Scholarship Coordinators retain responsibility for routine case resolution and participant follow-up.
- Engage institutions of higher education and other senior partners when executive involvement is needed to resolve systemic, high-risk, or escalated programmatic concerns; ensure the Scholarship Coordinators manage routine institutional coordination and participant matters.
- Direct the Scholarship Coordinators to recommend and implement strategies to increase scholarship awareness, reduce incomplete applications, strengthen participant support, improve persistence, and increase degree completion; evaluate results and require adjustments as needed.
- Provide strategic direction and executive oversight for the ECIC’s statewide CDA® programs and other workforce initiatives; directly supervise the CDA® Programs Officer; and establish priorities, service expectations, implementation timelines, performance measures, and accountability for program results.
- Ensure the CDA® Programs Officer provides formal supervision to the CDA® Coordinator and CDA® Coaches, while the CDA® Coordinator provides effective day-to-day implementation guidance, participant monitoring, and coaching-team support.
- Monitor CDA® participation, educator progress, cohort implementation, coaching quality, service timelines, credential completion, program data, and unresolved participant barriers.
- Require the CDA® Programs Officer and program team to establish and apply program expectations and quality-control processes; review performance and direct corrective-action planning when services, documentation, partner performance, or outcomes do not meet expectations.
- Partner with stakeholders to make programming responsive to the needs of the field and to make the process of entering and completing a program as seamless as possible.
- Collaborate with the Operations Officer to align programmatic priorities, new programs, partnerships, staffing needs, participant supports, and institutional arrangements with operational timelines, available resources, and University requirements.
- Ensure program leaders and staff provide the Operations team with complete, accurate, and timely documentation and information needed for budgets, contracts, purchasing, payments, personnel actions, applications, grant administration, and reporting.
- Coordinate with the Operations Officer when new programs, partnerships, staffing needs, participant supports, or institutional arrangements require operational review or implementation.
- Meet regularly with the Operations Officer to identify upcoming deadlines, implementation needs, risks, unresolved matters, and cross-functional priorities.
- Resolve programmatic issues that delay or prevent the Operations team from completing required administrative or fiscal processes.
- Define the program information, performance measures, dashboards, and monitoring needs required for executive oversight and funder accountability, and collaborate with the Operations Officer and program leaders on the systems used to collect, review, and report the information. The Operations Officer retains responsibility for organization-wide operational systems and related administrative processes.
- Review reports, dashboards, participant records, and source documentation to assess progress, identify trends, inequities, service gaps, workload concerns, and performance issues, and ensure required reports are accurate, complete, and timely.
- Lead programmatic continuous-improvement efforts by reviewing results and feedback, directing program leaders to recommend and implement changes, and monitoring whether those changes produce the intended improvement. Coordinate operational process or system changes with the Operations Officer.
- Maintain compliance with the grant scope, University policies, applicable laws, funder requirements, confidentiality standards, and records-retention expectations.
- Maintain active working relationships with state agencies, institutions of higher education, early childhood programs, school districts, workforce partners, employers, community organizations, and national organizations to resolve implementation barriers, strengthen service and referral pathways, improve participant experiences, and advance shared workforce goals.
- Work with colleges to resolve scholarship, enrollment, academic-progress, and participant-support issues while coordinating payment and fiscal matters with the Operations Officer.
- Represent the ECIC accurately and professionally at meetings, conferences, and public events, ensuring that presentations, publications, partnership discussions, and public claims are grounded in verified information and accurately reflect the ECIC’s services, results, capacity, commitments, and stage of development.
- Identify funding, partnership, program, and policy opportunities that align with the ECIC’s mission, demonstrated capacity, grant requirements, statewide reach, and long-term sustainability.
The candidate must possess the following knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodations:
- Demonstrated ability and willingness to function as a working executive who leads multiple statewide programs, translates priorities into actionable workplans, assigns responsibilities, monitors implementation and performance, resolves barriers, and ensures commitments are completed.
- Strong personnel-management skills, including supervision of professional staff, delegation, coaching, performance management, difficult conversations, team development, succession planning, and accountability.
- Knowledge of and ability to supervise statewide Career Advisement, scholarship, CDA®, and workforce programs, including scholarship administration, participant eligibility, postsecondary enrollment, career pathways, adult learning, equitable access, and the CDA® credentialing process.
- Demonstrated ability to direct, review, and evaluate the development and implementation of program policies, participant-facing procedures, service standards, communication protocols, management reports, quality-assurance processes, participant-support practices, and measurable performance expectations while respecting operational ownership of fiscal, personnel, contractual, administrative, and technology systems.
- Ability to analyze program, participant, staffing, and service data; identify risks, trends, inequities, and gaps; and use findings to improve program performance and make timely, evidence-informed decisions.
- Strong written and oral communication skills and the ability to present organizational information accurately, clearly, and appropriately to staff, funders, University leadership, partners, participants, and the public.
- Sound professional judgment, integrity, discretion, and political awareness, with the ability to build productive partnerships while protecting the ECIC from inaccurate representations, unsupported commitments, mission drift, or work that exceeds organizational capacity.
- Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, culturally responsive practice, and service to populations historically excluded from pathways to advancement.
Qualification Standards
Education: A master’s degree in educational leadership, early childhood education, public administration, business administration, higher education, workforce development, or a closely related field is preferred.
Experience: A minimum of five years of progressively responsible leadership experience in early childhood education (birth through Grade 3), higher education, adult education, workforce development, or a related statewide program environment is preferred.
Experience developing and implementing adult education or workforce-development initiatives in an early childhood context; supervising professional staff; implementing complex grant-funded programs; serving diverse communities; and working with populations historically excluded from pathways to advancement, preferred.
Executive-level or multi-program leadership experience is strongly preferred.
EEO Statement
Delaware State University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The University does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, age, national origin, color, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship or disability, veteran or military status, gender identity or genetic information. Auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities. The University is committed to the policy of equal employment opportunity in recruitment, hiring, career advancement, and all other employment practices.
Equal opportunity employer/program'' and “auxiliary aids and services are available upon request to individuals with disabilities''.
Salary : $65,423 - $107,947