Developing Rural Place-Based Partnerships to Improve Career Pathways

State and local government partners in Utah are working with the Promise Partnership Utah backbone team at Utah’s Promise to strengthen place-based partnerships that expand education-to-career pathways and improve economic mobility for youth across rural Utah. The FUSE Executive Fellow will support the development of local backbone capacity, align cross-sector partners around shared cradle-to-career priorities, and strengthen systems, governance, and collaboration across communities. Ultimately, this work will build sustainable partnership infrastructure that enables communities to drive long-term improvements in youth outcomes. This fellowship is part of FUSE’s two-year model, with Year One focused on advancing coordination, strategy, and early implementation, and Year Two focused on building on this progress to deepen impact and support sustained, long-term outcomes.

Fellowship Dates: October 26, 2026 – October 20, 2028

Salary: Executive Fellows are FUSE employees and receive an annual salary of $95,000. Fellows can also access various health, dental, and vision insurance benefits. This amount is not representative of market-rate salaries for the experienced professionals in our program but is intended as compensation for a year of public service.

ABOUT THE FUSE EXECUTIVE FELLOWSHIP

FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to work more effectively for communities. We embed private sector executives in city and county agencies to lead projects that improve public services and accelerate systems change. Since 2012, FUSE has led over 400 projects in 58 governments across 26 states, impacting a total population equivalent to 1 in 10 Americans.

When designing each fellowship project, FUSE works closely with government partners and community stakeholders to define a scope of work that will achieve substantive progress toward high-priority local needs. Projects address today’s most pressing challenges and opportunities, including affordable housing, economic mobility, climate resilience, public safety, infrastructure, technology, and more.

FUSE conducts a full executive search for each individual project to ensure that the selected candidate has at least 15 years of professional experience, the required competencies for the role, and deep connections to the community being served.

Executive Fellows are embedded in government agencies working with senior leaders for at least one year of full-time work. Prospective responsibilities may include thorough data analytics and research, developing enhanced operations and financial models, building change management and strategic planning processes, and/or building broad coalitions to support project implementation efforts. Executive Fellows are data-driven and results-oriented and able to effectively manage complex projects. They build strong relationships with a broad array of stakeholders, foster alignment within and across various layers of government, and build partnerships between governments and communities.

Throughout the fellowships, Executive Fellows receive training, coaching, and professional support to help achieve their project goals.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Place-based partnerships are essential to strengthening education-to-career pathways and advancing long-term economic mobility for young people. These approaches bring together schools, local governments, employers, and community-based organizations to align efforts around shared outcomes, enabling communities to address complex challenges through coordinated, sustained action. For young people in communities with fewer connected resources, particularly in rural and geographically dispersed areas, aligned and locally grounded systems play a critical role in expanding access to opportunity, strengthening educational attainment, and supporting successful transitions into the workforce. When regions invest in strong cross-sector partnerships supported by shared data, clear goals, and local leadership, they create conditions for more consistent, inclusive, and impactful outcomes.

In Utah, Utah’s Promise leads a statewide effort to advance cradle-to-career outcomes through a place-based partnership model called Promise Partnership Utah. This work has taken root in communities such as South Salt Lake and Millcreek, where local backbone organizations coordinate cross-sector partners to improve outcomes such as early literacy, youth engagement, and long-term educational success. Building on this progress, Promise Partnership Utah has expanded its focus to include rural communities, where strong local collaboration exists but opportunities remain to further align efforts and strengthen coordinated impact. Recent investments in research, community engagement, and partnerships with national organizations, alongside the passage of SB 165, have established a strong foundation and growing momentum to support the development of locally driven, cross-sector partnerships across central and southern Utah.

Utah’s Promise will partner with FUSE to accelerate the development of place-based partnerships that strengthen education-to-career pathways for youth across rural Utah. The FUSE Executive Fellow will conduct early partnership building and planning work with a pilot group of up to 3 communities. This may include a comprehensive listening tour, landscape analysis, and assessment of community readiness; support the identification and development of local backbone organizations; facilitate cross-sector alignment and shared visioning; and help establish data-informed goals and governance structures to guide long-term work. Ultimately, this partnership will strengthen local capacity, deepen coordination across systems, and position communities to lead sustained improvements in economic mobility and opportunity for young people across Utah.

PROJECT APPROACH

Beginning in Fall 2026, the FUSE Executive Fellow will work with Promise Partnership Utah’s backbone team, in partnership with state and local government entities, to strengthen the development of place-based partnerships that support education-to-career pathways and economic mobility for youth across rural Utah. The fellow will focus on building and aligning cross-sector partnerships across central and southern Utah by supporting the development of local backbone organizations, strengthening coordination among education, workforce, and community stakeholders, and advancing shared, data-informed cradle-to-career goals. Through this work, the fellow will help communities operate more cohesively across sectors and with statewide partners to drive measurable, long-term improvements in outcomes for young people.

During the first 90 days, the fellow will conduct a comprehensive discovery phase, building on work that has already begun, to build a deep understanding of the current landscape for place-based partnership development across target regions. The fellow will lead a structured listening tour with key stakeholders, including Promise Partnership Utah’s leadership and staff, local government leaders, school districts, community-based organizations, employers, higher education institutions, and regional partners. This process will capture insights into existing collaboration efforts, community priorities, partnership readiness, and opportunities to strengthen local backbone capacity. The fellow will also conduct a landscape analysis and review key materials, including prior research, community engagement findings, strategic plans, and relevant policy frameworks such as SB 165. In parallel, the fellow will research best practices from comparable rural and place-based partnership models nationally. Based on these insights, the fellow will synthesize key findings and present concepts to refine the project approach, including proposed strategies for partnership development and capacity building, for review and approval by government leadership and key partners before advancing to the next phase of work.

Using the insights gathered during discovery, the fellow will design and implement strategies to strengthen place-based partnerships across participating communities. This work will include identifying and supporting the development of 3–6 local backbone organizations to coordinate cross-sector efforts; facilitating shared visioning processes to align stakeholders around common cradle-to-career goals and outcomes; and establishing governance structures that support effective collaboration and decision-making. The fellow will support the development of consistent approaches for stakeholder engagement, working closely with local governments, school systems, nonprofits, employers, and community leaders to strengthen alignment and coordination. The fellow will also help establish data-informed frameworks to guide partnership efforts, including identifying priority indicators and supporting the use of shared data to inform decision-making and track progress. In collaboration with Promise Partnership Utah backbone team members and local partners, the fellow will pilot approaches in select communities, gather feedback, and refine strategies to ensure they are practical, locally relevant, and integrated into ongoing work. As needed, the fellow will support alignment with statewide initiatives and policy frameworks to ensure local efforts are connected to broader systems and resources.

By the end of the fellowship, participating communities will operate with stronger, more aligned place-based partnership infrastructure to support youth outcomes. Local backbone organizations will have increased capacity to coordinate partners, guide shared strategy, and align resources around common goals, while stakeholders across sectors will have a clearer understanding of their roles in advancing collective impact. Communities will be engaged or ready to engage in the process of developing a shared investable action plan. Promise Partnership Utah will have a more defined and scalable approach to supporting rural partnership development, enabling continued expansion of this work across the state. To ensure sustainability, the fellow will work with Promise Partnership Utah and local partners to embed new approaches within existing organizations, establish clear ownership of partnership functions at the community level, and strengthen ongoing support structures that enable continued coordination, learning, and improvement beyond the fellowship period. This scope reflects Year One priorities, and the fellow and City will collaborate during the fellowship to define the scope and focus for Year Two based on progress and emerging opportunities.

The fellow will be embedded within the host government, reporting directly to the Project Supervisor and receiving strategic guidance from the Executive Sponsor. In addition to this primary reporting relationship, the fellow will maintain a formal adjacent relationship with Utah’s Promise, serving as the statewide backbone for this work, with a regular communication cadence to ensure alignment with partnership priorities and statewide strategy. This dual alignment will enable the fellow to effectively bridge state-level vision and local implementation, ensuring that project activities are responsive to community needs while advancing a cohesive, place-based partnership approach across Utah.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

By Fall 2027, at the end of Year One the Executive Fellow will have produced the following:

• Refined and improved a Place-Based Partnership Development and Support Framework – Refined and improved a structured, scalable framework to guide the identification, development, and ongoing support of local backbone organizations, enabling Utah’s Promise and government partners to expand and strengthen place-based partnerships across rural communities.
• Established Community-Specific Partnership Plans and Shared Outcomes – Co-developed 3–6 community-level plans that define shared cradle-to-career goals, priority outcomes, and aligned strategies, enabling cross-sector partners to coordinate efforts and advance locally driven education-to-career pathways.
• Defined/Refined Cross-Sector Governance and Partnership Structures – Refined governance models, stakeholder engagement processes, and decision-making frameworks that strengthen coordination among local governments, education systems, nonprofits, and employers, ensuring effective and sustained collaboration.
• Implemented and Improved Data-Informed Tools and Performance Alignment Systems – Operationalized shared measurement frameworks, priority indicators, and practical tools to support data-informed decision-making, track progress, and align efforts across partners and communities.
• Developed Local Sustainability and Capacity-Building Strategies – Based on the general playbook, developed a local roadmap outlining long-term ownership, funding opportunities, and capacity-building supports to ensure local backbone organizations and partnerships can sustain and expand impact beyond the fellowship period.

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

• Executive Sponsor – Travis Kyhl, Executive Director, R6
• Project Supervisor – Pam Morrison, Director of HCAP, R6
• Place-Based Partners - Amy Ahrens Terpstra, Chief Impact Officer for Utah’s Promise and Managing Director for Promise Partnership Utah

QUALIFICATIONS

• 15 years of progressively responsible experience in organizational transformation and change management, from practitioner to enterprise-level leadership.
• Synthesizes complex information into clear and concise recommendations and action-oriented implementation plans.
• Develops and effectively implements both strategic and operational project management plans.
• Generates innovative, data-driven, and result-oriented solutions to complex challenges.
• Respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations, trends, strategies, and other processes.
• Communicates effectively verbally and in writing and excels in active listening and conversing.
• Fosters collaboration across multiple constituencies to support more effective decision-making.
• Establishes and maintains strong relationships with diverse stakeholders, both inside and outside of government, particularly community-based relationships.
• Embraces differing viewpoints and implements strategies to find common ground. Demonstrates confidence and professional diplomacy while effectively interacting with individuals at all levels of various organizations.

FUSE is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this position.

Salary : $95,000