Global Shifts Program Manager

Perry World House is a University of Pennsylvania Center for scholarly inquiry, teaching, research, international exchange, policy engagement, and public outreach on pressing global issues.

Perry World House’s mission is to bring the academic knowledge of the University of Pennsylvania to bear on some of the world’s most pressing global policy challenges, and to foster international policy engagement within and beyond the Penn community.

It draws on the expertise of Penn’s 12 schools and numerous globally-oriented research centers to educate the Penn community and prepare students to be well-informed, contributing global citizens. At the same time, Perry World House connects Penn with leading policy experts from around the world to develop and advance innovative policy proposals.

Through its rich programming, Perry World House facilitates critical conversations about global policy challenges and fosters interdisciplinary research on these topics. It presents workshops and colloquia, welcomes distinguished visitors, and produces content for global audiences and policy leaders, so that the knowledge developed at Penn can make an immediate impact around the world.

The Program Manager will drive Perry World House's Global Shifts: Migration, Urbanization, and Demography research theme. Through strategic convenings, publications, partnerships, and public engagement, the Global Shifts theme stimulates basic and applied interdisciplinary research and develops and advances innovative policy proposals about some of the world’s most challenging problems. The work in this field lies at the intersections of the global phenomena of urbanization, migration, demographic shifts, and increasingly, climate change. While we occasionally focus on these mega-trends discretely, the value of these efforts stems from the interactions among them. Drive the research agenda of the Global Shifts theme in coordination with faculty and staff directors by planning and executing annual colloquia, workshops, lectures, etc.; researching and authoring strategic written output (reports, white papers, blog posts, opinion pieces, etc.); engaging Penn faculty to advance the theme's goals; and undertaking strategic communications (press releases, website, podcast, multi-media campaigns, etc.) to leverage the contributions of the theme. Manage the Visiting Fellows and Scholars processes for the Global Shifts theme, including by identifying academic and policy prospects, coordinating outreach, and driving each Fellow's activities (including broader University engagement) and outputs while at Perry World House. Plan and implement a variety of effective and engaging programming aimed at undergraduate students who are interested in global policy, including annual Career Week panel, rapid response programming, weekly public lectures, The World Today, etc. Undertake strategic outreach and engagement to other external stakeholders, such as policymakers, think tanks, and other universities in the U.S. and around the world.

Qualifications: A Master's Degree or higher is strongly preferred plus 4 years to 7 years of work experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.

Candidate should have extensive academic and programmatic expertise in the thematic area of Global Shifts: Migration, Urbanization, and Climate Change; have undertaken policy-relevant research with a global focus; thrive in a multi-faceted, faced-paced environment; be able to expertly project manage and bring projects to a speedy and effective conclusion; have exceptional writing, editing, and public presentation skills across multiple platforms; be intellectually curious and thoroughly self-motivated; and be a team player, highly collaborative, highly entrepreneurial, and solutions-oriented.