www.srcd.org

Director: SRCD Office of Policy and Communications
Salary Range: $93,500-$110,000

The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) has two offices-the Executive Office in Ann Arbor, MI and the Office for Policy and Communications in Washington, DC. This position is based in the DC office but frequent contact with the Ann Arbor office, which handles membership, publications and meetings, is also necessary.

The Director, Office of Policy and Communication (OPC) of SRCD develops, implements, and coordinates the policy and communications agendas of the Society for Research in Child Development. The Director reports to the Executive Director of SRCD and works in close collaboration with SRCD governing groups and the Ann Arbor Executive office. The Director works through close associations with Federal agencies and Congressional offices (and oversees similar outreach to organizations of state policymakers) to assure that relevant, research-based knowledge about child development is utilized in the formulation of policy for a broad range of science and social policy issues affecting children and their families. The Director also works with these federal and congressional entities to support funding for research relevant to child development.

The Director manages the Washington D.C. office of SRCD, including hiring and supervising staff. There are currently 3 staff including the Director in the OPC. Because of the small size of the office, and the extensive number of activities, issues, and organizations relevant to SRCD, the Director must thoroughly evaluate each opportunity, balancing the potential benefits of and investments required for each, to determine the level of involvement for each activity. The Director must establish regular contact with the federal organizations (and oversee similar outreach to state organizations) relevant to issues of child development. To achieve this goal, the Director must develop collaborative projects and initiatives that benefit or support the federal organizations and further the goals of SRCD.

Major Duties:

• Develop, implement, and coordinate all SRCD policy activities, including both science and social policy activities. (40% time)
• Direct and manage the SRCD Policy Fellowship Program, including the Congressional Fellowships and the Executive Branch Fellowships. (30% time)
• Coordinate the dissemination of information and communication of messages consistent with the purposes of SRCD, in collaboration with SRCD governing groups, including press releases for SRCD's flagship journal, Child Development. Plan and coordinate legislative and other briefings and written materials to disseminate policy-relevant, research-based information to federal policymakers. (30% time)
• Supervise and run small office with staff of three, including managing the office budget. Fund raising as necessary.

Application process:

Applicants must email materials to opcsearch@srcd.org. Please include a cover letter, a full CV, and three letters of recommendation.

Applications will be reviewed by a search committee and interviews will be held with finalists. Since SRCD employees are leased employees of the University of Michigan, applicants must also apply for the position at http://www.umich.edu/~jobs/, Posting 31145.

Requirements:

Doctorate in a field of Developmental Science. A commitment to and understanding of applied developmental science. At least five years' experience related to public policy, dissemination and/or science policy. Experience in grants management, administration or management, and training. Some history with SRCD is preferred.

In its April, 2009, meeting, SRCD's Governing Council approved planning for an experimental "off-year" set of small meetings to be held possibly as early as the 2011-2012 academic year. We now want to encourage SRCD members to submit proposals for topical content that could be covered in such meetings.

The deadline for submitting the proposal ideas is September 15, 2009. Please provide details akin to what is provided in the topical area example, and list potential coordinators of this meeting. Precede this with a statement of 750 words or less, covering the points listed below.

Please email proposals to:

Society for Research in Child Development
c/o Anne Perdue
aperdue@srcd.org

Background

A December, 2008, SRCD membership poll indicated mixed support for changing SRCD from a biennial meeting to an annual meeting in its present format. Instead, most members supported the idea of an off-year meeting that was different from the biennial meeting and that the off-year meeting should definitely be smaller, and perhaps organized around special topics. Younger SRCD members, who were generally more enthusiastic about an off-year meeting than more senior members, wanted opportunities to interact more with colleagues and established researchers in the field. In addition, respondents to the survey requested minimal overlap with Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA), International Society on Infant Studies (ISIS), Jean Piaget Society, and other professional societies in terms of scheduling and content.

An Off-Year Meeting Task Force [Greg Duncan (chair), Jennie Grammer, Nancy Hill, Melanie Killen, Ann Masten, Bob McCall, Liz Susman] was formed and won endorsement from Governing Council for undertaking the exploration of an off-year meeting in 2012. The task force proposed the following format:

1. Three relatively independent and autonomous topical area meetings will be planned. Topical areas will be chosen to be consistent with the goals of SRCD's strategic plan, collectively broad enough to attract a substantial number of members, including graduate students, but innovative enough to attract active researchers working at the interface between conventional SRCD topic areas and more specialized areas.
2. Each topical area would be broad enough to attract 400-500 individuals. Thus, the total attendance across the three topical area meetings will be around 1,500. As with the biennial meeting, SRCD will charge a conference fee to cover the expected conference costs.
3. Each topical area meeting could consist of 30-35 program session slots spread across two-and-one-half days. Most of the sessions within a topic area would likely consist of presentations and critiques of submitted papers, but there should be ample space for workshops, master lectures, expert panels, and some vehicles (e.g., receptions, breakout sessions) for promoting informal interactions among area aficionados. Posters and some of the paper sessions would provide younger scholars a good opportunity to share and receive feedback on their research. An organizing subcommittee will be constituted around each of the three chosen topics. Examples of what a topical meeting schedule might look like are appended to this memo.
4. The Task Force debated different venues and formats for the three topical area meetings. Least costly, but less likely to promote intra-group cohesion and interaction, would be to hold all three meetings in the same hotel at the same time. At the other end of the spectrum, but possibly too costly for SRCD's members, would be three separate meetings, each in a secluded conference facility. For the purpose of experimentation, we decided to split the difference and hold two of the three topical area meetings in a hotel located in a small city or resort-type area rather than a big city environment (the San Diego Hotel Del Coronado comes to mind) and the other in its own, smaller and more intimate, conference facility (such as Asilomar, near Pacific Grove, California).

Topical Area Idea Submission Guidelines

Please provide details akin to what is provided in the topical area example, and list potential coordinators of this meeting. Precede this with a statement of 750 words or less, covering the following points:

1. Provide a brief description of the topical area, with a list of sub-topics, cross-cutting themes, and general format for the 2.5 day meeting.
2. How would your proposed topical area meeting contribute to the pursuit of SRCD's strategic plan?
3. How would graduate student and early career members be involved?
4. What value is added over and above the meetings of existing professional societies, including SRCD?
5. (Optional) Will any concrete products (e.g., special journal issues, future activities of individuals in the topical areas) result?

The Foundation for Child Development: Changing Faces of America's Children - Young Scholars Program's goals are to:

• Stimulate basic and policy-relevant research about the early education, health and well-being of immigrant children from birth to age 10, particularly those who are living in low-income families.
• Support the career development of young investigators-from the behavioral and social sciences or in an allied professional field-to attain tenure or who have received tenure in the last four years from a college or university in the United States.

Eligible researchers will have earned their doctoral degrees within the last 15 years, and be full-time, faculty members of an institution in the United States. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. or its equivalent in one of the behavioral and social sciences or in an allied professional field (e.g., public policy, public health, education, social work, nursing, medicine). Three to four fellowships of up to $150,000 for use over one to three years (and in rare cases, up to five years) will be awarded. Please note tenure equivalent positions are not eligible for the fellowship.

The deadline is November 4, 2009. Additional information is available at: http://www.fcd-us.org/programs/programs_show.htm?doc_id=447982. Questions can be addressed to ysp@fcd-us.org.