Senior Director, Chapters

Position Title:  Senior Director, Chapters

Status: Full Time

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Remote in U.S.

The Senior Director, Chapters conceives, owns, and oversees the strategy, team, and program impact of Active Minds’ nationwide Chapter Network, a network of high school and college/university student organizations mobilizing peers to take collective action that changes mental health norms in their schools and communities. This role sets the goals and measurable objectives for the Chapters program, builds and leads a growing team to achieve them, and ensures the Chapter Network’s design, quality, and impact are aligned with Active Minds’ Theory of Change and strategic priorities. 

The Senior Director provides thought leadership on youth mobilization and chapter-based advocacy, and leads a significant reinvestment in the Chapter Network, including the launch of a nationwide chapter visits program, an organic outreach initiative, and the annual resourcing of all 500+ active chapters. This position directly supervises the Senior Manager, Chapter Onboarding & Education; Senior Manager, Chapter Partnerships; and one additional position to be hired by the Senior Director, Chapters. This position reports to the Chief Program Officer.

Active Minds is the largest nonprofit in the United States mobilizing youth and young adults to transform mental health norms across society. For more than 20 years, we have equipped the next generation of peer mental health advocates through a variety of programs, including the Active Minds Chapter Network, A.S.K., and Send Silence Packing. Our advocacy, initiatives, and campaigns foster lasting change in how youth view and discuss mental health, encouraging them to use their voices to influence broader conversations and inform mental health supports within their communities. Together, we are building a diverse movement of champions committed to improving mental health for all.

Program Oversight and Collaborative Strategy Development:

• Conceive, set, and own the strategic vision and measurable goals for the Chapter Network, aligned with Active Minds’ Theory of Change and organizational priorities. Define desired outcomes, establish success indicators, and hold the team accountable to results.
• Oversee the Chapter Network’s program design framework, including behavioral outcomes, performance objectives, and program components, ensuring Senior Managers execute it with quality, consistency, and equity and inclusion across the full network.
• Ensure the Chapter Network program centers youth mobilization, equity and inclusion, and measurement.
• Cultivate strategic relationships with high schools, school districts, higher education institutions, community organizations, national partners, and funders to expand program reach and sustainability, including overseeing an outreach initiative that identifies new chapter formation opportunities through the visits program.
• Lead strategic planning for the Chapters Team, including the launch and scaling of a nationwide chapter visits program serving 500+ active chapters, the annual distribution of resources and onboarding materials to all chapters, and the organic expansion of the network into new schools and districts.
• Provide thought leadership on youth mobilization, chapter-based advocacy, and peer-to-peer mental health programming, representing Active Minds’ perspective in the field and informing the organization’s approach to community and systems-level change.
• Proactively identify opportunities for program innovation, piloting new approaches and scaling what works across the network in alignment with organizational vision and strategic priorities.

Team Planning, Leadership, and Support:

• Directly manage a team of three direct reports and an overall Chapters Team of eight staff, including the hiring and onboarding of four new hires over the next two fiscal years.
• Coach and develop team members, building their leadership capacity and supporting their professional growth.
• Partner with the Chief Program Officer on team planning, capacity assessment, and organizational alignment.
• Work closely with Senior Managers overseeing chapter program implementation to ensure outcomes and objectives are executed with quality, consistency, and equity.
• Drive continuous improvement in team workflows, decision-making processes, and program infrastructure, including the overseeing the development of the visit facilitation framework quality assurance processes, and cross-team coordination mechanisms that enable the Chapters Team to operate at scale.

Cross Departmental Project and People Coordination:

• Serve on the Active Minds Leadership Team, fostering collaboration, operationalizing decisions, supporting inclusion, and providing cross-organizational insights and expertise.
• Collaborate with the Measurement Team to evaluate program outcomes and use data insights to inform program improvements.
• Serve as the Chapters Team’s primary cross-organizational connector, proactively coordinating with Development, Equity & Inclusion, Marketing & Communications, Measurement, Operations, and People & Culture to ensure the Chapters program is well-resourced, well-measured, and well-represented across the organization.

Budget Oversight:

• Manage the Chapter Network program budget with full accountability for planning, stewardship, and reporting, including donor-funded new staff positions, the visits program infrastructure, annual chapter resource distribution, and chapter onboarding materials.
• Ensure budget decisions are aligned with program priorities and that the Chapters Team is deploying resources in a way that maximizes impact across the network.

Strategic Communication and Advanced Reporting:

• Partner with foundations, corporate partners, and other funders, drafting proposals and tracking and reporting project progress and deliverables.
• Translate the Chapter Network’s program design, outcomes framework, and impact data into compelling narratives for funders, the Board, and external audiences, clearly articulating the shift from chapter awareness programming to collective action and systems-level change.
• Represent Active Minds in external meetings, conferences, and partnership discussions, positioning the organization as a leader in youth-led mental health advocacy.
• Support partnership development and implementation to enhance engagement and collaboration with school and community stakeholders.
• Utilize project management tools to maintain team accountability, track deliverables, and ensure follow-through on strategic priorities.

About You:

• Demonstrated thought leader with a track record of coaching and developing people managers, building high-performing teams, and influencing outcomes beyond their direct vertical.
• Committed to Active Minds’ mission and to centering youth and young adults as leaders in mental health advocacy.
• Sets clear goals and measurable objectives, translates vision into actionable plans, and holds a growing and distributed team accountable to results in a fast-moving environment.
• Manages competing priorities effectively and adapts to shifting organizational needs.

Requirements:

• 10+ years of related experience in campus organizing, youth mobilization, chapter or network management, or a related field within a nonprofit environment, with demonstrated progression into senior leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience managing people managers and building team capacity across a growing, distributed team, including hiring, developing, and retaining staff at multiple career levels.
• Demonstrated success in building and scaling programs, centering equity and measurement.
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a thought leader and external representative for an organization, including funder relationships, conference presentations, and partnership development at a senior level.
• Familiarity and comfort using Microsoft & Google products and online meeting tools.
• Experience with Salesforce and/or other content management systems.

Active Minds is a place where every employee matters. We value diverse perspectives, radical  authenticity, and a community-driven approach. We dream big, offering flexibility to staff while we work to achieve our mission. As such, we are proud to offer competitive salaries and benefits and an environment that is friendly to remote working and life/work balance.
Active Minds is an equal opportunity employer that works to advance racial equity and social justice in an increasingly multicultural and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background, intersectional identities, and lived experiences. We make a particular effort to recruit people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and people with other marginalized identities. Active Minds encourages all to apply for our open positions as we depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission.

This position offers an initial salary of $113,400 along with robust benefits. The starting pay for this position is equal to others at the same level throughout the organization. Candidates whose experience meets both the minimum and preferred qualifications may be considered for a starting salary that exceeds the current amount. The role sits within Active Minds Level  6 salary band, and as such, has the potential to grow to $170,100 over time. FLSA Status: Exempt.

Active Minds has an industry-leading and competitive benefits package that includes Health, Vision and Dental Insurance, Paid Vacation and Sick Leave, Paid Holidays, Company Wide Mental Health Days, 401(k) Matching, HSA and FSA Options, Life Insurance, Short Term, and Long Term Disability, Fully Paid Parental Leave, Wellness Reimbursement Program, and Professional Development Stipends.

Active Minds recruits, hires, trains, compensates, and promotes our staff regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.

• Active Minds will never ask an applicant to send – and Active Minds will never send an applicant - a check or any payment or item of value (such as a gift card) in connection with the interview process or job onboarding process
• Active Minds will never ask for personal information about an applicant (such as their Social Security number or banking information) until the job onboarding process; 
• Active Minds will never extend a job offer without first conducting multiple rounds of video interviews. The Active Minds interview/hiring process will always include at least 3 virtual interviews
• All legitimate Active Minds job offers are extended verbally by the HR/People & Culture Team
• If you are expecting an email from Active Minds, please always verify that the sending domain in the email is activeminds.org and NOT any variation of it

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TO APPLY
The preferred deadline to apply is July 20, 2026. This search is being supported by NRG Consulting Group. Please reach out to [email protected] and [email protected] with any questions.