Northern Illinois University is hiring a Director for NICCS, the Northern Illinois Center for Community Sustainability (https://www.niu.edu/niccs/index.shtml). This center is still in its infancy, having been formed to serve as a regional hub of the Illinois Innovation Network, which seeks to improve collaboration between state public universities, attract grant funding, and drive economic growth throughout the state.

This is a search that was interrupted last year (not a failed search; administration first decided to hire the VP of Research & Innovation Partnership, to whom this Director will report). The posting is available here: https://employment.niu.edu/postings/76253.

“The Director provides visionary leadership for the NICCS mission to address the challenges of environmental change, shifting demographics, and sociopolitical inequity impacting the region and the world. They will work with faculty to facilitate and support their academic and instructional programs and liaise with other Divisions to strategically develop partnerships and programs consistent with the mission of NICCS… The individual hired may choose to be aligned with a Department [like the Department of Economics] and/or a Center [like the Institute for the Study of the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy]. As such, tenure may be granted if appropriate.”

Faculty membership of NICCS is voluntary, but a number of faculty throughout the university, including the Institute for the Environment, Sustainability, and Energy, are involved. Please consider applying; an environmental economist could do wonders with establishing a vision for this center.