About Sierra Streams Institute:

Sierra Streams Institute is a watershed monitoring, research, restoration and educational group based in Nevada City, California in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  Our mission is to promote scientific knowledge and stewardship of Sierra Nevada watersheds through research, restoration, education, and community science. Over the past two decades, SSI has grown to become a vitally important voice in the regional scientific community. At Sierra Streams Institute, we believe in science to work on behalf of environmental and human health. We work directly with citizen scientists to collect water quality, benthic macroinvertebrate, algae, wildlife and physical habitat data. There are numerous benefits to working with citizen scientists, including providing experiential learning to a diverse audience, fostering community members to be advocates for their own watershed, identifying streams in need of restoration, contributing baseline information to state and local agencies, and compiling and analyzing long-term data sets for streams and for studying the effects of climate change.

Job Title: Community Engagement Coordinator

Reports to: Executive Director and Development Director

Start Date: Applications reviewed in order received

Hours: Part-time (15-20 hours/week, flexible schedule), increased hours depending upon funding and availability 

Job Description:

The SSI Community Engagement Coordinator serves as the public face of SSI, sharing our message and approach around community science, research, and education through tabling, public education events, volunteer engagement, and social media. We seek someone who can engage the public in our unique mission and approach and generate new volunteers, as well as connect community members with staff projects and community science opportunities to leverage the power of community knowledge. Specifically, the Community Engagement Coordinator will perform the following:

● Report to and work closely with the Director of Education (for education activities) and Executive Director and Development Director (for outreach and PR activities), as well as other staff as needed to develop and implement volunteer engagement opportunities (e.g. Bug Lab Manager for bug ID work, Water Quality Lab Manager for monitoring, and all of the above for “community science days”).  

● Maintain and distribute SSI’s digital brand, including newsletters and social media posts, and work with Program Managers to update newsletter and blog post outreach

● Work with Executive Director and Fundraising Committee to advise and guide fundraising campaigns, events, and other outreach support. Tasks include attending fundraising meetings, tabling at events, and managing our public brand with the assistance of the Executive Director and Development Director.