Director - Kusske Design Initiative (KDI)

University of Minnesota, College of Design

Salary $85,000 - $130,000 per year DOQ

Education Master's Degree, +6 years experience

POSITION OVERVIEW:

The Director leads, manages, and furthers the core mission of the Kusske Design Initiative (KDI), which involves three primary tasks: (1) developing and furthering the strategy of KDI in close collaboration with the dean and the KDI core team, (2) managing programs and projects, and (3) managing people at KDI. 

The initiative’s guiding principle is “advancing the dialogue” across disciplines by: conducting events and public programs throughout the year; initiating, cultivating, and leading collaborative projects that exemplify designed solutions; and providing access to facilities and diverse resources for creative work. To orchestrate the co-development of KDI event, program, and project content, the Director draws from their own broad expertise in design and related fields while working with CDes leadership, faculty, staff, collaborators, and partners for specific subject-matter expertise. 

The Director works with the KDI core team to harmonize and hone themes and content of programs and projects, knitting together different disciplinary perspectives. With administrative support primarily from the KDI coordinator, the Director ensures rigorous follow-through in implementation, as projects and programs unfold both ad-hoc and according to specified rhythms throughout the year. The Director works across and among constituents and collaborators who are diverse from both disciplinary and cultural perspectives.

APPOINTMENT DETAILS:

This is a regular, 100% time, 12-month P&A appointment on an annual contract that is renewable for up to three years and has potential for subsequent annual renewals. The expected annual salary range is $85,000-$130,000. Comprehensive benefits include excellent health care and retirement plans and generous paid time off. 

The Director will report to the dean; the role will supervise the KDI coordinator and student assistant/s.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

40%  KDI Strategy

40%  Program and Project Management

20%  People Management 

KDI Strategy 

• Connect project topics and outcomes to ongoing KDI events and portfolio development.

• Work with development and administrative colleagues to cultivate and steward philanthropic support.

• Cultivate supplemental support through both originating and responding to ideas with potential for grant funding. 

• Develop and manage the overarching strategy for the KDI student experience.

• Develop the high-level communications strategy for the initiative.

Program and Project Management  

• Direct the KDI events throughout the year.

• Manage and co-develop the virtual and physical KDI galleries and exhibits.

• Steer development of the evolving physical collections. 

• Manage the ongoing operation and innovative augmentation of the initiative’s custom-developed suite of digital tools for supporting dialogue and co-creativity.

• Pursue grants to extend and deepen KDI inquiries and supplement the initiative’s existing funding. Lead, co-lead, and otherwise contribute to grant-funded projects as appropriate.

• Expand the reach of KDI. Prepare and present information about KDI in professional forums and public venues.

• Manage KDI communications through multiple channels, collaborating across the college and University as needed.

• Manage the application and review processes for the Kusske Scholars and Fellows.

• Manage the processes for incoming faculty co-principals.

People Management

• Manage processes related to the KDI-supported work of the faculty co-principals and other collaborators designated by the initiative’s core team.

• Supervise the KDI coordinator and any additional staff who may be added through increased funding.

• Hire and supervise undergraduate and graduate student assistants.

• Meet regularly with the student cohort, guiding them to ensure a cohesive, substantive student experience.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• Advanced degree in relevant field, and at least 6 years of experience. Significant recognition in the field may be considered as some type of substitution.

• Demonstrated commitment to or experience advancing principles of inclusion and equity 

• Demonstrated ability in strategic planning for complex projects involving diverse collaborators

• Demonstrated achievements in research involving creative production and/or other non-traditional modes of scholarship

• Experience with inter/multi/trans-disciplinary scholarship and/or programming

• Experience leading small- to medium-sized teams

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 

• Experience being nimble and flexible

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated achievements in teaching

• Proven success in collaborating closely with fundraising efforts for philanthropy and grants

• Familiarity with project-based learning, object-based learning, and/or supports for learning within or outside of formal venues and/or credentialing structures

• Experience managing maker space/s and/or other facilities supporting studio-based and/or hands-on learning 

• Facility with a variety of digital tools for widely communicating through multimodal forms supplementing text

APPLICATION

Send a CV or resume and letter stating views of the importance of diverse perspectives in inter/multi/transdisciplinary work, cultivation of collaborative contexts, and dialogue as design methodology. 

ABOUT KDI

A generous commitment from Manitou Fund to the University of Minnesota’s College of Design honors the memory of distinguished alumnus Christopher Arthur Kusske (BLA ’78). The Kusske Design Initiative (KDI) reflects his legacy through widely inclusive events and collaborations among a growing community of broad-minded designers. Chris’s emphasis on interdisciplinary dialogue, co-creativity, and celebration of the natural world inspire timely solutions. KDI programs and inquiries have transformative potential for the products we use, the environments we inhabit, and the systems we tend.

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF DESIGN

Located in a major design city and in one of the largest research universities in the US, the University of Minnesota's College of Design encompasses a full range of design disciplines—including landscape architecture, architecture, retail merchandising, and the design of interiors, graphics, apparel, and other products. Faculty, students, and staff aim to advance the quality of manufactured objects and our natural, built, and social environments through sustainably resilient, socially responsible, civically engaged, and life-centered design collaborations. Learn more at design.umn.edu.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TWIN CITIES CAMPUS

The Twin Cities is a major design hub, home to design-oriented Fortune 500 companies such as Target, 3M, General Mills, Best Buy, and Medtronic, several international and national award-winning architecture practices, thriving local businesses, and a strong non-profit sector. Our students have a wide range of internship opportunities, our graduates enjoy high employment rates, and our alumni are highly engaged with current students and faculty. We take pride in the University of Minnesota’s designations as a Research 1 and Community-Engaged University, which provide foundations for many of our award-winning projects.

The Twin Cities campus is located in an increasingly diverse region at the heart of an increasingly global Midwest, with eleven federally recognized tribal nations, the largest urban Native American population in the country, and growing African American, Latino and Chicano, and Asian American populations. The links between Minnesota communities and communities around the world are notable: Minneapolis-Saint Paul now hosts the largest number of people of Somali descent outside of Somalia and the nation’s largest urban Hmong-American population. The region’s internationally engaged businesses, small and large arts organizations, non-profits, and multifaceted communities create a rich context for learning, partnerships, and engagement with local and global issues and perspectives.

The University strongly embraces equity and diversity as foundational values, reflected in its mission statement and advanced on an institutional strategic level. Students on the Twin Cities campus include 24% students of color and 11% international students; 25% of all undergraduates are first-generation college students. Located on traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people, UMN is on Dakota land ceded in the Treaties of 1837 and 1851. The University acknowledges that this place has a complex and layered history and is committed to ongoing efforts to recognize, support, and advocate for American Indian Nations and peoples.