The San Juan Bay Estuary Program (Estuario) is seeking an Education Coordinator to support the Education component of the San Juan Bay Estuary Program. The Education Coordinator will be highly collaborative as well as being organized, self-directed, and focused. The Education Coordinator is outgoing, energetic, dedicated to Estuario’s mission. Its primary role is to bring support to the Citizen Science and Education Manager and Estuario’s programmatic initiatives related to the Water Community Network and environmental education.
The San Juan Bay Estuary Program (Estuario) is a private non-profit organization that designs, implements, and provides restorative maintenance in order to improve the water quality and ecosystems within its eight municipalities. Estuario’s mission is to restore and conserve the water quality in the Estuario de la Bahía de San Juan ecosystem as a sustainable hub of social and economic development.
Estuario is the only tropical estuary in the National Estuary Program, providing not only environmental and resiliency programs, but also educational and recreational activities that support thriving communities.
The Estuario’s work is guided by the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP). In collaboration with local, state, and federal agencies, NGOs, academic, and business leaders, the Estuario works to restore and conserve water quality in the San Juan Bay Estuary ecosystem. The Estuario works to build partnerships and leverage federal funding for regional-scale restoration, water quality improvement, and resilience-building projects.
The Estuario Education program will be focusing its efforts on strengthening the Water Community Network by facilitating educational activities and developing curriculum regarding water monitoring and restoration. These efforts will contribute towards developing the necessary capacity building for an autonomous community water monitoring program that will produce data from local citizens to identify water quality issues and take regulatory action if needed. The Education team will target various populations uses resources from its water quality monitoring program and network to plant a seed for awareness regarding around the importance of protecting the estuary bodies of water from a young age and foster thriving watershed communities. Participants in activities such as Guardians of the Estuary and Scouts Merit Badge serve as part of the Water Community Network by contributing to monitoring and water restoration efforts.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Support the Citizen Science and Education Manager in the coordination, implementation and evaluation of educational activities and citizen scientists. Activities include workshops, talks, interpretive tours, research activities, bird census, and community meetings.
- Maintain up-to-date data entry of participatory bird censuses and other modules of estuarine citizen science certification using the Estuary Atlas and other citizen science platforms such as eBird.
- Support bird monitoring activities as they relate to the Environmental Data Analysis
- Coordinate and carry out education programs and activities related to the “Guardianes del Estuario” school program, Puerto Rico Water Quality Monitoring Day, Scouts Merit Badge Workshop Program, Estuario Urban Forest Network, environmental awareness days throughout the year, educational field trips, and other related projects and activities with community groups and communities of learning.
- Review, edit and update documents and presentations of the estuarine education program.
- Develop educational content and tools to incorporate project-based environmental education curricula into traditional education, as well as retraining citizens in areas related to environmental restoration
- Provide education to the general public and area schools
- Create educational display materials for events, workshops and storefront windows.
QUALIFICATIONS
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s degree in Education, Geography or Environmental Sciences, from an accredited university.
- Experience coordinating community-based educational projects and conducting workshops and interpretive tours for various learning communities.
- Preferably have experience working with some of the Estuary Program monitoring and volunteer projects: Such as Water Quality, Bird Census, Microplastics, Research or Education/Interpretation Internships
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES
- Knowledge and understanding of the Estuario and its mission
- Provide their own personal computer and transportation.
- Hold CIG Certification “Certified Interpretive Guide” of the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), preferred.
- Excellent computer skills and proficient in excel, word, power point, and social networks, as well as Canvas and Google Forms.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; in both languages, English and Spanish.
- Strong understanding of environmental issues and of PR biodiversity, estuarine ecosystems and bird identification.
- Must be a motivated self-starter and team player
- Must have project management skills including multi-tasking abilities
- Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills
- Flexibility to meet changing project priorities and demands
- Own transportation and computer.
- Available to work on weekends and evenings.
COMPENSATION
Commensurate with experience.
LANGUAGE REQUIRED:
Fully bilingual in English and Spanish.
HOW TO APPLY:
Interested candidates please submit a cover letter and resume/CV by email no later than September 30, 2022: [email protected]. The email and cover letter must be directed to Brenda Torres, Executive Director, and must specify in the subject the title of the position, «Education Coordinator».
Source of funding: EPA 320 Grant CE99206928
The Corporation for the Conservation of the SJBE provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or genetics. MBE/WBE and other certified minorities and small businesses are encouraged to apply.
