Merck Forest & Farmland Center (MFFC) is an educational non-profit in Southwestern Vermont that is on a mission to inspire curiosity, love, and responsibility for working and natural lands. MFFC does this by annually welcoming over 15,000 visitors to its 3,500-acre sustainably managed farm and forest in Rupert, VT featuring 35-miles of trail and over a dozen backcountry cabins and lean-tos. Throughout the year, the organization hosts a variety of festivals, workshops, camps, and trainings focused on deepening visitors’ connection to, and understanding of, ecology, farming, forestry and outdoor skills. In addition to this main campus, MFFC operates a 144-acre satellite campus adjacent to, and in collaboration with, the Mettawee Community School (the public elementary school serving the towns of Pawlet and Rupert).

In the last 5 years, MFFC has seen significant growth in its educational programming, and the organization is looking for a Director of Education that can facilitate continued growth while supporting the Education Team in delivering high-quality, mission-aligned educational programs. As an educational land-management organization, MFFC is on the front lines of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Given this reality, MFFC’s educational programs build towards addressing the essential question: “How can we maximize the long-term viability, and habitability, of our home planet for all species?” While this exploration plays out in developmentally appropriate ways across the continuum, and is by no means explicit in all of our programming, it serves as a north star guiding our work.

The Director of Education will play a critical role on a creative and energetic team at an organization that is on a positive trajectory. A surge of prospective regional partners interested in new and innovative opportunities, combined with a resurgence of interest in MFFC’s traditional programming as COVID has abated, makes this an exciting time for the organization and one in which our Education Team is poised to both broaden and deepen its impact in our community and beyond. We are seeking a dynamic leader with experience managing place-based and/or experiential outdoor programs to shepherd this work.