EF Academy Pasadena Director of Wellness Programming

(residential or non-residential role)

EF Academy is an international day and boarding high school serving students from over 50 countries. EF Academy Pasadena opened in September of 2022, joining sister schools in New York and Oxford.  EF Academy Pasadena currently enrolls 125 students, but is on a growth pathway towards 1000 students (700 boarders and 300 local day students) over the next many years.  The Director of Wellness Programming will serve a dual role as the Head of Department of the Health & Wellness department (currently inclusive of Health & Wellness, AP Pyschology, and Physical Education courses) and as a programmatic lead for the development and execution of extracurricular health and wellness education for students, faculty, staff, and families. 

EF Academy Pasadena Heads of Department lead their teams of exceptional faculty members who are fully committed to our school’s competency-based learning (CBL) approach to education.  Heads of Department ensure opportunities for faculty to continuously refresh their understanding of pedagogical best practices for student engagement and agency, and they work collaboratively on ensuring the school implements CBL with fidelity to the guiding values for equity and personalization.  Heads of Department report directly to the Head of School, working in close partnership on maintaining vision alignment in all decisions about programs, practices, and hiring as as the school grows in size year over year.

In addition to teaching courses in their discipline, Heads of Department participate in our signature Global Leadership (GL) program: our fully project-based program team taught by the entire faculty. GL offers students the opportunity to use the design thinking process to propose, prototype, and implement an actionable solution in alignment to one of the seventeen UN Sustainable Development goals.  Heads of Department are expected to lead by example in all areas of their teaching, and demonstrate the vulnerability to try (and probably fail at!) bold new approaches to empowering students in GL.

Along with executing the duties of a Head of Department, the Director of Wellness Programming will partner with the Health Center and Residential Life teams to create and implement wellness programming that can happen both across and outside of the curriculum.  This role also oversees the advisory program and supports the lead class advisors in their leadership.

As both a start-up and a boarding school, at EF Academy Pasadena our faculty, staff, and leadership team are guided in their practice by a professional competency architecture with four domains that define how to be and become inspiring educators, committed caretakers, courageous innovators, and relationship builders.  Working on the academic leadership team requires a commitment to the school’s vision, a yearning to implement best practices in every area of the school, a comfort with iteration, and a fervor for collaboration!

EF Academy Ethos:

We teach students not classes. We customize every student’s learning journey to maximize their full potential. They gain critical knowledge and skills and put theory into practice through hands-on experience.

Professional Qualifications and Qualities:

• Bachelor’s degree in teaching or relevant field, advanced degree preferred
• A minimum of 5 years of experience as a teacher
• In-depth knowledge of student-centered teaching methods
• In-depth knowledge of best practices for student wellness, care, and support
• Proven interest in learning about and adopting CBL best practices in design of curriculum and assessment
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Well-organized with excellent leadership abilities
• Ability to both coach and be coached in professional practice
• Collaborative mindset with abilities to contribute meaningful ideas, find common ground, and move forward as one team
• Exceptional interpersonal and presentation skills
• Growth mindset

Key Responsibilities in each domain:

Inspiring Educators

• Teach a 60% load of classes (generally 2 classes in alignment with subject area expertise and 1 team-taught course in the signature Global Leadership program). In our smaller years, the HoD role includes 0.2 reassigned time for enacting the leadership responsibilities.  The Director of Wellness Programming role includes another 0.2 of time assigned to fostering connections between the academic, residential life, and student services team to promote wellness programming in and out of the classroom and ensuring the advisory program is flourishing.
• Lead the implementation of student-centered pedagogies in your department, inclusive of project-, problem-, inquiry-, place-, and/or research-based approaches.
• Collaborate with the full faculty on designing appropriate formative and summative assessments in alignment with CBL values.
• Partner with the Learning Support Specialist and the Director of English Language Learning Support to ensure their support in creating inclusive classrooms for students with learning differences or with lower English proficiencies in your department.
• Support students outside of the classroom through office hours and evening study hall, and ensure a good distribution of availability to departmental support across the week.
• Lead the growth of experiential learning in your department through modeling and coaching others in thoughtful cultivation of field study, service learning, trips, or internship opportunities in alignment to course curriculum.
• Thoughtfully reflect on practice via the professional portfolio process annually.

Committed Caretakers

• Model meaningful engagement with advisory, our program centered on buildin a sense of community, support, and family within a small student group. Guide the lead class advisors in actualizing the vision and goals of our advising program.
• Support residential life on a weekend duty team, modeling a #oneteam attitude and a “how can I help” approach. Model volunteerism when residential team is short staffed.
• Coach a sport or mentor a club across the three seasons of the school year.
• Contribute to execution of student welcome and departure days.
• Embrace responsibilities as a trained Mental Health First Aider to support student well-being.

Courageous Innovators

• Partner with the Head of School to realize the CBL vision of academics and lead your departments to experiment boldly with curriculum, pedadgogy, and assessment.
• Serve on or lead a faculty team to help drive the implementation of the academic vision (’22-’23 teams included: CBL Implementation, Competency Mapping & Curriculum, Professional Portfolio, and Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Pedagogy).
• Support the development and delivery of professional learning opportunities offered by the school.
• Work in partnership with the Head of School to support global and local admissions in their work to grow the school. Engage in presentation and travel opportunities to tell the story of EF Academy Pasadena’s unique stengths and recruit students from around the globe.
• Work in partnership with the Head of School to align resources with the school’s vision within your department, focusing on sound budgeting practices, vision-aligned course development, and strategic hiring.
• Inform wellness programming decisions based on best practices in student care and support.

Relationship Builders

• Lead departments through thoughtful execution of department meetings and 1:1 support of faculty members.
• Model meaningful and thoughtful engagement with all Team meetings, GL meetings, faculty meetings, and community meetings.
• Ensure colleagues in your department commit to collaborating on planning, gathering and sharing resources, and cross grading/rubric tuning.
• Maintain open communication and build trust with all stakeholder including: students, families, and colleagues on campus and across all of EF Academy’s global offices.
• Mentor department members on how best to lead the advisor/parent conferences twice yearly.
• Take actions that demonstrate commitment to helping students feel known, seen, and valued. Attend events that celebrate students accomplishments – Arts night, Culture Fair, Global Leadership Gallery Walks, etc.
• Develop and nurture connections across the divisions of the school (academics, residential life, student services) to infuse a consistent focus on programming for student wellness.

Job Status

This is a 10-month exempt position.  As an international boarding school, we believe in the importance of a strong community spirit of support and care. Therefore, all members of the school faculty and staff, regardless of residential status, are expected to engage in life beyond the classroom through clubs, activities, excursions and celebratory events, as well as duties on campus. Residential faculty (those with campus-provided housing) complete a more robust set of evening and weekend duties than non-residential faculty (those without campus-provided housing).

Heads of department return to work one week prior to the full faculty and engage in additional professional planning and reflection after the conclusion of the faculty school year.

Base salary will be paid on the faculty payscale and range from $64,480 to $88,400 based on years of relevant experience and highest degree earned. An annual Head of Department stipend of $8,000 is added to the base salary as compensation for the leadership responsibilities. Non-residential faculty are paid an additional $5,000 annual stipend for their performance of residential duties.