Academic Coordinator position for Cultivado Lideres at UC Santa Cruz

 In 2023, UC Santa Cruz and our partners at Hartnell College, Cabrillo College, and the Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), were awarded a $10 million "NextGen" grant by the USDA-NIFA for our project: Cultivado Líderes: a Regional Partnership for Training and Serving Diverse Students in Agroecology, Justice, and Equity. We are now hiring an academic coordinator! Application review begins January 5, 2026.

Among other the things, the academic coordinator will:

• Support the advising and training of NextGen PhD students, which includes community-engaged methodologies and research ethics.
• Engage undergraduate and graduate students in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) research opportunities in Watsonville.
• Work closely with faculty and develop internships at multiple levels of expertise, offering a scaffolded, developmentally appropriate set of experiential learning pathways for student interns supported by the NextGen grant.
• Collaborate with Calabasas Elementary School Principal Todd Westfall and the Garden Site Council of staff and gardeners on programmatic envisioning and implementation at Calabasas Community Garden in Watsonville.
• Support the project’s quantitative and qualitative data collection efforts and related writing that documents the activities and impact of the NextGen grant activities, whether for grant proposals, project reports, presentations, or papers.
• Communicate with and act as a liaison between the Environmental Studies Department, the Center for Agroecology, Calabasas Community Garden, and the NextGen Project Director and co-Project Director team.
• Expand community partnerships in Watsonville to include groups such as United Farm Workers, El Pajaro Community Development Corporation, Barrios Unidos, Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture, and others.
• Assist in undergraduate outreach across campus to recruit students for NextGen opportunities.

The coordinator will work under the supervision of Dr. Stacy Philpott and will join the UCSC Environmental Studies department.

Application Window

• Open date: November 21, 2025
• Next review date: Monday, Jan 5, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.
• Final date: Friday, Jan 30, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)  Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Apply here: https://recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF02013

Please share this opportunity with anyone whom you think might flourish in this position, and thank you!