Senior Fellow, Greening America’s Cities Initiative | January – December 2025
About MPC
Dedicated to shaping a better, bolder, more equitable future for everyone, Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) believes that every community is valued. Every person has a voice. And every neighborhood thrives. Since 1934, this independent, nonpartisan organization has served metropolitan Chicago’s communities and residents to change perceptions, reimagine conversations, and defy the status quo. Through thoughtful collaboration with local communities, businesses, and governments, MPC is a bold change-maker, addressing the region’s toughest planning and development challenges. We believe that strong partnerships rooted in respect and trust are critical to creative and effective problem-solving.
MPC is a values-driven workplace, and we are seeking to expand our team. Successful team members are curious and collaborative with effective communication and project management skills who recognize the connections between our core areas of work and seek to affect meaningful change. Central to living our values is embracing MPC’s organizational commitment to an anti-racist, anti-oppressive workplace, and centering equity in strengthening our internal policies and practices.
The Position:
July 17th, 2023: The Bezos Earth Fund announced a $400 million commitment to enhance green spaces in underserved urban U.S. communities with more parks, trees, and community gardens. The Greening America’s Cities initiative launches with $50 million for urban greening efforts in five cities–Albuquerque, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Wilmington, Delaware–and will expand to new U.S. cities through 2030.
The Greening America’s Cities (GAC) Fellow will provide support to Bezos Earth Fund grantees in Chicago. The purpose of the role is to support grantees to deliver on their project goals and to coordinate GAC communications, events and grants management needs for the Bezos Earth Fund.
This will be accomplished through regular in-person meetings with grantees in Chicago. The desired output of this work is for grantees to have a local resource, problem solver and thought partner to support them in the execution of their goals as defined through the grant agreements with the Earth Fund. The Fellow will also provide regular updates to the Earth Fund Program Lead about events, grant deliverables including challenges and milestones, and opportunities to capture footage and content with grantees.
This role is a limited engagement employment for the 12-month grant period. The fellow will be a full-time, salaried employee of MPC with full benefits. The position will report directly to MPC’s Vice President of Programs & Strategic Impact and will work closely with MPC’s Senior Director to support strategy and relationship building for evolving MPC’s sustainability and environmental justice work.
The ideal candidate:
- Has at least five to seven years of relevant experience and a record of accomplishment leading community-centered initiatives that support healthy and sustainable communities. This includes knowledge and understanding of environmental justice issues, experience working in diverse coalitions and leading capacity building efforts. Strong candidates will have academic and/or professional background or skills in public policy, urban planning, or urban resilience. Knowledge of local and regional actors and institutions in the Chicago region leading equitable community development and/or advocacy efforts is a plus.
- Has experience leading diverse teams and managing workflow process to ensure project deliverables are met. Has strong project management and communication skills and brings a strong equity lens to their work. The Senior Fellow is a relationship builder who can cultivate and maintain strategic relationships with colleagues, partner organizations, and funders. They should have the ability to articulate MPC’s work to external parties, identify and leverage intersections across issue areas, work in diverse coalitions, and engage in problem-solving and consensus-building on challenging issues with stakeholders ranging from heads of government to community residents.
Core duties include:
- Organize convenings and trainings identified by grantees.
- Serve as liaison and relationship manager in Chicago for Greening America’s Cities.
- Design and deliver a local GAC communications strategy in consultation with Earth Fund grantees and with support from the Earth Fund and a communications firm as defined by the Earth Fund.
- Facilitate effective delivery of technical support to Chicago area grantees by the Earth Fund’s national experts, and others as appropriate.
- Explore and advance public and philanthropic funding opportunities for grantees.
- Facilitate grantee engagement with elected officials at the local, state, and national level in support of grantee project delivery working in collaboration, where appropriate, with the Urban Sustainability Directors Network.
- Support Earth Fund grantees to develop a shared vision for the GAC initiative.
- Build systems to ensure active information sharing between grantees in Chicago and across the other GAC cities, identifying, where possible common areas of interest for cutting-edge implementation, policy options and/or collaborative problem-solving.
MPC seeks an individual who thrives in a collegial work environment and can manage multiple priorities. Given the nature of our work and the demands associated with remote and social-distanced working models, the Fellow will need to be a nimble and creative team member with the emotional intelligence, compassion, patience, sense of humor, and interpersonal communication skills to test and embrace new ways of working.
How to apply:
Please submit the following materials:
1) A cover letter articulating your specific interest in the role and what you will bring to it and a short and relevant writing sample
2) Your résumé; or CV
Compensation and Benefits:
Salary Range: Up to $170,000