Executive Director
Pine Mountain Settlement School
Bledsoe, KY
Full-time
Administration / Clerical
Posted on May 29, 2019
Pine Mountain Settlement School (PMSS), located in Harlan County, Kentucky, announces a search for an Executive Director to lead the hundred-year-old institution. The Search Committee invites both nominations and applications for individuals qualified to lead the school in all aspects of its operations, including its environmental education, Appalachian heritage, and community outreach programs.
Pine Mountain Settlement School's mission is to enrich people and enhance lives through Appalachian place-based education for all ages. Its campus located on the north slope of Pine Mountain, in Harlan County, Kentucky, is designated as a National Historic Landmark. The school employs 20 full-time staff members and utilizes volunteers in its operations and programming.
The Executive Director is appointed by the Board of Trustees and is responsible to the Board for providing strategic leadership for the school's programs, ensuring financial and organizational sustainability, and overseeing daily activities. Candidates should have a degree in an appropriate field; the Search Committee will consider many professional pathways to the Executive Director position, seeking a visionary leader who is grounded in environmental issues and possesses an understanding of public and private education, has strong management skills, and is knowledgeable about the Appalachian region. Strong communication and interpersonal skills as well as respect for diversity and inclusion are also important.
Pine Mountain Settlement School
We are a community non-profit in Harlan County, Kentucky that looks to traditional folkways to create innovative solutions to Appalachia's challenges, while inviting in the broader world to engage and connect to our natural and cultural heritage.
Our Mission
At Pine Mountain Settlement School, our mission is to enrich people and enhance lives through Appalachian place-based education for all ages.
Our Strategy
In carrying out our mission, we take a holistic approach to the stewardship of our natural, agricultural, human and built environment through community development, environmental education, sustainability, and Appalachian cultures and heritage.
Community Development
We are ensuring that our community has access to high-quality early childhood education and healthy, low-cost food options. Our Little School program provides high quality learning experiences that benefit both children and adults. Children learn, explore, socialize, play outdoors, and eat farm-fresh food 3 days per week. In the summer we widen our scope and serve as a USDA summer feeding site. Each summer we provide a healthy and free breakfast and lunch to over 100 unique children. These free programs are overhwelmingly supported by donations.
Environmental Education
We preserve the 800-acre Bickford State Nature Preserve, including removing invasive species and protecting our hemlock trees against woolly adelgid. But we also teach more than 3,000 children each year about our natural resources and how we can better steward them through our daily interactions and choices. We are developing the next generation of conservationists.
Sustainability and Farm
Each year over 80 participants--feeding more than 300 family members--participate in our Farm Institute. Through more than a dozen free workshops, our participants gain organic seeds and gardening supplies as well as practical knowledge on how to maintain their gardens and extend their season. We also helped to launch the first-ever Harlan County Farmer's Market, had the first honey harvest in over 50 years at Pine Mountain, participated in Kentucky's hemp pilot, and have egg-producing chickens in the barn below the Chapel.