The Arizona Animal Welfare League (AAWL) is seeking an empathetic, highly adaptable and collaborative leader to serve as our Director of Community Engagement. They will be responsible for managing new and existing community programs in four key areas: Volunteers, Events, Shelter Intervention & Diversion, and Access to Veterinary Care. The Director will lead and support a growing seven-person team including the Volunteer & Events Manager, Access to Vet Care Manager, Adoption Support Manager, Adoption Support Specialist, and Events Coordinator.
The Director oversees the partnership with the Arizona Pet Project (AZPP) and supervises the contracted part-time social worker supporting diversion and safety-net services. And works collaboratively with all internal departments—including Medical, Intake, Adoptions, Behavior, Marketing, and Operations—to ensure community programs are strategically aligned, responsive to shelter needs, and integrated with organizational priorities.
The Director of Community Engagement operationalizes AAWL’s core values (collaboration, integrity, empathy, and innovation) and advances a positive, inclusive workplace culture by incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles into all aspects of our community-facing work. This position carries a strategic and systems-level lens, ensuring programs are designed, implemented, evaluated, and adapted to meet community needs and long-term organizational goals.
The Director of Community Engagement reports to the VP of Operations and is a key member of AAWL’s Operations Team, linking community resources to shelter operations to ensure pets and the people who love them are supported from intake to adoptions and beyond.
This is a full-time position based in our shelter located near the Phoenix airport on 40th Street and Washington.
Responsibilities
Leadership and Program Design/Implementation
- Apply a strategic, data-informed lens to all program design, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, long-term sustainability, and AAWL’s strategic plan.
- Strengthen cross-departmental collaboration with Medical, Intake, Adoptions, and Behavior to ensure community programs reflect real-time shelter needs, reduce barriers to vet care, and improve outcomes for pets and families.
- Oversee the Shelter Diversion Program’s strategy, workflows, metrics, and evaluation to improve diversion outcomes and expand safety-net support for pet owners.
- Hire, mentor, lead, and support, and 7-person team, including goal setting, performance evaluation and training and development.
- Work closely with the President/CEO and Finance Manager to develop the annual budget for the Community Programs Department.
- Oversee the execution of educational and/or community-focused events, including AAWL’s Walk to Save Animals, to ensure they align with AAWL’s strategic plan.
- Oversee the management of AAWL’s affinity groups, including The P4 Committee, to ensure they align with AAWL’s strategic plan.
- Work with the development department to develop new grant proposals that support our programmatic needs, track grant expenses and deliverables, and participate in the interim/final reports to grantors.
- Represent AAWL in community meetings, including staffing Community of Practice meetings related to our Access to Vet Care Project, and speaking on behalf of AAWL.
Recruiting Volunteers
- Supervise Volunteer & Events Manager and oversee the volunteer recruitment, training, and development efforts to help address organizational needs.
- Embrace conflict by setting positive examples of how to interact and communicate with staff, volunteers, and community members to help create a harmonious shelter environment where we empower staff, volunteers to turn conflict into something positive.
- Work collaboratively with all departments to identify organizational gaps that volunteers can fill and help develop new volunteer programs that integrate volunteers into all aspects of operations.
- Develop new volunteer recruitment strategies that help us accomplish our long-term goals, including recruiting younger volunteers (ages 16-18) to create a pipeline for future AAWL veterinarians, veterinary technicians, or animal welfare leaders.
Shelter Intervention & Diversion
- Oversee the Shelter Diversion Program, ensuring the delivery of comprehensive case management, crisis support, and wrap-around resources that help pet owners keep pets at home whenever safely possible.
- Manage and strengthen AAWL’s partnership with the Arizona Pet Project (AZPP), including supervision of the contracted part-time social worker who provides direct diversion and safety-net support to pet owners.
- Develop and refine diversion protocols that integrate behavior, medical, and social-service support, ensuring that internal workflows across Intake, Adoptions, Behavior, and Medical teams are collaborative and effective.
- Establish strategic goals and tracking systems that measure the reach and effectiveness of diversion services and inform program development.
- Identify, build, and cultivate meaningful relationships with partner organizations, including local middle and high schools, serving community members who live in targeted zip codes near the AAWL shelter to inform students and community members about pet ownership.
- Identify opportunities for staff to participate in events to raise awareness about AAWL programs and services.
- Engage in strategic activities that measurably increase engagement with pet owners (living in communities near the shelter) to build meaningful relationships with community members, raise awareness of AAWL services and provide shelter intervention and case management support to help keep pets with their families.
Providing Affordable, Accessible Vet Care
- Work collaboratively with our Access to Vet Care Manager to execute grant deliverables to eliminate barriers to veterinary care for Latino owners living near the shelter.
- Work collaboratively with the Medical Director, Shelter Medicine team, and Access to Vet Care Manager to ensure families we serve in the community receive coordinated medical support when needed, and that community care, diversion, and medical access programs function as a unified system.
- Work with AAWL leadership team to develop a plan for training staff and volunteers on how to deliver medical services with cultural competency and humility.
- Staff the PetSmart Charities Incubator Grant Cohort focused on how to deliver accessible community-based veterinary care to communities of color and develop a plan to ensure that all AAWL’s community programs align with the recommendations identified in our recent needs assessment (aawl.org/postsurvey) and incorporate best practices, when appropriate for our local community, that are identified as part of the Cohort Project.
Qualifications
- Demonstrated interest in animal welfare issues and commitment to AAWL’s mission.
- Five (5) years of professional experience in a nonprofit environment or a related field with a history of progressive leadership. Minimum of three (3) years of supervisory experience. Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Nonprofit Management, Business Management, or a related field. Combination of relevant education and experience also considered.
- Demonstrated experience evaluating local demographics, interests, and challenges and building new programs that deeply resonate with community members, and gathering and analyzing data through surveys, focus groups, and public forums to ensure initiatives are impactful and reflective of the community’s evolving needs.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain external relationships with local community groups to create mutually beneficial opportunities that enhance AAWL’s mission, goals and community impact. The Director will be expected to effectively negotiate and manage these collaborations to ensure long-term success of AAWL and community.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain internal relationships at AAWL and serve as a key connector between Community Engagement, Medical, Intake, Adoptions, Behavior, Marketing, and Philanthropy to ensure alignment and visibility across all organizational priorities. The Director of Community Engagement will be expected to collaborate with senior leaders to integrate community programming into operational planning, shelter flow strategies, and the organization's long-term vision, and identify gaps and develop cross-functional solutions that improve access to services, reduce shelter intake pressure, and enhance organizational responsiveness to community needs.
- Ability to think strategically, plan long-term, and evaluate programs through a systems-change lens.
- Experience overseeing budgets and managing teams executing grant deliverables across departments.
- Excellent writing and verbal communications skills (in both English and Spanish) required.
- Must be able to work both collaboratively and independently.
- Ability to publicly represent AAWL effectively to a broad range of individuals and organizations at animal welfare conferences, board meetings, donor events, and community, coalition and funder meetings.
- Strong work ethic and the ability to interact effectively with staff, volunteers, and community members from divergent geographical and socioeconomic backgrounds.
To Apply for This Position
Please submit a cover letter, resume, and three professional references (with contact details) to anavidad@aawl.org with the subject line Director of Community Engagement to Alessandra Navidad, President/CEO. No phone calls or walk-ins, please. AAWL is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals.
Employment Details
- Salary is $90,800 and negotiable based on relevant experience.
- Generous PTO, sick leave, and 12 paid holidays annually.
- 100% employer-paid medical and life insurance; dental, vision, and supplemental options available.
- Employer-supported professional development.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
- Eligible employer under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program.
