Executive Director

Medicine Bowl Giving Circle (Medicine Bowl or MB) is seeking a visionary, collaborative, and experienced leader to become its Executive Director to move forward the organization and its BIPOC-led land-based strategy for liberation.

Medicine Bowl is a constellation of movement organizers, farmers, and land stewards who are on a mission to nourish, feed, house & build alternative infrastructures for their communities and themselves. Nestled on 142 acres of land in the Green Mountains of Western North Carolina, Medicine Bowl is a home and a hub for healing and movement building in the South.

Our work is focused primarily on building power, resilience, and healing with, and for, communities of color -- particularly Black and Indigenous peoples of this land: the Lumbee, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee. The political climate demands that we provide sanctuary and respite for our movement organizers that have, and continue to, lead the way as capitalism crumbles and climate disaster multiplies.

The Executive Director will work with board, staff, neighbors, and community to activate and guide Medicine Bowl’s long term vision, strategies, and key tactics, including:

• Harriet Tubman Survival School (HTSS): HTSS is an immersive program designed to train BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) organizers in land-based survival skills, healing modalities, and emergency preparedness techniques.
• Residential Program: Medicine Bowl has a thriving residential community of queer, trans, and non-binary Black, Indigenous, People of Color individuals and families (currently 3 residents). Residents share in the stewarding, maintenance, and overall caretaking of Medicine Bowl grounds, buildings, and barns, including their living quarters and common areas within.
• Giving Circle: We believe in alternative and solidarity economies, which require us to share financial, technical, and cultural resources to land based communities within our networks based in NC, SC, VA, WVA, TN, KY, MS, AL, MS, LA, and South Africa.
• Convening Space & Programming: Medicine Bowl is a place for BIPOC and rural white folks to access land, animals, food, clean water, and meeting space for ritual, work, and retreat.
• Disaster Preparedness via Resiliency Hub: Especially in the devastating wake of Hurricane Helene on Asheville and the surrounding areas, we must equip Medicine Bowl to be a hub for disaster relief so we can do the tending to our people that State and Federal institutions leave behind. By partnering with comrades from across the south we are better positioned to prepare, prevent, respond, and mitigate the harms of climate change while being interconnected to other southern resiliency hubs.

Medicine Bowl is a sustainable living practice space. We are actively and intentionally living out our organizing principles, which require us to be in right relationship with the land and one another - the Executive Director must embody and model their understanding of this primary value while navigating Medicine Bowl’s day to day.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Planning & Leadership: Shapes and implements Medicine Bowl Giving Circle long term strategy; ensures programs and services are relevant and responsive to the needs of BIPOC communities and the current time/place, by engaging in consistent, thoughtful, and timely planning to support implementation of practical strategies and tactics that ensure growth of an enduring and sustainable organization.
• Team Management & Development: The Executive Director will manage all aspects of day-to-day operations, including direct supervision of a team of 3-4 while evaluating capacity needs and creating a staffing plan including effective systems of communication, support/development, celebration, and accountability that promote organizational growth and stability.
• Resource Mobilization: The Executive Director will work with the board to create and implement a multi-year development plan that ensures the organization's financial stability long term. This includes the work to build connection and relationship between Medicine Bowl and its neighbors and communities.
• Operations, Finance, & Compliance: The Executive Director will ensure timely compliance with all funder, state and federal guidelines. They are responsible for implementation of systems to hold all aspects of the operations, finance, people, and culture functions. They manage the organization's budget and ensure organizational resources are in the best interest of the whole.
• Risk Management: Identifying potential risks to the organization (financial, reputational, operational) and developing strategies to mitigate them.
• Evaluation and Impact: Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the organization's programs and initiatives. The ED may implement or oversee systems for tracking progress toward strategic goals and outcomes.
• Board Engagement: Maintaining a strong relationship with the board of directors, providing regular updates, and seeking guidance and support. Work with the board to recruit and develop board members.

This role will start as part-time (20 hours per week) and may increase to full-time as dictated by work progress and funding.

Working & Living at Medicine Bowl

It is intended that the Executive Director be a primary member of Medicine Bowl's residential community and if hired full-time, this will be mandatory. For the first six months of employment, the Executive Director is expected to spend time on the land in Green Mountain, North Carolina, not including any additional programs, services, or team/staff meetings as follows:

• 1-90 days (3 months) | A minimum of 2 full business days per month, and
• 91 - 180 days (6 months) | A minimum of 2 full business days and one weekend per month.

Required Qualifications

• 8 years leadership and management experience in land projects, farming, hospitality/facilities management, teaching/training/development, social justice, operations, finance, people and culture, or other people/community centered roles.
• 2 years experience in fundraising, development, or resource mobilization.
• Demonstrated commitment to centering and championing BIPOC, LGBTQ, women, and femme folks and communities.
• Desire to build and live within a diverse intergenerational, connected, and self sustaining community.
• Adequate fitness level and physical ability (with reasonable accommodation) to:
  • learn the curriculum for Harriet Tubman Survival School and successfully lead future cohorts.
  • participate in practical (daily/seasonal) maintenance and upkeep of Medicine Bowl land and properties, including living quarters.
• Deep connection and respect for life, community, and nature.
• Experience and commitment to rural life.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally.
• Exceptional communication skills.

Must be willing to relocate to Medicine Bowl in Green Mountain, NC within six months if made full-time.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with launching/managing land based strategies or building a diverse intergenerational and self sustaining community.
• Skill or expertise in: camping and/or off-the grid living, First AID or Street Medic, farmer, herbalist, animal husbandry, healing, and/or other life survival skills.
• Current resident of one of our network states: NC, SC, VA, WVA, TN, KY, MS, AL, MS, and LA
• Bilingual

If you do not meet all of the required qualifications, but believe this role is right for you, please apply, but be sure to uplift all experience that align with both our essential and desired qualifications.