Federal Programs Director Jobs in Kentucky (NOW HIRING)

Location : Berea
Job Type: Full-Time
Division: Strategic Initiatives
Department: Emerging Scholars Program
Opening Date: 06/16/2026
FLSA: Exempt
Salary Grade: 10
Labor Supervisor?: Yes
Please note that references provided at the time of application for staff positions will not be contacted until the applicant has been offered the position.
Description:
The Director of the Office of Emerging Scholars, housed within The NEST: Student Success Central, is a key leadership position and reports directly to the Executive Director of Student Success This role provides strategic leadership, vision, and oversight for the financial, personnel, and operational management of the TRIO Student Support Services grant, ensuring compliance, effectiveness, and alignment with institutional student success goals. In addition, the Director maintains a caseload of students, leading them in at least one section of the First-Year Summit and providing direct support, advising, and engagement to promote persistence, academic achievement, and degree completion.
Following long-standing tradition and practice at Berea College, this position includes responsibility for supervising, mentoring, and developing students in the College's integrated Work College Program. This supports student learning, career readiness, and the program's learning goals and outcomes. The Work College Program provides a developmental framework that guides student learning while creating a structured mentorship opportunity, with role-specific training that equips faculty and staff mentors to support student development. Faculty and staff mentors play an essential part in helping students connect their work-learning-service experiences with broader academic, professional, and personal development. For faculty, this aligns with Berea's tenure and promotion criteria.
Your Key Responsibilities:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Regular and predictable attendance is essential. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Coordinate and supervise the design and delivery of academic activities and programs to Emerging Scholars participants
• Lead at least one section of the First-Year Summit
• Maintain a caseload of students and provide them with advising, direct support, and engagement to promote persistence, academic achievement, and degree completion
• Develop partnerships with faculty, staff, and departments
• Effectively manage relationships with all levels of College staff
• Handle multiple responsibilities and meet multiple deadlines in an organized and detailed fashion
• Maintain confidential information
• Communicate effectively with a wide range of individuals and constituencies
• Synthesize and analyze information and data to ensure continuous improvement of grant management and program delivery
• Develop, document, and implement standard procedures for completing advanced administrative tasks
• Design, document, and implement particular recruitment, identification, and selection plans
• Manage project timelines, priorities, and meet deadlines
• Supervise and train assigned staff including organizing, prioritizing, and scheduling work assignments
• Perform program assessments using both qualitative and quantitative data to draw conclusions based on outcomes
• Prepare comprehensive project reports for diverse audiences and purposes
• Work as a team member and foster a cooperative work environment
• Assume Labor supervision responsibility for the Emerging Scholars Program to build a dynamic "peer supplemental advising" structure in support of the goals and responsibilities of these areas.
• Ensure that student workers are trained consistently in College academic policies to support their work with their peers on satisfactory academic progression, curriculum planning, registration support, and other related needs.

Other roles/duties will be assigned as necessary to assist the College in the attainment of the goals set forth and the enhancement of a positive, respectful learning environment for all staff, faculty and students.
What You'll Bring:
Education required to ensure success in this position:

• Bachelor's degree in higher education, college student personnel, educational leadership or a related field required
• Master's degree in higher education, college student personnel, educational leadership or a related field preferred

Experience required to ensure success in this position:

• At least three years of experience in student success management and programming, particularly related to removing barriers faced by low-income and first-generation students
• At least three years of experience with federal grants, budgeting, reporting, grant writing, project implementation, and project evaluation.
• At least two years of supervisory experience

Special skills, knowledge and abilities:

• Significant experience in student success program planning, coordination, and evaluation
• Knowledge of academic and career advising principles, techniques, and procedures
• Excellent attention to detail, including experience in federal grant compliance and budget management
• Demonstrated aptitude for analyzing data and applying findings to direct the program, set goals, and make program projections
• Excellent oral/written communication
• Superior interpersonal skills with the ability to work collegially and collaboratively in a team setting
• Strong organizational skills and capacity to set priorities
• Computer skills including data processing and financial spreadsheets
• Ability to maintain confidentiality

License, certification, or registration necessary:

• Valid driver's license
• Required background checks

Physical requirements:

• Ability to navigate campus/public buildings and grounds
• Ability to travel by car and/or plane
• Ability to occasionally lift up to 20 lbs.

Environmental conditions:

• Professional office environment with interruptions and noise due to frequent visitors, students, staff and faculty
• Occasional travel required for meetings, conferences, etc.

Ability to operate the following vehicles or equipment:

• Standard office equipment: computer, fax, phone, etc.
• Vehicle - college vans/cars

Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 46 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them with a no-tuition promise. Berea's students excel in the College's supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only ten federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students are expected to work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2025. Washington Monthly has named Berea College the #1 Best College in the nation in its 2025 College Guide. Berea College appears in their rankings as #1 College (overall): Best College for your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars, #1 Best-in Class College, #1 Liberal Arts College and #1 Best Bang for the Buck Southern College.
Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at
Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.
Berea College is always looking for talented, self-motivated individuals to join our team. If you think you are ready to be a part of an exciting team, then we encourage you to continue with this applicant friendly, online job application!
Berea College is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.
Our Benefits:
Berea College offers a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees and their families including health care, dental, vision, retirement, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability and an Employee Assistance Program. The benefit package also includes access to the for children of College Staff, ages 6 weeks to 6 years, Membership, Staff Development Funds and Tuition Reimbursement.
Eligible staff employees also receive paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave.
Part-time employees who work an average of twenty-four hours per week over the course of a year, receive benefits on a pro-rated basis.
To learn more details, visit our benefits page at
Our Unique Culture:
Berea College strives to be a place where people with various Christian interpretations, different religious traditions, and no religious traditions work together in support of
Over the past century, various leaders of the College have applied the College's inclusive scriptural foundation and spirit to their expanding world and welcomed those whose beliefs were consistent with the Christian gospel of impartial love. Therefore, Berea College today affirms its inclusive Christian tradition even as it respects the traditions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, as well as other faiths, and those holding no religious beliefs. We strive not to ignore our differences, but rather seek to understand each other honestly and respectfully, and together create a climate where anyone can openly discuss what they believe without fear of sanction. To that end, all persons who are willing to share in the spirit and the work of the Great Commitments as shaped by its preamble are welcome to study, to teach, and to work at Berea
Labor Supervision:
In support of Berea College's great commitments, staff and faculty serve as labor supervisors. Our fourth great commitment, The Dignity of Labor, promotes learning and serving in community through the student Labor Program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done. Student Labor Supervision includes scheduling, assigning, and approving student work, developing students' workplace acumen, and providing tangible work experience. To learn more about the labor program office please see the following link