Program Associate, Natl Center for Public Lan

About the Position: 

NCPLC is a small, highly productive center within NACo's Research, Policy and Governance Studies team. This full-time position works alongside the NCPLC Director to support its full range of activities, including coordination of events, newsletters and communications, data analysis and visualization, and the drafting, editing, and dissemination of research materials. 

A parallel responsibility is to support the design and dissemination of a curriculum for counties that use multimedia, including video, interactive tools and visual guides, to onboard and train new county officials on public lands issues. The role draws on NACo's full institutional infrastructure, including its communications, IT, member relations and policy teams and its network of nearly 39,000 county officials, while carrying direct, hands-on responsibility for the technical and creative products that define the Center's public-facing work.

This position requires an understanding of federal public lands management, intergovernmental relations and public policy, paired with strong data analysis, research, visualization and digital content development skills.

Position Term: This is a one-year, full-time position with the possibility of renewal based on performance and continued NCPLC organizational needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with the NCPLC Director to conduct literature reviews, case studies and data analyses on key public lands topics.
• Draft primers, explainer series briefs, member alerts and Knowledge Hub content, verifying statutory and regulatory citations against primary government sources prior to publication.
• Examine the roles, responsibilities and interactions among federal, state, tribal and county governments within the public lands intergovernmental system to inform the NCPLC’s research and communications products 
• Coordinate logistics, participant recruitment and content framing for intergovernmental roundtables and conference panels, working with state associations, federal agencies, and county officials to support Center convenings.
• Draft communications, including newsletters, blog posts, explainer articles and webpage updates, to keep county officials and Center stakeholders informed. 
• Coordinate with NACo’s Government Affairs Department as well as directly with federal and state partners to ensure messaging consistency and promote understanding of policy changes impacting public lands counties.
• Analyze federal public lands datasets (PILT, SRS, PAD US, USFS/BLM administrative data) to inform public lands county needs, including wildfire mitigation, county revenue sharing and federal-county collaboration.
• Demonstrated experience cleaning, analyzing and visualizing large longitudinal datasets using statistical software such as Stata, R, Python or similar.
• Track year-over-year trends in federal payment data and land management activity, such as PILT and SRS funding levels and PAD US acreage changes, to identify patterns relevant to public lands counties.
• Collaborate with web developers to create visualization methods and interactive dashboards, such as PILT/SRS payments over time, that convey complex public lands data in formats accessible to county officials and staff.
• Build and maintain documented methodology for the Center's core statistics to ensure figures are defensible for member counties, partners and federal policymakers.
• Develop county-level and state-level data profiles that can be refreshed on a regular cycle.
• Build out the Center's digital content, including infographics, data visualizations and video, for use in reports, social media and the Knowledge Hub.
• Collaborate with NACo’s Public Affairs department to produce and edit video content for the Center's video series, including coordinating filming with county officials, scripting and post-production editing.
• Support and shape content for the Public Lands Knowledge Hub. 
• Support the design of conference session curriculum, including panel structure, learning objectives and pre-session materials, in coordination with the Director.
• Assist in building curriculum modules that use multimedia, including video, interactive tools and visual guides, to train and onboard new county officials and staff on public lands topics, in coordination with the Director.
• Calibrate curriculum for different audiences, including introductory sessions for newly elected commissioners and working sessions for experienced staff.
• Develop structured learning sequences that combine video, written and case study resources into cohesive training tracks rather than standalone materials.
• Coordinate logistics, participant recruitment and content framing for intergovernmental roundtables and conference panels, working with state associations, federal and state agencies and county officials to support NCPLC convenings
• Build dashboards to track progress and report on NCPLC activities.
• Attend weekly public lands office hours, fielding questions and tracking county needs to ensure prompt and accurate responses. 
• Collaborate with the NCPLC Director to manage fundraising plans and coordinate with stakeholders in fundraising activities.
• Support general NCPLC administrative operations, including scheduling, printing, packing and other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in public policy, communications, economics, GIS, environmental management, natural resources or a related field.
• Two or more years of experience combining data analysis with digital content or media production. 
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, carrying a single dataset or policy question through to a finished visualization, video or training module.
• Strong writing, editing and presentation skills, with the discipline to verify claims against primary sources.
• Ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders and work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent research and communications skills to effectively communicate complex data and information in a digestible and accessible format. 

Preferred Competencies and Skills

• Experience with federal public lands or natural resources datasets specifically (PAD US, PILT/SRS payment data, USFS/BLM data).
• Experience building interactive web pages, content hubs and digital experiences for users in partnership with web developers.
• Experience designing curriculum or training materials, particularly for adult learners or newly elected officials.
• Experience using GIS software (ArcGIS) to produce maps of public lands boundaries, land management jurisdiction or habitat connectivity for use in reports and presentations.
• Portfolio demonstrating data visualization work alongside video or multimedia curriculum products.
• Strong understanding of the functions and needs of public lands, counties and local governments.

Location and Travel:
 This position is in Washington, D.C. with a potential option for partial telework. Some travel is required for NACo conferences and state association meetings

 Salary Range: $65,000 - $75,000 commensurate with experience 

Application Procedures:

Interested in joining our team? Apply on our NACo Career Center Page.