Director of Scholarships

This is a remote position.

Director of Scholarships

Description

The Director of Scholarships plays a critical role in National Medical Fellowships’ efforts to create opportunities for students in health care to achieve their academic and career goals free from financial constraints. This role requires experience in scholarship or financial aid administration, preferably in higher education, to include the management and distribution of scholarships, tuition modeling and discounting, grant reconciliation and best practices in scholarship applications, review and awarding.

Responsibilities

• Design and manage scholarship application and selection processes that adhere to scholarship and financial aid best practices, reduce barriers for applicants, and allow for data-informed scholarship review, award disbursement and participant tracking.
  
• Provide accurate and efficient scholarship processing, operations and customer service while ensuring compliance with all grant requirements and donor restrictions, relevant regulations and organizational policies and procedures.
  
• Serve as the first or lead reviewer for multiple scholarships, selecting and managing secondary reviewers as needed.
  
• Manage the scholarship awarding process, working closely with Finance on award disbursements, and regularly reconcile student records and payments.
  
• Work closely with the Chief Operating Officer and other stakeholders to pilot new need-based scholarships for tuition-based programs.
  
• Manage relationship with NMF’s scholarship platform vendor. Evaluate effectiveness of scholarship platform, provide recommendations to improve the scholar and staff experience, and lead efforts to integrate the scholarship data with other systems in NMF.
  
• Monitor and evaluate scholarship program effectiveness, including the analysis of scholar outcomes, grant compliance, budget adherence and stakeholder satisfaction. Provide regular and ad hoc reporting for grant reconciliation, donor and grantor stewardship, and NMF’s marketing and communication needs.
  
• Establish and maintain strong data and privacy controls, particularly related to highly sensitive or personally identifiable student information. Work closely with the Director of IT to ensure compliance with NMF’s organization-wide data policies.
  
• Collaborate with the marketing and communications team on the planning and implementation of outreach campaigns across media platforms in order to promote scholarship opportunities.
  
• Communicate with prospective applicants, scholarship recipients and donors by email, phone, online or other means regarding scholarship opportunities, requirements and deadlines. Answer questions and serve as a resource for scholars.
  
• Collaborate with NMF’s Development team, members of the Programs team and the Senior Leadership Team to cultivate and steward relationships with potential donors and grantors and help secure or renew scholarships funding.
  
• Other responsibilities as assigned.
  

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s degree strongly preferred.
  
• Minimum of 7-10 years of related experience. Experience in scholarship or financial aid administration in a higher education institution preferred.
  
• Demonstrated success in managing multiple and/or high volume scholarships.
  
• Strong knowledge of scholarship trends and best practices.
  
• Experience with tuition modeling and discounting.
  
• Experience in budget forecasting, grant compliance and financial reconciliation for scholarships.
  
• Understanding of data collection, data privacy and data reporting as it relates to scholarships.
  
• Experience building or transitioning scholarship platforms and integrating data between platforms is a plus
  
• Experience in outreach and recruitment for scholarship applications preferred.
  
• Exceptional leadership, communication, strategic planning, and interpersonal skills.
  
• Ability to innovate in order to meet the changing needs of NMF and its scholars and alumni.
  
• Willingness to travel as needed.
  

Benefits

This position carries a generous benefits package, including paid time off; medical, dental and vision benefits; LTD; STD; Life Insurance; and 401K matching plan.