Are you the kind of leader who brings out the best in people?
Do you enjoy connecting with others, building strong teams, and creating an environment where people feel supported and valued? Are you patient, dependable, and someone who believes that clear expectations and consistency help people thrive?

We are a mission-driven nonprofit organization seeking an Executive Program Director to lead a residential campus dedicated to supporting girls who have experienced trauma.
This is more than an operational leadership position. It is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference by building relationships, developing a strong team, and creating a safe, structured, and encouraging environment where residents and employees can grow.
We are looking for a leader who is warm and approachable, energized by people, patient under pressure, and committed to doing things the right way.

What You’ll Do
As Executive Program Director, you will serve as the primary leader of the campus and work closely with executive leadership to ensure our programs, people, and daily operations reflect the organization’s mission and trauma-responsive approach.

You will:
• Lead and encourage your team. Coach, develop, recognize, and support employees while establishing clear expectations and accountability.
• Build meaningful relationships. Be visible, approachable, and engaged with employees, residents, families, community partners, and service providers.
• Create consistency and stability. Help maintain a structured, nurturing environment where residents and employees know what to expect and feel supported.
• Champion trauma-responsive care. Promote patience, dignity, compassion, healthy communication, appropriate boundaries, and relationship-centered interactions.
• Stay calm when situations become difficult. Help employees and residents navigate conflict, behavioral escalation, emergencies, and emotionally challenging situations with professionalism and compassion.
• Protect quality and compliance. Ensure campus practices, documentation, training, safety procedures, and resident services meet organizational standards and applicable OKDHS licensing requirements.
• Develop people. Provide regular feedback, coaching, recognition, corrective action, and professional-development opportunities.
• Bring people together. Foster teamwork, communication, accountability, psychological safety, and a shared commitment to the residents we serve.
• Keep the campus prepared. Lead preparation for licensing reviews, audits, inspections, investigations, and corrective-action plans.
• Be part of campus life. Participate in resident activities, campus events, outings, meetings, and programming to build positive relationships and remain connected to day-to-day operations.

The Leader We’re Looking For

The right person for this position understands that strong leadership is about creating trust, providing direction, supporting people, and remaining consistent—even when things get difficult.

You may be a great fit if you:
• Genuinely enjoy working with and encouraging people.
• Are naturally outgoing, approachable, and comfortable communicating with different personalities.
• Are energized by mission-driven, nonprofit work and the opportunity to positively impact the lives of others.
• Build relationships easily while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
• Have the patience to listen, coach, teach, and work through challenges.
• Remain calm and emotionally regulated during stressful situations.
• Believe employees perform best when expectations are clear and leadership is consistent.
• Appreciate policies, procedures, documentation, and established standards.
• Pay attention to details and follow through on commitments.
• Are comfortable holding people accountable while still treating them with dignity and respect.
• Enjoy recognizing others and helping employees develop their skills and confidence.
• Value teamwork and collaboration over ego.
• Understand that consistency, structure, and compliance are especially important in an environment serving young people who have experienced trauma.

We are seeking an experienced leader with a background in a child-serving environment such as residential care, child welfare, behavioral health, social services, education, foster care, shelter services, or a related field.
Experience working within a nonprofit, mission-driven, or community-based organization is strongly valued.

Strong candidates will bring experience in:
• Staff supervision, coaching, and team development.
• Working with children or adolescents who have experienced trauma or significant adversity.
• Trauma-responsive care, de-escalation, behavior support, or crisis intervention.
• Regulatory compliance, licensing, audits, quality assurance, or program operations.
• Building collaborative relationships with multidisciplinary teams and community partners.
• Maintaining accurate documentation and following established policies and procedures.

You should also be comfortable balancing the people side of leadership with the accountability side of leadership—supporting employees while ensuring expectations, safety requirements, documentation, and regulatory standards are consistently met.

Required Education & Experience
To meet applicable OKDHS qualification requirements for this position, candidates must meet one of the following:
Bachelor’s Degree
A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, including at least nine college credit hours in family focus, individual function and interaction, child development, sociology, social work, or a closely related subject, plus at least 36 months of children’s services experience;
OR
Master’s Degree
A master’s degree in social work, psychology, guidance and counseling, sociology, child development, human relations, behavioral science, or a closely related field, plus at least 24 months of children’s services experience;
OR
Doctorate
A doctorate in medicine, social work, psychology, guidance and counseling, sociology, child development, human relations, or a closely related field, plus at least 12 months of children’s services experience.
Qualifying children’s services experience may include work in educational programs, child welfare agencies, child-serving institutions, child-placing agencies, foster family homes, hospitals, or mental-health treatment programs serving children.

Additional Requirements
Candidates must be able to satisfy applicable OKDHS personnel eligibility and background requirements and successfully complete required employment screening.
The position also requires:
• Current CPR and First Aid certification or the ability to obtain certification within the required timeframe.
• Completion of required orientation, training, and ongoing professional development.
• A valid Oklahoma driver license, acceptable driving record, and insurability when driving is an assigned responsibility.
• The ability to work a schedule that may occasionally include evenings, weekends, holidays, on-call responsibilities, or extended hours based on campus needs.

What Success Looks Like Here
Success in this position means creating an environment where people feel supported and expectations remain clear.
Employees know their leader will listen, communicate, coach, and follow through. Residents experience dignity, patience, consistency, and compassion. Policies and licensing requirements are taken seriously. Problems are addressed rather than avoided.
As part of a nonprofit organization, success also means understanding that our mission is at the center of our work. Every decision, interaction, and leadership choice should contribute to creating a safe, stable, and nurturing environment for the girls we serve.

If you are a people-centered leader who combines compassion with consistency, patience with accountability, and positive energy with strong attention to standards, we would welcome the opportunity to learn more about you.