Director of Wellness at Boston University Hillel

Boston, MA, United States

Role Overview

Make your mark on Jewish student life by joining Boston University Hillel as its first-ever Director of Wellness. This is a big, exciting job for BU Hillel, delivering impact to 6,000 Jewish students. This senior position will be in charge of 1) developing and implementing the plan for wellness programming, training, and engagement 2) building relationships across campus to become intertwined with campus partners in the areas of wellness, mental health, and counseling. This professional will partner with BU Hillel leadership to install a wellness strategy at one of the world’s largest Hillels. This will include priorities such as: wellness focused retreats, Jewish learning wellness classes, student-led wellness education events/programming, and more. Each part of what we do will be woven into the ecosystem of wellness by having this content expert on our team. We welcome candidates who are thirsty for being in relationship with Jewish people. If you’re team-oriented, never give up, and truly believe that you must “be the change you wish to see in the world,” then this is the position for you! This position reports to the Executive Director. BU Hillel is a Zionist organization that is focused on putting students in relationship with the state, land, and peoples of Israel. With the current ongoing crisis in Israel, we are focused more than ever on fighting hate and antisemitism.

What You’ll Do

Build meaningful relationships with BU students oriented toward wellness impact and deepened involvement in Jewish life.

Guide and empower student leaders and interns to develop and lead meaningful wellness programming based on their peers’ needs and interests.

Create strategies with students and colleagues to expand wellness programming while infusing well-being curriculum into current Jewish life experiences at BU Hillel, with a global view toward offerings supporting physical, emotional, and mental health.

Connect students with campus and community resources including BU Behavioral Health services to support their social, emotional, physical and environmental concerns. Identify and strengthen student support networks via family, friends, and university resources.

Collaborate with on-campus partners to advocate and promote campus wellness including the BU Dean of Students, BU Behavioral Medicine, BU Well-Being Project, BU Sexual Assault and Response Prevention Team, BU Office of Religious Life, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, and more.

Provide training and consultation to BU Hillel colleagues, building a unified culture on our team and equipping our staff to offer appropriate student support.

Wellness-Informed Student Engagement, Jewish Life, and Learning

Meeting with individual or groups of students over coffee or a meal to understand which issues are most important to them and developing a plan of action together.

Supporting Wellness education in our student leadership and JLF cohorts, and supporting cases that need special care and attention.

Hosting a brainstorming session with students or staff in order to develop ideas that fill the gap in Jewish student needs around physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being

Prototyping a new way to consider how Hillel offers well-being and mental health support for students (mentor 5-10 projects per year)

Teaching and facilitating Jewish learning through our award winning Jewish Learning Fellowship classes focused on wellness (teach 2-3 classes per year)

Strengthen and lead student leadership cohorts, such as Care Fellowship

Grow Hillel’s capacity to meet engagement goals through detailed management and analysis of CRM Database focused on understandings and insights around wellness topics

Working Shabbat (monthly), holidays, and otherwise supporting the rest of your Hillel team - some times on nights and weekends.

Staffing short or long term immersive travel experiences from overnight retreats, to service-learning trips, to Israel experiences.

Training, Insights and Partnerships

Designing training curriculum for engagement team staff fellows to understand their student interactions, what’s needed, where this person can step in and takeover and help support the work as a higher level professional

Participating in a team/leadership meeting with BU Dean of Students, BU Behavioral Medicine, BU Well-Being Project, BU Sexual Assault and Response Prevention Team, BU Office of Religious Life, Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, and more.

Driving user insights while meeting with students, while helping them imagine and design wellness programs and offerings for students on campus.

Meeting with a BU Hillel senior staff to discuss what is needed from students and developing an action plan for the month ahead

Drive key insights on graduate student engagement and population for further growth of the program

What You’ll Get Out of It

High-level professional development to help develop core skills and gain expertise from changemakers, engagers, and Jewish life experts.

Mentoring and career coaching to help you during and after your position

A network of terrific colleagues from across BU and the Hillel movement.

Exposure to and partnerships with highly trained and seasoned mental health professionals across BU’s 30,000 student campus

Travel opportunities, both domestically and internationally, multiple times per year.

A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, Tax Deferred Retirement Plan, Life, AD&D and Long Term Disability insurances, Flexible Spending Plan, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.

A salary of $60,000-$70,000 depending on level of experience.

Who You Are

We are most interested in someone who is organized, driven, and mission focused. The most important experience we are looking for is the ability to be a Jewish leader, organize people and projects, and the ability to inspire commitment and action. In terms of prerequisite requirements, we are open to candidates with the following:

Strong entrepreneurial spirit, a willingness to take risks and learn from your wins as well as your losses.

Capacity to create space for a diversity of perspectives and allow all student voices to be heard.

Strong relationship building skills and accessibility to students from diverse backgrounds.

A desire to support students in their time of greatest need.

Experience training or empowering college students to design opportunities to promote social, emotional, or physical well-being.

An attitude of proactive communication and collaboration.

Expertise in leading complex conversations around mental health and wellness.

A commitment to Jewish pluralism.

Additionally, we are looking for:

A graduate-level degree in social work or other related field including, but not limited to: psychology, public health, etc.

At least 3-5 years of post-graduate work experience in a related field.

Prior experience working with college students.

Previous program planning or training session development and facilitation experience.

About Boston University Hillel

Boston University Hillel is at the hub of a thriving city of Boston, right near Fenway Park. Home to 4,000 Jewish undergraduates and 2000 graduate students, BU Hillel’s mission is to inspire, educate, and empower BU students to lead meaningful and joyous Jewish lives. Boston is a vital center for Jewish and young adult and family life. More than ever students need us, and we need to stand with them and to stand with Israel. Here are a few key resources and videos we are sharing with our community:

Israel in Crisis Campus Plan

Israel in Crisis Educational Resources

Standing in Solidarity with Israel Video (Vigil and Shabbat w/ 9 BU Deans)

BU students sing Hatikvah at BU Hillel Shabbat

Israel Solidarity Vigil Recap

Antisemitism Reporting Database

Boston University Hillel is affiliated with Hillel International. Hillel International enriches the lives of Jewish students so they may enrich the Jewish people and the world, and envisions a world where every student is inspired to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel.

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