Job Opportunity | Director, Kochhar Humanist Education Center

Director, Kochhar Humanist Education Center
American Humanist Association

Job Type: Full-time, senior leadership
Reports To: Executive Director
Direct Reports: One full-time Program Coordinator, several contract instructors, and likely a summer intern
Location: Remote OK, DC-based candidates have the opportunity to work hybrid from our office
Compensation: $85-120k DOE, plus excellent benefits, flexible hours, and generous PTO (more below)
Start Date: August 2026 (negotiable)
To Apply: Submit a resume and answer the short answer questions at this link by 3/9

Who You Are:

You’re an educator and a humanist, and you’ve never been able to separate the two. You believe that learning — real learning, the kind that changes how people see themselves and each other — is a fundamentally humanist act. You’ve spent your career helping adults grow into leaders, and you’ve got strong opinions about what makes education transformative versus what makes it a credential factory.

You’ve probably worked in divinity schools, seminaries, chaplaincy programs, or humanist communities wishing they were bolder and more ambitious — or worked in secular education and organizing spaces wishing they cared more about meaning, purpose, and the whole person.You’re a builder.

The idea of inheriting a respected program with decades of history and the freedom to reimagine it for a new era makes your heart race. You want to train the next generation of humanist chaplains, celebrants, and community leaders — and you want those leaders to be so good they make people rethink everything they thought they knew about what it means to be nonreligious.

You’d rather take a big swing and miss than aim low; change the world or go down in flames trying. You’re an ambitious visionary who executes relentlessly, looking for a workplace that matches your energy while you’re on the clock and respects your boundaries when you’re off the clock.

Does that sound like you? Good. We’ve been waiting.

Who We Are:

Hi! Nice to meet you. We’re the American Humanist Association.

Humanists believe in people. We believe that people have inherent worth and dignity, without needing to be saved or redeemed. We believe that people can do anything as long as we live in a society where people are free to think freely and pursue rational truth. And we believe the highest good is to help other people live lives of freedom and flourishing.

Humanists have always moved America. Kristen Bell, Gloria Steinem, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Steve Wozniak, Joyce Carol Oates, A. Philip Randolph, John Dewey, Margaret Atwood, Abraham Maszlow, Jamie Raskin – these are some of the American visionaries whose humanism led them to envision new frontiers for advancing human worth and dignity.

For over 80 years, the AHA has been the epicenter of the humanist movement. We promote humanism as a community and worldview that “nothing in particular,” “spiritual but not religious,” atheist, and agnostic folks can belong to, believe in, and fight for. We fight the radical religious right in the courts, Congress, and the streets, organizing our thousands of members and 230+ chapters nationwide to fight for the separation of church and state, make the moral case for progressive public policy, and take direct action to improve their communities. We train hundreds of secular chaplains and celebrants who perform marriages and work in hospitals, college campuses, and prisons.

And we’ve got hella work to do.

The Role:

You’ll be leading a team that is responsible for shaping and delivering the message of humanism. You’ll train and develop the leaders who shape the future of the humanist movement – from chaplains to celebrants to leaders of humanist organizations – and advancing public understanding of humanism as a belief system.

The AHA’s Kochhar Center for Education, formerly the Humanist Institute, has been led for nearly 30 years by Education Director Kristin Wintermute, who is retiring. Kristin will be staying on part-time through the end of 2026 to support a strong transition of institutional memory and processes. Given the transition timeline and staff schedules, our goal is to identify the next leader for the Center in March and have them start their work in August, though a somewhat later start date is negotiable.

As the staff leader of the Kochhar Center for Education and The Humanist Society, AHA’s religious c3 arm that trains and certifies humanist clergy, you and your team will:

Direct the Kochhar Center’s graduate-level Humanist Studies Program, recruiting faculty and students, support curriculum and syllabus development, managing alumni relationships and supporting their success, and managing relationships with seminary partners
Direct the finalization and launch of a Clinical Pastoral Education program for humanist chaplains, housed within the Humanist Studies Program
Lead and grow the Humanist Society, an adjunct organization of the AHA and a religious c3 that certifies chaplains and celebrants, managing all aspects of recruitment, certification, and professional development
Collaborating with our communications and organizing teams to increase the visibility of humanist leaders (in particular Humanist Society endorsees and Humanist Studies Program graduates) and connect them to relevant opportunities in advocacy, speaking, and community leadership
Manage and promote AHA’s new and expanded humanist education offerings for children and families, supporting the growing community of parents raising kids without religion to build strong humanist values, encouraging the adoption of the Ten Commitments framework for humanist values, and exploring the development of humanist life reflection and coming of age ceremonies
Manage and expand AHA’s library of digital courses in humanism, including the dissemination of our newest video-based course, Humanism 101, and our Online Studies Program
Lead the development and implementation of innovative efforts to improve public understanding of humanism and train leaders in the humanist movement, including exploring programming related to humanist field education and campus chaplaincy
Collaborate with partners in the global humanist movement and adjacent values-aligned communities to share best practices and advance joint education efforts
Serve as the staff liaison to our academic journal, publishing imprint, and Institute for Humanist Studies

Requirements:

Non-negotiable

Ambitious and driven: You dream big for yourself and the places you work for, aiming high, working hard, and always asking “What can we do better?”
Intrepid and fearless: You’re comfortable with failure, unafraid of rejection, and always up to (thoughtfully, strategically) court a little controversy.
Creative and visionary: You see possibilities others don’t, aren’t afraid of divergent thinking, and are described as “bursting with ideas”
An exceptional writer, skilled at distilling complex concepts for a broad audiences
Strong project management skills, able to hold lots of moving pieces in your head at once, prioritize, and keep things from falling through the cracks
Highly skilled at inspiring and motivating others
Able to move seamlessly from big ideas to bold action. You have a high output and finish what you start
Deep understanding of humanism and religious humanism in particular. Participation, leadership, and relationships in humanist spaces is a prerequisite for this role
Experience successfully developing and managing adult education programs
An M.Div. or other graduate degree, with advanced coursework in the study of humanism and related fields

Super Helpful, A Big Plus

(The successful applicant will absolutely have some, but likely not all, of these):

Experience as a humanist celebrant/chaplain (or both), particularly experience with clinical pastoral care and education
Experience developing curriculum and programs for children and families
Experience with congregational humanism, understanding the role that humanist leaders can play in growing a strong, nurturing, active community in physical and digital spaces
Experience managing teams to meet ambitious goals

Nice To Have, But Not Necessary

Strong speaking ability, experience as a public-facing communicator or willingness to learn (we recognize that many great leaders do not love being in front of a camera)
Experience with/understanding of nonprofit fundraising
Experience with/connection to the Unitarian Universalist movement
Experience developing, delivering, and/or marketing mass open online courses
Interest in policy and advocacy, and a clear theory of how humanist chaplains and celebrants can fit into the AHA’s advocacy work

Compensation:

Salary

We’re a smallish nonprofit that likes to punch above our weight. We are committed to compensating our team competitively relative to market salaries for nonprofit organizations of our size to attract top talent.

Our Director salary band is $85,000-$120,000, depending on experience, with new hires most likely to start in the $85,000-$100,000 range.

Benefits

We offer generous benefits, including:

Fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance, and the option to enroll dependents with the AHA covering 50% of the premium
403b plan – and we’ll match your contributions up to 3% of your salary
Fully employer-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance, and life insurance
Partial cell phone reimbursement ($45/month) and, for fully remote employees, partial home internet reimbursement ($65/month)
Flexible Spending Account and pre-tax commuter benefits available
Professional development budget available

PTO

We want you to work hard on the clock and have plenty of flexibility to live a full life off of it. In general, we tend to be flexible around working arrangements and hours to meet staff needs, but here are our formal policies.

Earned PTO: 18 days PTO in your first year, increasing by one day a year until you reach 25 days.
Holidays: 12 paid holidays, plus the days between December 24th and January 1st.
Flex time: 3 hours of additional “flex time” off each week to schedule as you please, to account for doctor’s appointments, errands, or just starting your weekend a bit early.
Flexible Scheduling: Employees have the freedom to set their own schedule, as long as they’re available/online 40h a week (not counting flex time) and between the hours of 11a-3p EST.
Parental leave: Two months of leave at full pay and an additional month of leave at 75% pay for new parents.
Comp time: Time off is earned on a 1:1 basis for evening and weekend events worked and work travel outside of regular hours. (We anticipate this position will travel 1-2 times a year if based in or near DC, and 3-4 times a year if fully remote.)

Hiring Process:

You can start by applying here.

Please submit applications by March 9th.

We like to share our full hiring process for transparency. However, please note that all parts of this process, including timelines, may change.

Stage 1: Application + Resume (Applications open through March 9th)

All applicants will fill out the hiring application, responding to several short-answer questions and submitting a resume. (No cover letters. Who likes cover letters?)
Responses to short-answer questions will be anonymized and rated by a panel of reviewers. The top 6 candidates, based on scores, will be invited to an interview. We will then review resumes alongside answers and choose 2-6 additional candidates to invite. The goal of this process is to reduce bias while allowing for holistic evaluation of applicants.
All candidates will receive a response regardless of whether or not they are invited to an interview.

Stage 2: First-Round Interviews – 8-12 candidates (Week of March 9th)

Candidates invited to a first-round interview will meet with the Executive Director for a 45-minute video call. This is a mutual interview – we’ll start with any questions you have for us, and then ask questions about your skills, experiences, and interest in the role, so we can both determine if this is a potential fit.
We will let all candidates know about their status after second-round interview offers have been made and accepted.

Stage 3: Second-Round Interviews – 3-6 candidates (Week of March 16th)

Candidates invited to a second-round interview will meet with a small panel of 3-5 AHA staff, including the hiring manager, any staff member who would report into this position, and at least one staff member from a different department who would collaborate with this position. Interviews will last an hour and focus on scenario-based questions (“Tell us about a time you…” “Tell us how you would go about…” “What would you do if…”). Interviews will last an hour. You may also be asked to meet separately with the hiring manager for a brief follow-up.
We will invite 2-3 candidates for final interviews and a paid work test. We will let all candidates know about their status after finalist interview offers have been made and accepted.

Stage 4: Paid Work Sample – likely 2-3 candidates (Week of March 23rd)

Candidates selected for the final round of the hiring process will be asked to complete a paid work sample – a defined piece of work product relevant to the responsibilities and goals of the position – and then revise it based on feedback.
We will pay applicants an hourly rate for their time spent on this work sample (up to an agreed-upon number of hours), based on the advertised salary range for the role.
You’ll have the chance to meet with the hiring manager and ask questions prior to starting the work sample and at any time during the process – this is meant to simulate what it would be like for us to work together! These meetings will also be a time for us to ask each other any final questions, and it’s possible we’ll pull in other team members.
We will make an offer to our top candidate, and let other candidates know their status once it has been accepted.