Fungus Conservation Coordinator
The Indianapolis Zoological Society (IZS) is one of the largest privately funded zoos in the United States of America. The mission of IZS is to empower people and communities, both locally and globally, to advance animal conservation. IZS works to achieve this mission through visitation by over one million guests each year, annual support to many field conservation projects, and the world-renowned Indianapolis Prize. IZS has a monumental goal for its community, state, country and the world - to transform the Indiana community into the most conservation-literate community in the world, with Indianapolis being considered the epicenter for species conservation worldwide.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has a mission to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable; The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is one of IUCN's seven volunteer Commissions with a global membership of more than 10,000 volunteer experts from almost every country of the world. SSC advises IUCN and its members on the wide range of technical and scientific aspects of species conservation and is dedicated to securing a future for biodiversity. The SSC works with its Groups, IUCN Secretariat and partner organizations to Assess, Plan, and Act for species conservation. Additionally, SSC focuses on supporting its global network of experts and advancing communication efforts relating to the work and wider issues across species conservation. This includes assessing the extinction risk faced by species for inclusion on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, convening diverse stakeholders to develop integrated planning for conservation interventions and mobilizing necessary action around the world to protect and restore species and their habitats.
IZS and SSC have partnered to create the Global Center for Species Survival (GCSS). GCSS aims to unite the strengths of IZS in public education, communication, fundraising and conservation messaging with the strengths of the SSC in driving effective conservation assessments, planning, policy and action for species survival worldwide. GCSS is physically located within the Indianapolis Zoo, and GCSS staff team will provide critical training, capacity and coordination support to further mobilize the species conservation efforts of the SSC network of experts alongside wider partner and key stakeholder communities. GCSS will house a multicultural team of full-time staff employed by IZS and based at the Indianapolis Zoo dedicated to support the mission of SSC.
The Fungus Conservation Coordinator is an employee of the Indianapolis Zoological Society assigned to support all of the programs of the SSC fungus Specialist Groups. These Groups are focused on assessing, planning and mobilizing policy and action for fungus species conservation around the world.
As part of GCSS, this role will work closely with the Indianapolis Zoo team, the SSC Chair's Office, the Fungus Conservation Committee, Specialist Group Chairs, and wider partners. As guided by the fungus Specialist Group chairs, s/he will support the identification of priorities, challenges and opportunities across the management of conservation data and assessments, the process of conservation planning, the development of action projects, and to support SSC network coordination and facilitate interactions between various partner communities, individuals and groups. Responsibilities include collecting, assembling and analyzing various types of data, assisting in the production of reports and workshop preparation, supporting partnership development and delivery, participating in strategic fundraising, supporting external communications and supporting behavior change efforts. Work will be primarily performed at the Global Center for Species Survival in Indianapolis Zoo, but travel may be required.
