Executive Director of LIFT Expansion

Job Title: Executive Director of LIFT Expansion

• Executive Leadership Position

Direct Report Supervisor: President

Additional Supervisors: The Business Office

Required Availability: 

• Full Time
• Works on-site
• Indiana (Statewide)

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About Five Star Life: 

Five Star Life is a nonprofit organization committed to Transforming Students’ Lives by Challenging The Way They Think, Act, and Lead, While Equipping Them With The Academic, Athletic, Social, and Employability Skills Necessary to Thrive. Five Star Life programs teach leadership skills, excellent character, and a positive mindset, and everything we do is rooted in our mission and core values: Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Sacrifice, and Courage. These values shape how we lead, how we serve, and who we hire. We are looking for someone who shares our mission and embodies our values—someone who not only has the skills to do their job, but also the character, integrity, respect, and work ethic to positively contribute to our culture and impact.

For more than two decades, Five Star Life has worked alongside schools, courts, detention centers, and communities to transform the lives of young people through character, mindset, leadership, employability, and life-skill development.

LIFT represents one of our most impactful initiatives, bringing parents and teens together through a six-week intensive experience that addresses behavior, decision-making, responsibility, relationships, and leadership. Unlike traditional diversion programs, LIFT requires both the teen and parent to participate together, creating lasting family transformation.

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Position Summary: 

Five Star Life is seeking a visionary, mission-driven leader to serve as the Executive Director of LIFT Expansion. This individual will lead the strategic growth of our nationally recognized LIFT (Leadership Infusion for Families and Teens) program, which has achieved a 95% success rate helping youth avoid future involvement with the juvenile justice system. 

The Executive Director will be responsible for transforming LIFT from a highly successful regional initiative into a scalable statewide, regional, and national model for juvenile diversion, family engagement, and youth leadership development. This position is ideal for an experienced leader in juvenile justice, education, behavioral health, youth development, or public policy who desires to spend the next chapter of their career building a lasting legacy that impacts generations of families.

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Position Purpose:

The Executive Director of LIFT Expansion will build the systems, partnerships, infrastructure, and leadership capacity necessary to scale LIFT across Indiana, throughout the Midwest, and ultimately across the nation.

The successful candidate will not simply manage a program—they will build a movement.

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Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Growth and Expansion
• Government and Community Partnerships
• Program Replication and Quality Assurance
• Data and Outcomes
• Team Leadership
• Funding and Sustainability

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Key Deliverables (First 3–5 Years):

• Year 1: Statewide Expansion Strategy, LIFT Operations & Implementation Manual, Program Fidelity Standards, County Partnership Framework, Growth Dashboard.
• Year 2–3: Facilitator Certification System, Regional Leadership Structure, Statewide Outcome Reporting System, Expansion into multiple Indiana counties.
• Year 4–5: Midwest Expansion Strategy, National Replication Model, Research Publication and Outcome Validation, Sustainable Leadership Succession Plan.

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Qualifications and Skills:

Required:

• Doctorate or Masters degree in a relevant field.
• Minimum 10 years of executive leadership experience.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale initiatives.
• Experience working with courts, schools, government agencies, or youth-serving organizations.

Preferred:

• Experience scaling programs across multiple regions or states.
• Juvenile justice reform/diversion experience.
• Implementation science and replication expertise.
• Grant development and public funding experience.

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Ideal Candidate Characteristics:

Visionary builder, mission-driven, respected by practitioners and policymakers, passionate about strengthening families, focused on long-term impact, and excited about building a model that can transform juvenile justice across America.

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Personal Note from Coach Seth:

“LIFT has already changed thousands of lives. The next chapter is about building something that can impact tens of thousands more. We’re looking for a leader who believes strong families change communities and who wants to help create a model that could transform juvenile justice across America.”

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