Community and Project Coordinator

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum: Community and Project Coordinator

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is seeking a full-time Community and Project Coordinator to support Courage in the Hollers: Mapping the Miners’ Struggle to Form a Union—a regional public monument and history initiative aimed at uplifting local stories and building a shared regional identity focused on the memory of the Mine Wars era.

Courage in the Hollers is a landscape-scale, community-involved project to design and produce a series of community-led monuments at multiple sites along the 50-mile route that unionist miners marched from Marmet, West Virginia to their eventual clash with anti-union forces at what became the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. Each site will feature sculptural monuments, as well as multiple interpretive panels, audio features, website, and podcast. Courage sites will give visitors both a “this happened here” perspective and an educational experience based on contemporary Mine Wars and Appalachian scholarship as well as stories grounded in community priorities and memory. We believe that Courage in the Hollers, when completed, may be the single largest labor history-themed trail in the United States.

This position is the connective tissue of the project: you’ll link and support communities, partner organizations, local leaders, advisory teams, consultants, and Museum staff to ensure coordination, clear communication, and smooth implementation of activities across multiple counties. Courage communities span across four counties and seven towns, including Charleston, Marmet, Racine, Madison, Clothier, Logan, and Matewan. You will be working directly with a core team of Museum staff and specialists, including our Executive Director, Public Historian, Lead Designer, Communications Director, and several non staff project personnel.

About West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is a dynamic, high-functioning nonprofit dedicated to preserving and uplifting the history of the West Virginia Mine Wars. We are a small but mighty collaborative team. We are recognized as a leading voice for history and labor in the region. In addition to our public programs and partnerships, we own and operate the historic 11,000-square-foot Cecil E. Roberts Building in Matewan, West Virginia, which we are actively repurposing as a hub for expanded exhibitions, a growing archive, and community gatherings.

What You’ll Do

The Community & Project Coordinator will help anchor Courage in the Hollers in coalfield communities while keeping a complex, multi-partner project organized and moving forward.

Responsibilities include:

• Building and sustaining relationships with local leaders, landowners, community partners, and residents across coalfield towns, serving as a consistent and trusted point of contact
• Attending community meetings, town halls, stakeholder sessions, and public gatherings as the Museum’s on-the-ground representative, sharing project updates and gathering input
• Overseeing the development and tracking of all site-related agreements and approvals—including MOUs, permits, and land-use documentation working closely with staff, attorneys, and municipal partners.
• Coordinating project activities across multiple counties, including scheduling meetings, site visits, and public events
• Organizing internal project documents and systems so that staff, consultants, and partners can easily access site information, meeting notes, decisions, design drafts, and timelines
• Supporting original research and documentation needs for the project, including coordinating or conducting site visits, assessing local archives or records, pulling deeds or public documents, and sharing findings back with relevant stakeholders
• Supporting grant tracking and reporting, including monitoring deliverables, keeping timelines updated, collecting required documentation, and preparing materials for funder reports
• Coordinating advisory committees and working groups, including scheduling, preparing agendas, taking notes, and ensuring follow-through on action items
• Maintaining communication between the Museum and project partners, including distributing meeting summaries, sharing updates, and ensuring alignment across a wide network
• Assisting with program logistics, such as travel coordination, vendor and consultant communication, community meeting setup, catering and lodging details, and documentation of activities

If you were here today, you’d be:

• Attending a town hall in a coalfield community to share updates about Courage in the Hollers and listen for local priorities, questions, and stories
• Drafting or updating an MOU, site agreement, or permit request for a partner town and circulating it for internal and municipal review
• Scheduling a core team meeting, preparing the agenda, gathering background materials, and following up with partners on action items
• Updating a grant tracking spreadsheet or timeline, noting recent milestones, gathering documentation, and flagging upcoming reporting deadlines
• Participating in the Museum’s year-end fundraising efforts, such as contributing content for the e-newsletter or assisting with outreach to prospective members and supporters

Keys to success (the must-haves)

We are looking for someone who brings:

• Experience with facilitation and project management, ideally in community or multi-partner settings
• Strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage your own responsibilities, calendar, and deadlines—and support others in doing the same
• Basic digital fluency, including shared drives, spreadsheets, and organizing project materials
• A demonstrated commitment to follow-through, even when coordinating across different towns, partners, or timelines
• Self-motivation and enthusiasm to learn, with a willingness to take initiative and solve problems as they arise
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, across a range of audiences and community contexts
• A friendly, flexible, good-humored presence in community spaces and team environments
• A collaborative spirit and the ability to work well across roles, personalities, and sectors
• A deep understanding of coalfield communities, and a commitment to telling truthful, grounded stories

Experience with any of the following is a plus (but not required):

• Research or documentation skills (recording of community histories and/or stories, meeting notes, synthesizing input)
• Working with municipal or state agencies, permits, or public processes
• Community development or rural engagement experience
• Fundraising, grant management, or tracking deliverables for funders
• Knowledge of the Mine Wars, labor issues, economic justice, and/or nonprofit operations

Have other skills that might strengthen this work? Tell us.

We’re a small staff on a big project, and many different kinds of experience can be valuable here!

What else you should know about the job

This is a two-year position, renewable contingent upon funding. It is a full-time position, ideally based in southern West Virginia, though we may be flexible for the right candidate who would relocate to southern West Virginia or within a reasonable radius of Matewan. The role is hybrid and includes a mix of in person and remote work. Regular travel across the project region is required, including attendance at community meetings, site visits, and partner convenings that will be unlikely to provide remote attendance options. This person will report to Matewan to work once per week, March – November.

This position includes a mix of daytime, evening, and occasional weekend work, reflecting the schedules of community and municipal meetings. We value work-life balance and support flexible scheduling, with advance planning and time-shifting when evening or weekend work is required.

The salary range for this position is between $44,000 and $48,000 and is commensurate with experience. The Museum offers a $700/month fringe benefit allotment that can be used toward insurance, retirement, or as a salary increase. Paid time off includes 10 sick days per year and 5 vacation days in the first year. In the second year, employees receive 10 vacation days, with one additional day accrued for each year of employment thereafter. Full-time employees also receive paid holidays, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, July 4, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, and a holiday break between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. While Labor Day is a working holiday due to Museum programming, all employees who work that day receive one additional floating holiday to be used with approval.

We are actively seeking to recruit diverse candidates for this position. We want the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum to represent the diversity found in West Virginia communities. We are seeking candidates who demonstrate diversity of perspective, experience, and culture. We strongly encourage applications from Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, as well as others who have been historically underrepresented in roles like this. The desired start date is ASAP.

How to Apply

To apply, please complete the application form and be prepared to upload the following: a cover letter; your resume or CV; three professional references (including at least one former supervisor); work samples that demonstrate related job capabilities.

If you have a question about qualifications or what is needed for this role, please contact Kenzie New Walker at kenzie@wvminewars.org or 304-691-0014