Spectrum Society for Community Living
Executive Director, Vancouver
About Spectrum Society for Community Living
Spectrum Society for Community Living (“Spectrum,” the “Society”) is a charitable organization founded in 1987 with the belief that people with disabilities deserved more individualized, person-centred support.
Nearly four decades later, Spectrum supports 165 people across the Lower Mainland through staffed homes, Home Share (since 2003), and LIFE, Spectrum's relationship-based approach to employment support. Spectrum has deliberately pursued measured growth and resisted a one-size-fits-all model. Its homes are duplexes and one- or two-person homes rather than larger group settings, alongside Home Share and supported apartment living, and it operates no day centres. The aim is to empower the people it supports and their families to direct their own lives. Funded primarily through Community Living BC (CLBC), with additional support from Fraser Health, the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, BC Housing, BC Gaming, and a committed base of donors, Spectrum operates with an annual budget of approximately $15 million and remains a non-union employer.
Spectrum operates on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories of the ʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Mission: Supporting people with disabilities to experience full citizenship and genuine belonging in community.
Vision: Community is enriched by the presence and contributions of its citizens with disabilities — a world where all people are valued, their voices heard, their choices respected.
For more details, visit its website here.
The Opportunity
Ernie Baatz, Co-Founder of Spectrum, is retiring in mid-2027 after nearly four decades with the organization, and the Society is seeking its next leader to guide the organization into its next chapter. To support a smooth handover, Ernie will be available to support the onboarding of the new Executive Director.
This is a rare opportunity to lead one of BC's most distinctive community living organizations, working alongside a loyal, tenured senior team and a Board that has been steadily building its governance capacity. Following the 2025 retirement of co-founder Susan Stanfield, five of Spectrum's senior Coordinators came together as a self-directed Coordinators Team to take on much of her former operations role — an evolving structure the next Executive Director will help shape going forward.
The new Executive Director will help advance the following priorities:
Steward a significant leadership transition. Capture and carry forward decades of institutional knowledge held by the outgoing Executive Director, including CLBC funder relationships, contracting nuances, and long-standing relationships with the families Spectrum supports.
Sustain Spectrum's person-centred, relationship-based model. Protect what Spectrum's team describes as its defining strength: small, flexible, non-institutional services shaped around the individuals it supports.
Shape the future of Spectrum's operating and leadership structure. Work with the Board and senior team to determine how the Coordinators Team model continues to evolve and what, if any, additional operational leadership it needs.
Strengthen the funder relationship with CLBC. Build direct credibility with Community Living BC and navigate Spectrum's complex, often individually negotiated funding and contracting arrangements.
Continue closing the non-union wage-equity gap. Sustain the work already underway to bring compensation closer to unionized-sector parity.
Build trust in the midst of change. Prioritize listening, relationship-building, and visible presence with the people Spectrum supports and their families.
Key Responsibilities
Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director provides overall strategic, operational, financial, and community leadership for Spectrum. Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Board Relations & Governance
Bring a working knowledge of the BC Societies Act, the roles of the Board, and models of board governance, helping directors understand their responsibilities and putting those models into practice.
Build trusting relationships with directors over time to support their long-term commitment to Spectrum.
Maintain an effective, informative dialogue with the Board of Directors to support its governance and oversight responsibilities, continuing the Board's evolution from a sounding-board role to a governance-focused one.
Plan and support the annual Board cycle: preparing agendas, minutes, year-to-date financial reports (with Finance), and the reports required under the Board Charter.
Support recruitment, orientation, and succession of Board members, including the annual call for nominations and the work of the Board's nominations committee.
Be proactive in bringing strategic issues, policy questions, and organizational performance to the Board for review.
Strategic Planning
Lead execution of Spectrum's 2025–2027 Strategic Plan and guide the next planning cycle — undertaken roughly every three years and due as the current plan concludes — working with the Board to confirm the approach and soliciting input from the people supported, families, staff, funders, and the Board.
Hold and communicate a clear and meaningful vision of where Spectrum is headed and what is required to get there, in a way that builds alignment among stakeholders.
Draw on a wide network of relationships — peers, funders, families, and community partners — to inform planning, and make the process meaningful and helpful for everyone involved.
Financial Oversight
Oversee budgeting, accounting, and reporting on income and expenses, including the annual audit, with strong working knowledge of the financial operations of a charitable organization.
Maintain working knowledge of funder reporting and accountability processes, Spectrum's existing contracts, and CLBC's contracting process, and negotiate and create contracts in the best interests of the people supported.
Build and maintain relationships with executive directors at peer organizations to learn how they navigate their financial operations.
Maintain processes to identify and manage key financial and non-financial risks, and give the Board regular reporting on risk and on compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.
Service Planning & Delivery
Safeguard and evolve Spectrum's person-centred, relationship-based service model across programs and services.
Guide the implementation of person-centred planning practices, with an understanding of all the roles in the organization and how each contributes to service delivery.
Continually think critically about the services Spectrum offers, listening closely to what individuals and families are asking for and actively seeking their feedback.
Encourage new approaches rather than defaulting to a standard model, while staying current on sector best practice and trends through relationships with other agencies and thought leaders.
Hold a clear vision of what Spectrum is trying to accomplish through service delivery, and ensure programs, policies, and procedures reflect its mission, vision, and values.
Human Resources & Leadership Development
Provide strategic oversight of compensation philosophy, salary structures, benefits, recognition practices, drawing on HR best practice and continuing Spectrum's work toward non-union wage equity.
Bring creativity and flexibility to working with employees, helping them understand what is being asked of them.
Ensure organizational policies and practices comply with employment legislation, privacy requirements, workplace safety obligations and funder requirements.
Support the Coordinators Team and the broader leadership structure as it continues to evolve.
Coach, mentor, and support senior staff in managing their teams and navigating employee and family relations.
Foster a culture of continuous learning, creating structures to reflect on and learn from organizational experience and supporting leadership development at all levels.
Maintain a focus on succession planning and leadership development to support Spectrum into the future.
Stakeholder & Funder Relations
Build and sustain Spectrum's relationship with Community Living BC (CLBC) and other funders, government bodies, and community partners.
Create consistent opportunities for communication with key stakeholders, understanding what information each needs from Spectrum and where their interests and Spectrum's align.
Communicate proactively to get ahead of issues, thoughtfully weighing what stakeholders are asking of Spectrum against what Spectrum is able to give.
Represent Spectrum externally in the broader community living sector, including provincial CEO networks and sector conferences.
Act as Spectrum's primary spokesperson, working in step with the Board President as the Board's spokesperson.
Ensure the people Spectrum supports, and their families, remain involved and heard throughout the organization.
Community Development
Identify, build, and sustain partnerships that strengthen Spectrum's contribution to the broader community.
Listen to what people in the community want and show other organizations how Spectrum can contribute, recognizing that community development happens at the grassroots rather than through a top-down approach.
Preferred Qualities & Experience
Spectrum welcomes candidates from a range of backgrounds. Candidates are expected to meet the minimum experience requirement in the first bullet below, and those who also demonstrate most of the remaining qualities will be prioritized:
Minimum 10 years of senior leadership experience in a comparable organization: a multi-site, publicly funded not-for-profit or human-services organization of similar scale and complexity, ideally within the community living or developmental disabilities sector, or a closely adjacent person-centred human-services background.
Demonstrated financial leadership, including accountability for developing, managing, and reporting on a multi-million-dollar operating budget; the ability to interpret financial statements and audits; and comfort with nonprofit governance, funder relationships, and contract negotiation.
A warm, humble, and collaborative leadership style rooted in servant leadership: approachable and accessible, confident enough to lead and secure enough to listen, skilled at building consensus, and quick to recognize and build on the strengths already on the team.
Sound critical thinking and judgment: the ability to step back from the pressing problem, gather information from multiple sources, and consider the range of influences at play before responding.
Fluency and comfort working closely with a volunteer Board that is deepening its governance role — a genuine thought partner and sounding board.
Credibility on the relational side and the ability to build trust with families, some of whom have been connected to Spectrum for decades.
Integrity and accountability: shows up authentically, leads by example, is visible and involved, holds high standards for self and others, and stays calm and non-reactive in the face of challenge.
Curiosity and a love of lifelong learning, with the ability to read and synthesize complex technical and financial material, including funder contracts, and make sense of it for others.
Comfort with a degree of organizational fluidity and informality; Spectrum's team describes its day-to-day style as flexible and non-institutional.
A demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and to person-centred, self-directed approaches to support.
Compensation & Search Process
This Executive Director position is a senior strategic leadership role, with the opportunity to lead one of BC's most distinctive community living organizations at a pivotal moment in its history.
Spectrum offers a competitive salary budgeted between $155,000 and $170,000, in addition to a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, long term disability and participation in the Municipal Pension Plan. This is a full-time role based in Vancouver, BC, with regular travel to homes and programs across the Lower Mainland.
The search process may include longlist, shortlist, and committee interview stages. Finalists will be asked to provide comprehensive recent references and to complete a background check. The first review of applications will take place on January 15, 2027.
Please consider your lived experience as an asset in your application. We encourage candidates who require any accommodations to contact us directly with related questions, which can be addressed in confidence as appropriate.
Spectrum is committed to conducting this search in a manner consistent with the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The Society is committed to building a workplace that embraces diversity and values the unique perspectives and experiences of individuals from all backgrounds, including but not limited to people of colour, individuals of Indigenous descent, those with lived immigrant experience, members of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, individuals with disabilities, and those from other historically marginalized groups.
To apply, please forward your resume and cover letter to info@mosaicsearch.ca, with the subject line “Spectrum Society, ED Application”.
You are also welcome to email Alana Briggs (alana@mosaicsearch.ca) or Dave Namkung (dave@mosaicsearch.ca) with any related questions.