Published on: September 11, 2026
An ATIXA Tip of the Week by Elizabeth Trayner, Ed.D., Araiña Muñiz, M.B.A., Josie Hoover, DMin., SHRM-CP, and Chanc’e Moody, LMSW
Districts and institutions seeking experienced Title IX professionals face a highly competitive hiring landscape. These experts must be able to navigate complex compliance frameworks, trauma-informed practices, and internal politics from day one. How can institutions attract top talent from such a small hiring pool?
The solution is to expand beyond narrow hiring models and focus on competency-based evaluations. This requires challenging the assumption that prior experience is the strongest predictor of long-term success.
ATIXA and its partner association, NABITA, recently explored this topic during a joint members-only Time with IX/Talking BITs event. Below are key takeaways and practical strategies to help Title IX teams turn insights into action.
The Field Has Outgrown Traditional Hiring Pipelines
Focusing on direct experience and undervaluing transferable skills, such as adaptability, may exclude strong candidates. Requiring prior Title IX experience narrows the hiring pool to individuals already in those roles. That narrow lens, combined with the field’s high burnout and turnover, creates a sustainability problem.
While experienced practitioners may be a safer hire from a risk and compliance standpoint, overreliance can limit innovation and reduce intellectual diversity. Many of the strongest professionals entering Title IX come from adjacent fields. Disciplines like student conduct, human resources, law, education, and employee relations cultivate directly relevant skills.
To help ease hiring burdens, ATIXA introduced a Talent Network that allows participants to share their career interests and get matched with career opportunities within the Title IX community.
Competency-Based Hiring Can Be a Predictor of Success
While technical skills can be taught, professional judgment and emotional regulation are harder to teach. Competency-based hiring factors in how a practitioner thinks and relates to others. Institutions that value procedural familiarity may risk underestimating the interpersonal competencies required for effective Title IX work.
Successful professionals in high-stress roles that involve conflict, ambiguity, and high-stakes decisions rely on communication, critical thinking, rapport-building, and emotional management. These are key skills in civil rights work, where legal and procedural frameworks constantly evolve. These professionals are more adaptable, accustomed to learning new systems, navigating unfamiliar environments, and integrating varied perspectives.
Why Familiarity in Hiring Can Be a Detriment
Many hiring processes reward institutional sameness. Search committees may gravitate toward candidates who already understand higher education, use familiar terminology, or mirror traditional career pathways within compliance and student affairs. While familiarity can create short-term comfort, it may not build stronger teams and may limit a team’s problem-solving capacity.
Title IX intersects with broader institutional issues like employee well-being, mental health, disability access, workplace culture, public safety, and crisis management. A Title IX team that reflects this intersectionality benefits everyone. Multidisciplinary expertise can strengthen responses, as these professionals approach challenges differently than teams trained within the same system.
Retention is Part of Hiring Strategy
Title IX professionals often work in environments marked by emotional exhaustion, institutional scrutiny, political pressure, and complex workloads. When institutions fail to invest in professional development and sustainable support, turnover becomes almost guaranteed. This creates another hiring challenge: institutions aren’t just competing for talent; they’re competing for talent that isn’t burned out and can commit to staying for the long term.
To support retention and prevent burnout, institutions must create conditions for sustainable career growth, continuing education, mentorship opportunities, internal advancement, cross-training, and leadership development. Cultivating internal talent may reduce long-term hiring instability more effectively than recruitment.
Programs like ATIXA’s Mentor Match and Community Connections support the field through 1:1 and small group mentorship, creating networks for individuals looking to advance their skills and build new relationships.
To ensure effective Title IX staffing, institutions should prioritize building internal systems that can develop and retain strong professionals over time, rather than focusing solely on finding experienced candidates.
Want to build a stronger, more sustainable Title IX team without limiting your candidate pool? TNG Consulting helps institutions rethink hiring, onboarding, retention, and organizational structure to develop high-performing teams equipped for increasingly complex environments.
Contact inquiry@tngconsulting.com to get started.