The Organization
At the Colorado Health Foundation, we believe that keeping equity at the heart of our work will lead us to better health. That starts from within, including the intentional application of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices that guide how we operate and work in communities across Colorado. For example, our cornerstones are designed to help ensure that:
- We serve Coloradans who have less power, privilege, and income, and prioritize Coloradans of color.
- We do everything with the intent of creating health equity.
- We are informed by the community and those we exist to serve.
Position Overview
The Foundation is happy to announce an opening for the position of Senior Program Officer. This position is responsible for the development and implementation of the organization’s strategies, necessitating an enterprise-wide perspective and the ability to both develop strategy and do the detailed work of implementing it. This position also has at its core active community engagement, discerning between potential paths of action and choosing a path that will create impact, recommending and managing grants, and working with the Foundation’s other departments such as policy, learning and evaluation, and communications to leverage opportunities for strategic impact.
The opening includes the following bodies of work:
- Leading the Foundation’s Primary Care priority, as well as supporting Foundation work for Adult Recovery. Preference will be given to applicants with extensive knowledge about the mental health and primary care systems and a generalist mindset who can demonstrate significant cognitive agility and experience in leading work within multiple content areas.
Candidates will have a personal commitment and connection with our mission and cornerstones; work well in ambiguity and managing change; and proactively identify opportunities to advance our mission while remaining grounded in the day-to-day responsibilities. They will need to be able to apply principles of health equity and racial justice across all of their work, as well as integrate concepts of strategy formation and refinement, systems thinking, complexity, adaptive/emergent strategy, worldviews, and power.
Ideal candidates will:
- Have a strong understanding of and experience with culturally responsive and comprehensive, integrated primary care safety net along with a firm understanding of culturally responsive mental health and substance use recovery approaches.
- Feel comfortable engaging in complex conversations around health equity and the Foundation’s strategies and centering race in our work.
- Be skilled at critical thinking, and problem-solving, and have the ability to make decisions and see paths forward even when there is considerable ambiguity.
- Create conditions that allow internal and external groups to plan, develop and implement work, including facilitation of those groups
- Provide coaching, consultation, and other support to internal staff, as well as people and organizations externally, that allows them to tap into their capacity in a way that helps them accomplish their goals
- Enjoy the challenge of crafting the big picture strategy, while also figuring out how that needs to be turned into action
- Has the attention to detail required to manage a large workload of multiple projects and relationships in a fast-paced and ever-evolving workplace, without losing sight of our mission.
- Excel in developing relationships with various partners and stakeholders; producing written summaries and recommendations; managing multiple projects with consistency, timeliness, and accuracy; exhibiting a high level of self-awareness and a desire to learn.
- Have a deep understanding of the communities we serve, including communities of color, rural communities, and neighborhoods or regions that face the greatest health inequities.
- Have a broad understanding of the social determinants of health, community-based work, and philanthropy.
- Be able to work both independently and collaboratively, within and across teams.
- Be motivated to identify issues, innovate solutions, and continuously improve practice.
Senior Program officers are actively engaged in their assigned regions and communities, which requires a minimum of 40% travel throughout Colorado. A valid Colorado driver’s license is required for travel throughout the state.
At a minimum, qualified candidates will have a Bachelor’s Degree that would prepare them to do the work of community change, centering health equity and eight years of related experience.
How To Apply
- The Foundation has a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy in place for all staff. This is an extraordinary opportunity for an individual to have a meaningful impact through their professional contributions. Interested candidates may submit their resumes and cover letters on the Colorado Health Foundation’s website (www.coloradohealth.org).
This position closes on May 5, 2023.
The Colorado Health Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer and invites qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply.