Princeton, NJ

The Organization
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is the nation’s largest philanthropy dedicated to addressing the nation’s most complex health and health care issues. For more than 40 years RWJF has worked to address the problems that affect the health and health care of all Americans. RWJF has taken bold steps to launch a new vision to build a national Culture of Health with the goal to raise the health of everyone in our diverse society to the level that our great nation deserves, by placing well-being at the center of every aspect of life. This effort will take unprecedented collaboration and it is only through meaningful partnerships that a movement for better health will be realized to bring about the important change we all seek today and for generations to come.

Creating a society that gives every person an equal opportunity to live the healthiest life they can—whatever their ethnic, geographic, racial, socioeconomic, or physical circumstance happens to be, is at the core of RWJF’s initiative to build a Culture of Health. RWJF is partnering with communities, policymakers, businesses, and others willing to find ways to identify, test and refine innovative solutions to one of the most pressing issues of our time. This requires calls for action within and across sectors—because progress in one area will advance progress in another. RWJF believes that America is at a transformational moment in health. If all the distinct issues across society that impact health can be connected through collaboration, the collective power can be harnessed to truly build a Culture of Health.

Position Overview
Reporting to the managing director of the Healthy Communities, the senior program officer (SPO) will focus on developing and implementing the Foundation’s community development strategy with the core goal of creating the conditions that allow communities and their residents to reach their greatest health potential. The Foundation’s Healthy Community efforts focus on how local data, financing, and policy and practice changes coupled with multi-sector community leadership can change community environments in ways that make it easier for people to get and stay healthy.

Recognizing that our health is influenced greatly by core aspects of our communities – from the quality of our housing, to access to healthy food and safe places to exercise and play, the SPO will seek to initiate and contribute to the design and implementation of new and on-going community development and impact investment programs and initiatives that help to transform local environments in ways that remove health barriers and make it easier for people to lead healthier lives.

Working in a complex, intellectually stimulating work environment that values continuous learning and open communication, the SPO will play a critically important role in the Healthy Communities teams’ efforts to bring together a multitude of stakeholders ranging from community development financial institutions and private sector enterprises to hospital foundations and social venture capitalists with the aim of improving community outcomes and better aligning their efforts around a common goal of better health. Drawing upon immersive experience in place-based community development initiatives, with an on-the -ground as well as systems-level perspective of the successes and challenges associated with community development and impact investing, the SPO will seek to amplify the initiatives that are making progress and explore new ways that a range of investors, including but not limited to community anchor institutions, local philanthropy, and CDFIs, might support improved population health, well-being, and equity.

With a passion for educating program staff through coaching, mentoring, and targeted learning opportunities, the successful candidate will be results-driven and is expected to hold an advanced degree (e.g. MBA, MA, MPH, MJ, MPP, JD) and 6+ years of relevant experience; terminal degree or equivalent experience preferred. A combination of education and experience may be substituted for the education requirements.

The ideal candidate possesses a blended experience set of programmatic knowledge coupled with an understanding of private, nonprofit and public sector financing approaches related to community development and social impact investing. A strategic thinker, s/he will have excellent organizational and interpersonal skills and will take a thoughtful approach to collaboration and community and partner engagement. Impeccable verbal and written communication skills are required with the interest and competence to interact with a constituency of individuals from broad and diverse backgrounds, including internal leadership, and external partners and high-level stakeholders, on a range of complex issues.