Princeton, NJ

Program Officer / Senior Program Officer, Healthy Communities (Building Community Power), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Organization

About Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

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 everyone in America. RWJF has taken bold steps to launch a 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 among all parts of our communities and our society 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. Further, we recognize that achieving health equity requires removing social and economic obstacles to health such as poverty and discrimination. RWJF is partnering with base-building organizations in 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 Healthy Communities, the program officer OR senior program officer (PO/SPO) will focus on the Foundation’s efforts to create the conditions that allow communities and all of their residents to reach their greatest health potential, especially those facing the greatest challenges. These initiatives focus on how local data, financing and policy and practice changes, coupled with multi-sector community leadership and capacity building, can change community environments and norms in ways that make it easier for people to be healthier.

The PO/SPO will play a critical role in Healthy Communities’ work to bring together and align the efforts of multi-sector stakeholders engaged in community transformation to improve health ranging from community organizers to change agents in planning, transportation and community development to healthcare, the arts, the environment and education. Drawing upon experience in community organizing and social justice initiatives, with an on-the-ground as well as systems-level perspective of the successes and challenges associated with these endeavors, the new PO/SPO will provide intellectual and organizational leadership in designing and implementing new and on-going projects, evaluating proposals, monitoring programs and grants, learning from our investments and activities, and creating impact through dissemination of knowledge.

The PO/SPO will also be expected to be an external ambassador for the Foundation and the Foundation’s leadership on health equity and should have experience forging and maintaining dynamic partnerships at the local and national level to achieve change. We are especially interested in candidates with experience working with Latino organizations and networks.

A successful PO candidate will be results-driven, have 3-5 years of relevant experience, hold an advanced degree (e.g. MA, MPH, MJ, MBA, MPP), and have proven leadership potential. A combination of education and experience may be substituted for the education requirements.

A successful SPO candidate will have a commitment to mentorship, have an advanced degree and 6+ years of relevant experience, have a total of 7-10 years of proven leadership and is recognized in a field for a specific area of knowledge related to community change. A combination of education and experience may be substituted for the education requirements.

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. Excellent 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, external partners, high-level stakeholders and people from the communities we are working to impact, on a range of complex issues.

How To Apply

To learn more about this opportunity, and to submit an application, please visit http://talentcitizen.com/tc_active_searches/rwjf-bcp/

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