Johns Hopkins University - Senior Program Officer

College Park, MD

Description:

• The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) is based at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health & Engineering.  CLF is seeking a Senior Program Officer (SPO) to join its Food System Policy team and play a central role in developing, implementing and evaluating activities that engage the public health field in agriculture and food system policy at domestic and global levels. Working closely with, and supervised by CLF’s Program Director of Food System Policy, the SPO is directly involved in implementing a diverse set of projects and activities aiming to advance policies that protect public health and support a healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system. Areas of focus include industrial food animal production, food system externalities, food and agriculture policy regulation and legislation at all levels, and marketplace campaigns.

Duties:

• Work closely with the Food System Policy Program Director (PD) and liaise with CLF leadership to ensure the successful implementation of the Center’s policy activities;
• Serve as the PD’s deputy and as acting program director in the PD’s absence (and when assigned) in order to ensure the successful implementation of program activities;
• Provide effective leadership and program management skills in the implementation of program activities and in cultivating effective working relationships with colleagues;
• Supervise, coach, mentor, and oversee program staff and student research assistants as assigned/needed operating within compliance to all JHU supervisory policies;
• Perform ongoing assessment of the multiple levers of change (e.g regulatory environment, economic factors, marketplace developments and legislative initiatives at the state and federal level, etc.) tied to key food, agriculture, environment, and public health issues;
• Actively conduct surveillance and analysis of key food system policy issues, with a particular focus on those with direct implications f or public health;
• Lead policy-oriented outreach, organizing and engagement activities for CLF and develop a network of organizations and individuals focused on the public health/environment/food & agriculture nexus;
• Responsible for leading activity development/new initiatives or special projects and/or portfolios of work that arise and determined to be integral to the policy program and CLF;
• Collaborate with CLF colleagues to develop work plans for effectively promoting health/food agriculture issues within policy arenas and ensure synergy throughout CLF;
• Actively participate in CLF research projects as appropriate, including the design and implementation of relevant policy research, including the oversight of graduate research assistant activities;
• Serve as a technical resource for CLF education projects and activities, including in the review of materials, providing lectures, etc;
• Manage multiple projects initiated from within the Food System Policy Program;  and, work with CLF colleagues leading other projects with policy elements in order to achieve synergies of effort and strengthen capacity for center-wide  policy engagement;
• Actively communicate and collaborate with CLF leadership and staff, throughout the Center, and particularly with colleagues involved in policy, advocacy and communication activities;
• Work closely with CLF’s communications and public affairs teams to produce needed science translation materials and social media products;
• Lead grant-writing and proposal development efforts, as assigned, to support CLF’s food system policy initiatives;
• Lead the development and writing of policy papers; op-eds, fact sheets; blogs, and other communications materials as needed in support of program and CLF objectives;
• Play a lead role in organizing and convening policy-oriented meetings and events for CLF;
• Represent CLF (as assigned) in select arenas, and serve as liaison and collaborator with multiple organizations that complement CLF’s resources and expertise;
• Speak and present publicly at key events;
• Oversee and process CLF internal approval documents (i.e., Activity Brief Approvals, Travel requests, etc.) for the program to ensure adherence to CLF and JHU policy and procedures;
• Develop, produce, and/or edit high-quality project and program level reports, contracts with partnering organizations and/or suppliers, and grant proposals as needed basis.
• Oversee and monitor program, project and activity level budgets and spending for projects and activities within the Policy Program. 

Requirements:

• Masters’ degree (M.A., MHS, MPH) in public health policy or a related discipline required.
• Five (5) years of relevant work experience in policy and/or public health program management required.
• Significant experience working directly on food system policy projects. 
• Additional experience and/or training may substitute for some education.
• Preferred Qualifications:
• Any campaign, political office, or agency experience should be expressed.

For more information, click here.