JOB PURPOSE:

Under the supervision of the Executive Director of Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services (HCPHES), the incumbent is responsible for: providing programmatic oversight, fiscal oversight, and personnel management for the HCPHES Office of Policy and Planning (OPP); and coordinating comprehensive policy development, planning, evaluation and assessment activities across the department.  The incumbent will serve as a member of the HCPHES executive team.

TASKS & RESPONSIBILITIES:

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• Administrative/Supervisory
• Responsible for overall recruitment, hiring, and supervision of the employees of the HCPHES Office of Policy and Planning.
• Responsible for setting goals, implementing strategies, and assessing outcomes of OPP. 
• Prepares OPP annual budget and provides primary fiscal oversight for the OPP general funds and grant funds.
• Serves as a member of the HCPHES executive team; actively participates in department-wide strategic planning and implementation activities as well as in developing departmental budgetary priorities.

• Policy
• Responsible for facilitating and coordinating departmental activities related to policy development.  Works collaboratively with all HCPHES divisions/offices, the Harris County Office of Legislative Relations, and county legislative relations liaisons and consultants. 
• Responsible for conducting and coordinating departmental legislative liaison activities, including: developing departmental legislative proposals; tracking, analyzing, and coordinating departmental response to local, state and federal public health and environmental legislative and regulatory initiatives; and educating policymakers regarding a broad spectrum of key public health issues.

• Assessment and Planning
• Analyzes and synthesizes relevant information to develop recommendations and reports.  Must be able to gather data/information from a variety of sources (e.g. health survey results, disease reporting data bases, health-related literature, policy briefs, key informant interviews, legislative and regulatory documents, etc).
• Facilitates and coordinates department-wide planning efforts, including but not limited to strategic planning activities.
• Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with variety of internal and external stakeholders in order to identify and advance priority public health objectives. 
• Incorporates principles of participatory community planning, as appropriate and feasible.
• Works collaboratively with the HCPHES Office of Public Health Preparedness and other programs to assure integration of public health preparedness plans into the context of general public health planning efforts.

• Evaluation
• Oversees planning and coordination activities related to implementation of a department-wide evaluation framework designed to measure whether or not HCPHES outcomes objectives are being met.

• Other
• Responsible for collecting information for, and writing of, a variety of HCPHES publications  and reports (including but not limited to the HCPHES Annual Report).
• Conducts presentations to professionals and to the general public.
• The incumbent may be assigned to a variety of posts within an Incident/Unified Command Structure during departmental responses to public health emergencies.
• The incumbent may be called upon to respond to media inquiries and requests for interviews relevant to public health activities/issues, in accordance with HCPHES policies.
• The incumbent will perform other tasks as required.

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SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: (Titles of three highest level subordinates)

1. Senior Public Health Analyst

2. Public Health Analyst
3. Administrative Secretary

UPON ENTRY TO THIS POSITION, AN EMPLOYEE NEEDS THE FOLLOWING KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES IN ORDER TO PERFORM THE JOB FUNCTIONS IN A SATISFACTORY MANNER:

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Master’s degree in Public Health, Public Administration, Public Policy, Legislative Affairs or related field
• A Bachelor’s degree plus six years of directly relevant experience may be given consideration in lieu of a graduate degree.

LICENSE(S) AND/OR CERTIFICATION(S) REQUIRED:

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS: (Amount and Type)

• Four years of work experience with in program planning, policy development and/or evaluation.
• Direct experience in public health or public administration is a plus. 
• At least one year of supervisory experience.

COMPUTER PROFICIENCY: (Be specific as to the amount and type of software and/or hardware knowledge required and the proficiency level of skills required, i.e., basic, intermediate, or advanced)
Advanced level proficiency with word-processing.  Proficient use of computer software for email communication, budget management, and database retrieval.

SPECIAL SKILLS AND/OR ABILITIES:
Solid understanding of the principles of public health practice strongly preferred.  Must have knowledge of the principles, tools and strategies used in planning and policy development.  Working knowledge of legislative and policy development processes or experience working with legislative staff is a plus.  Must have skills in facilitating group processes.  Must have demonstrable ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written formats.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:(if any)
May require long hours (including possible oversight stays) during legislative session and emergency situations.  Position requires periodic travel.

DESCRIBE THE GUIDELINES AND SUPERVISION AN EMPLOYEE RECEIVES IN ORDER TO DO THIS JOB.  HOW MUCH INDIVIDUAL INDEPENDENCE AND DISCRETION DOES THE EMPLOYEE HAVE WHEN DOING THIS JOB?

The Executive Director will provide supervision and guidance, however, the incumbent will have broad latitude to make decisions related to job responsibilities.  The incumbent will be expected to exercise sound judgment and to work collaboratively with colleagues to accomplish mission objectives.