Emergency Response Staffing Strategist

Company Overview
With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and more than 7,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We're tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.

With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative that will meet critical infrastructure needs and make possible strategic investments that will have lasting effects on public health. Investments and improvements through this initiative will help modernize DOHMH’s foundational capabilities and data infrastructure, enabling it to partner in complex health and health care environments and, in turn, support better public health outcomes, including COVID-19. This initiative supports larger efforts to rebalance investments in public health and more equitably serve communities and populations.

The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but will work be supervised by DOHMH. This is a grant-funded position ending in November 2027.

Program Description:

The Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response (OEPR) promotes DOHMH’s and NYC’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies through the coordination of agency-wide emergency preparedness planning, training, exercises, and evaluation and through regular engagement with community, healthcare and city, state and federal partners. OEPR envisions a healthy, resilient city in which all New Yorkers are able to achieve and maintain optimal and equitable health outcomes before, during, and after emergencies. OEPR’s work recognizes the social inequities that can negatively impact our efforts to maintain and improve the health of New Yorkers during and after a disaster. OEPR works to improve its application of a social justice and racial equity lens to its emergency preparedness and response work to ensure the most equitable post-disaster public health outcomes possible.

The Bureau of Agency Preparedness and Response (BAPR) oversees the development of agencywide planning tools, training, exercises and evaluation, coordinates with interagency partners, and maintains citywide situational awareness. This includes policies, procedures and processes related to maintaining and activating the DOHMH Incident Command System (ICS) to coordinate the Agency’s Emergency Response operations. The DOHMH ICS structure is made up of Emergency Response groups (ERGs), each with unique response functions it performs to achieve response objectives. The BAPR Emergency Response Group Development Unit is the coordinative entity that works with and supports DOHMH Divisions and ICS ERGs through a decentralized model of identified coordinators from across the ICS enterprise that conduct preparedness activities- including building response capabilities, establishing staffing pools and developing staffing plans to support response functions, providing input on agencywide plans, participate in training and exercise, etc.

Public health emergencies are becoming more frequent and severe. And public expectations for Emergency Response have changed in terms of speed of response, level of communications, among other things. As such, DOHMH must become a more “response-ready” Agency to enable more effective and efficient emergency operations. This means strengthening the Agency’s overall systems, processes, and policies to ensure a strong emergency staffing infrastructure to support priority preparedness needs identified from the COVID-19 pandemic response and other previous emergencies. Emergency Preparedness and Response is a public health infrastructure foundational service, and DOHMH must build capability and capacity in this area to protect the public’s health.

Summary of the Position:

The Emergency Response Staffing Strategist will support strengthening the Agency’s emergency staffing infrastructure, including improving staffing policies, processes, and systems. As part of the lessons learned from the most recent emergencies, a robust emergency staffing infrastructure is critical for efficient and effective response. This position will support the review, identification, and implementation of recommended improvements to policies, processes, and systems to support emergency staffing. The Emergency Response Staffing Strategist will work with stakeholders across the Agency to address improvements through a systematic and collaborative process.

Specifically, the Emergency Response Staffing Strategist will:

• Work with stakeholders to review emergency staffing policies, processes, and systems and identify recommended improvements based on lessons learned from recent responses.
• Develop innovative and agile approaches to emergency staffing assignments.
• Advise Divisions and ERGs on staffing strategies to ensure adequate depth to support sustainable staffing during preparedness and response.
• Collaborate with stakeholders from IT, HR, Logistics, and other BAPR/OEPR staff to provide recommendations for emergency staffing systems.
• Identify and integrate equitable staffing practices into all emergency staffing policies and processes.
  

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Master’s degree from an accredited college in emergency management, public health, disaster management, emergency preparedness/administration, public administration, or related field and one (1) year of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one or a combination of the following area(s): emergency preparedness planning/management, emergency medical services, fire or public safety, law enforcement, homeland security, public health, mental health, environmental/occupational health and safety or a related specialized area; or
• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two (2) years of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one of the areas described above; or
• A satisfactory equivalent combination of education and experience. However, all candidates must have a minimum of one (1) year of satisfactory full-time professional experience in one of the areas described above.
• Salary: $70,000.00-$70,000.00
  

Preferred Skills:

• Strong organizational and project management skills.
• Strong critical thinking, problem solving, and planning skills.
• Experience with stakeholder engagement and coordinating projects involving multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to efficiently manage multiple tasks and respond to changing priorities.
• Strong communication (verbal & written) and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in synthesizing information and presenting summary and recommendations succinctly.
• Ability to work both independently and with a team.
• Desire to grow professionally and develop new skills.
• Familiarity with and ability to comfortably navigate Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Teams.
  

Additional Information:

• This is a temporary grant-funded position ending in November 2027.
• This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.
• Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.
• This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.

PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.