Vice President of Public Will Building

VICE PRESIDENT OF PUBLIC WILL BUILDING:

HEATHER ADAMS

This position will lead Ready for School, Ready for Life’s (Ready Ready) Public Will Building strategy. The VP of Public Will Building will work in collaboration with the CEO, Senior Leadership Team, Director of Communications, and Board of Directors to advance Ready Ready’s policy agenda and overall mission to build a connected, innovative system of care for Guilford County’s youngest children and their families. This position will report to the CEO.

Specific Job Duties:

Strategy Development and Execution

  • Develop and maintain a sustainability strategy for the initiative to ensure public financial support for all programs of the initiative and those programs collaborating with Ready Ready which are currently supported by private philanthropy.
  • Develop and maintain, in partnership with the CEO and Public Policy Committee, an early childhood public will building strategy to enhance Ready Ready’s effort to strengthen local and statewide partnerships.
  • Design and implement the organization’s strategy to support North Carolina’s Medicaid Expansion/Healthy Opportunities implementation process in alignment with Ready Ready’s systems-building goals.
  • Track and report activities of the Public Policy Committee and subcommittees/Public Will Building Strategy in alignment with Ready Ready’s plan of work.
  • Work closely with the communications team to craft and execute strategies and tactics to communicate Ready Ready’s public will building work and priorities through various channels including in-person meetings, briefings, etc.
  • Proactively identify ways to increase Ready Ready’s visibility and impact in the early childhood advocacy space and amplify the voice and position of community partners, local parent leaders, and committee members. This may include working with the Director of Communications to develop marketing materials for the Public Policy Committee/Subcommittees and Guilford County community.
  • Provide strategic and technical analysis of relevant public policies impacting early childhood systems and families.
  • Work with the Director of Communications in establishing regional communication and policy networks to better support and facilitate member efforts/activities.

Project Management/Logistics

  • Assist in project management for key events, developing and managing the timeline for task completion, scheduling meetings with lawmakers and influencers and preparing materials for both Public Policy committee member participants and lawmakers.
  • Coordinate relationships with local community-based organizations, government agencies, and managed care organizations to educate local leaders on Ready Ready’s mission and approach to early childhood systems change.
  • Support in staffing Public Policy Committee meetings, maintaining the membership roster, monitoring meeting attendance and meeting minutes, handling meeting logistics, planning meeting content, and coordinating the development and distribution of meeting materials.
  • Attend other meetings as assigned and sharing report-outs to the Public Policy  Committee/Subcommittees and Ready Ready staff as requested.
  • Develop (in partnership with the Director of Communications) and edit various documents and meeting/presentation materials (PowerPoint presentations, budgets, procedures, etc.) for implementing and maintaining services and/or programming.
  • Lead efforts to coordinate, catalogue, update and organize policy knowledge, knowledge products, reports, etc. Help to identify key qualitative/quantitative data applicable to relevant policies being advanced.
  • Engage with various local and statewide early childhood advocacy initiatives and collaboratives.

Position Requirements and Qualifications

  • A bachelor’s degree in public administration, public policy, journalism, communications or a related field.
  • At least five years of experience in public policy work, constituent relations, communications, project management. Experience in a nonprofit, foundation or membership organization is preferred.
  • Outstanding communications skills, including written and verbal communications.
  • Understanding of local, county, and state government and legislative processes.
  • Creative and systems thinker, ability to be nimble and manage multiple projects. Highly organized and proven ability to prioritize and manage diverse tasks concurrently while maintaining strategic focus.
  • Understands the importance of diversity and inclusion in delivering high quality work and is committed to equitable outcomes.
  • A commitment to Ready for School, Ready for Life’s Equity Statement.
  • A commitment to Ready for School, Ready for Life’s Values and Principles .
  • High level of proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite – excellent command of Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
  • Administrative experience with strong customer service commitment.
  • Self-starter with strong work ethic. Ability to identify areas of need and troubleshoot with minimal direction. Ability to exercise discretion and independent judgement with respect to the implementation of assigned tasks.
  • Excels in a collaborative work environment.

Other Requirements

  • While performing the duties of the job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to sit and use hands to finger, handle, or feel to perform the duties. The employee is frequently required to stand and walk around to perform the duties. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel or crouch. The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 lbs.
  • The employee may operate any or all of the following: telephone, copy and fax machine, calculator, imaging equipment, postage meter, computer terminal and printers.
  • This position may require travel by automobile and airplane.
  • This position requires the employee to make decisions in a timely manner and anticipate all of the potential ramifications of decisions made.
  • The employee must be ability to read, and interpret documents, understand/follow complex written and oral instructions, be able to express oneself clearly/concisely, perform mathematical functions and handle multiple, concurrent tasks.
  • This position requires regular and predictable attendance and cannot be performed remotely.