Careers

Description:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As the nation’s sole provider of public health accreditation, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) seeks to advance and transform public health practice by championing performance improvement, strong infrastructure, and innovation. Over the past two years, PHAB has increased its capacity to provide services beyond accreditation in part due to doubling its staff after receiving the CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant funding in 2022. This new capacity to serve the field holds enormous promise for PHAB to promote the health of the communities it serves, not just through accreditation but increased investments in education, technical assistance, and research & evaluation.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, PHAB seeks a visionary, dynamic new leader who can build on the organization’s recent success to support a healthy, vibrant public health field nationally and globally. The next Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will lead a team of approximately 50 dedicated staff and manage significant and growing resources: the current year’s budget is $24M, more than triple that of three years ago, and the FY25 budget is projected to be approximately $33M. The CEO will further refine the strategic priorities and goals, formulate and execute revenue generation strategies, continue to develop effective and efficient operating frameworks, and inspire support and partnership to advance PHAB’s mission. Strong candidates will have significant public health leadership experience; exceptional communication and ambassadorial skills across relevant fields and contexts, with capacity to articulate the unique value of public health accreditation; fundraising expertise, business and strategic acumen; experience leading, managing, and inspiring a diverse team; and demonstrated commitment to the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism (IDEA).

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

Founded in 2007, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) is a national nonprofit committed to achieving the highest standards of public health practice and fostering quality improvement, accountability, and transparency within health departments. PHAB supports health departments in their work to promote the health of the communities they serve through accreditation, education, technical assistance, and research & evaluation.

PHAB promotes evidence and innovation to support health departments in their delivery of programs and services to drive performance improvement and strong infrastructure. Accreditation provides a measurement of a health department’s performance against a set of nationally recognized, practice-focused, and evidence-based standards. As the sole provider of national accreditation for state, local, territorial, Army, and Tribal health departments, PHAB provides an external, peer reviewed process for health departments to assess themselves on their ability to efficiently operate and effectively deliver essential public health services. In addition, PHAB has the only national dataset of peer-reviewed assessments of health department capacity, which can be used for benchmarking and research. Since launching its accreditation program in 2011, there are 42 states and close to 400 health departments currently accredited.

The PHAB Center for Innovation serves as a national initiative guiding public health departments in using innovation as a tool to drive change and improve health and equity. Through the PHIG funding, the Center is serving as the driving force of public health modernization in partnership with the 21st Century Learning Community. The 21st Century Learning Community is a group of states focused on intentional state-wide public health system transformation using the Foundational Public Health Services (FPHS) as a framework to strengthen infrastructure, improve performance, and rebuild trust in and accountability to their communities.

The current post-emergency stage of the Covid-19 pandemic has been influential in PHAB’s strategic planning process to ensure national quality standards are in place. The pandemic has created more awareness about public health issues among the general population, but there is also a sense of mistrust between the public and public health officials which has been influenced by extensive misinformation. In November 2022, PHAB was selected as one of three national partners and technical assistance and training providers by the CDC Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG) which has resulted in a total funding award of $111M over the 5-year grant period. The PHIG grant has also awarded $3.4B in funding to support public health workforce, infrastructure, and data modernization efforts to all 50 states, territories, and large cities. The PHIG grant allowed PHAB to double their staff and for the organization to further expand capacity beyond accreditation. The projected budget for FY25 is $33M, a fivefold increase since 2020 that dramatically increases PHAB’s capacity to drive public health transformation and impact.

THE ROLE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

PHAB’s new CEO will join a dynamic and growing team at an important inflection point for the field of public health, as the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, political polarization, and other shifts in the landscape bring the challenges and opportunities for the field into greater clarity. Working closely with the Board of Directors and PHAB’s dedicated staff, the next CEO can expect to engage in the following core opportunities and challenges:

Guide Organizational Growth and Long-Term Sustainability

The new CEO will drive strategic planning for long-term sustainability and growth with awareness of the impact on employees, stakeholders, and operations. They will build trust and transparency both internally and with external stakeholders and partners, communicating openly about decisions, challenges, and progress. An innovator with business acumen, the CEO will foster collaboration across teams and departments to ensure alignment, continuous improvement, and success of organizational milestones and short and long-term goals. Looking toward diversification of revenue for sustainability and impact, the CEO will work in partnership with the board and staff to solidify PHAB’s business plan and focus on expanding beyond accreditation to technical assistance, consulting, research using PHAB’s data, and building out an evaluation team through the Center for Innovation.

Build Partnerships Across the Field to Drive Impact and Visibility

The CEO will build and enhance partnerships with regional and national public health advocates and key organizations across the field to advance PHAB’s mission. This includes expanding initiatives that engage health departments and other partners in collaborative efforts to modernize and transform public health systems and ensuring PHAB accreditation and recognition programs are accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of health departments as they evolve.

Partner with the Board to Advance PHAB’s Mission

PHAB’s board is a diverse and remarkably committed group of public health champions with deep experience and appreciation for PHAB’s mission and positionality. The new CEO will partner with the Board to further define, articulate, and implement PHAB’s strategic plan.