Deputy Director of the Office of Statistics and Evaluation

Overview

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) seeks an experienced public health professional to provide organizational and epidemiologic leadership as the Deputy Director of the Office of Statistics and Evaluation (OSE) in the Bureau of Community Health and Prevention. To serve in this capacity, the OSE Deputy Director will have strong epidemiologic methodologic expertise, a demonstrated history of transformational organizational leadership, strong staff management skills, experience implementing complex projects and multiple deadlines, and a deep understanding of root causes and risk factors for community health. This position will support the Director of OSE and will collaborate closely with the Bureau Director and Bureau Deputy Directors to oversee strategic planning, support the development of epidemiologic/data infrastructure, coordinated communication, deployment of health equity initiatives, robust analytic methods, and participation in interdisciplinary cross-divisional data initiatives.

The Deputy Director will be responsible for the coordination and oversight of epidemiological support and staff for one of the two programmatic branches within BCHAP, either the Healthy Youth, Violence and Injury Prevention Branch, or the Prevention and Wellness Branch. Content areas will be determined based on the incumbent’s background and expertise.  Together, these branches cover topics ranging from tobacco, cancer, violence and injury prevention, oral health, sexual health, rural health, community health workers, the built environment, school wellness, sexual assault, family planning, domestic violence, food access, transportation, integrated chronic disease prevention, positive youth development, suicide, overdoses, and more.  Experience in one or more of these specific topic areas is preferred.  The incumbent will also need to demonstrate a strong ability to integrate a health equity lens into any work done in these areas.

 

Duties and Responsibilities (These duties and responsibilities are not all inclusive):

1. Partnering with the Director and Bureau leadership to implement a strong vision for organizational change. This includes partnering with the director to develop data-driven strategic plans for OSE as well as the programs we support to help us better understand the most pressing health problems facing the Commonwealth, how effective we have been in addressing them, who is disproportionately impacted by these problems, and where we should prioritize our efforts in the future.  The Deputy will be expected to lead identification of new standard operating procedures, technical assistance, dissemination products, and guidance needed to better fulfill our core epidemiologic functions in alignment with the Office and Bureau’s mission.
2. Maintenance of day-to-day data infrastructure for the Office. The Deputy will work with the Director to ensure core data infrastructure is maintained for OSE including maintenance of privacy and confidentiality standards, institutional review board applications and requirements, document reviewing, fulfilling of data requests, involvement in quality improvement and assurance initiatives, deployment of consistent health equity standards, responsiveness to policy and legislative data needs, and advocacy for data infrastructure and modernization.  The Deputy will be part of the OSE management team which coordinates operations for the Office, including liaising with Human Relations, Information Technology, and Labor Relations.
3. Staff management. The Deputy will be expected to provide strong supervision and mentoring for senior epidemiologists within their topic areas, as well as oversee the grant applications, hiring, and human resource needs of all epidemiologic staff in those content areas. They will also partner with the director to identify and support staff professional development needs, and to create a nurturing, collaborative, supportive work environment for all OSE staff.
4. Strong epidemiological methodological skills for oversight of all evaluation, surveillance, and research projects.  The Deputy will partner with the Director and senior epidemiologists to ensure rigorous methodologic standards are applied to all evaluation, surveillance, and research projects within their content areas by providing grant writing support, staff technical assistance, analytic guidance, review/editing of dissemination products, input on evaluation plans/reports, and more.  Supporting staff in the application of rigorous methods to better understand and explain health disparities will be a core responsibility of the position.
5. Representation of OSE and BCHAP in inter-bureau/inter-agency data initiatives.  The Deputy will work with the director and bureau leadership to represent the bureau and office in a range of inter-bureau, inter-agency, and externally facing stakeholder collaborations related to the topics they cover, data infrastructure overall, and cross cutting health equity concerns.