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Executive Director of Creative Communications, Bureau of Communications

City of New York

Job Description

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:

1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods

3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness

4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health

5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

PROGRAM AND JOB DESCRIPTION:

Our Agency’s strategic priorities are:

To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a response-ready organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to health care systems

To address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and transform our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods

To address the second pandemic of mental illness including reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness

To reduce black maternal mortality and make NYC a model city for women’s health

To mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus Agency colleagues bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in NYC, the Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism a public health crisis.

With a commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community-based organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes. The Office of External Affairs oversees many of the agency’s most critical interactions with the public, from raising awareness and promoting healthy behaviors to advancing policies and responding to health emergencies. The office serves as the agency’s in-house publisher, advertiser and marketer of trendsetting, culturally responsive campaigns and initiatives, maintains a strong digital presence, and oversees press relations and government affairs.

Under the supervision of the Assistant Commissioner for Communications, the Executive Director of Creative Communications will direct and coordinate all agency creative communications and will lead efforts to better align the department with organizational priorities. This role oversees the agency’s Publications, Health Media & Marketing, Digital Communications, and Language Services teams, and serves as the advisor on all communications matters. The Executive Director of Creative Communications oversees each of the team’s directors (four direct reports) and their teams, which total over 40 staff members.

The Executive Director of Creative Communications is responsible for developing and driving a comprehensive communications program centered around the role of public health in the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers, ensuring that agency priorities and programmatic activities are understood in the context of an overall healthy New York.

The Executive Director of Creative Communications advises on the agency’s communication strategy and vision, and its proactive and reactive public health messaging on a wide variety of topics. This includes the development and execution of communications campaigns and assets to support and promote priorities; the creation and implementation of wide-reaching public health communication campaigns; and the management and mentorship of the Creative Communications team.

The Executive Director of Creative Communications is a dynamic position with latitude to shape the future of best practices in public health communications with reach beyond NYC.

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

  • Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Creative Communications team including shaping the language, images and media that represent public health in NYC.
  • Maintain and develop the schedule of publications, marketing campaigns, digital assets, and language services.
  • Ensure communication messages are harmonized and coordinated on multiple platforms.
  • Oversee more than 40 staff members.
  • Work in collaboration with OEA Administration on vendor relations, contracts, requests-for proposal, and manage campaign budgets.
  • Work with the Assistant Commissioner for Communications to identify opportunities to elevate and communicate public health priorities.
  • Liaise and coordinate with City Hall Communications.
  • Integrate creativity, innovation, and best practices from other fields into public health messaging.

Qualifications

We are looking for a strategic thinker with sound judgment and a minimum of 5 years of experience in health communications, public relations, journalism, media, political communications, or public affairs.

You must have a knowledge of city, state, and federal government entities; be an excellent manager, communications expert, and flexible collaborator; able to deal with multiple and changing demands in a very fast-paced and highly impactful communications and policy environment; and have experience in public health or a strong interest in population health and advancing the health goals of all New Yorkers.

You also have:

  • An ability to build and maintain effective working relationships across the Department and with outside agencies.
  • A commitment to anti-racism and building social justice and equity initiatives, data, and messaging into all that we do.
  • Exceptional prioritization and time management skills with a demonstrated, proven ability to manage a diverse and demanding workload in a fast-paced environment.
  • Embrace ambiguity, including a willingness to tackle any challenge with creative solutions to build pathways and get the job done.
  • A high degree of self-awareness, humility, and diplomacy.

Additional Information

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

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Confirmed 5 hours ago. Posted 30+ days ago.

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