Who We Are
Healthier Generation is a leading children’s health non-profit that promotes equitable whole child health so that every mind, everybody, and every young person can be healthy and ready to succeed. We believe a dedicated, intensified movement that centers equity in health practices and policies wherever kids live, learn, and play is required to achieve dramatic improvements in the health and life outcomes of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, as well as communities experiencing deep poverty.
Healthier Generation works nationally and locally with schools and school districts, youth-serving organizations, businesses, and communities – building their capacity to create healthier environments where young people can thrive. Our work, in total, has reached more than 31 million children and meaningfully improved environments to support the physical, social, and emotional health of the next generation—especially those from underserved communities. Our programs are evidenced-based and evidence-informed, supported by a robust digital/virtual/live training platform and action center, as well as direct-to-community services. Through Healthier Generation programs, products, and services, more children nationwide are gaining the opportunity to build a healthy future.
The Opportunity – What You Will Do
Healthier Generation is seeking a dynamic and passionate leader to serve as its Chief Program Officer (CPO). Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, he/she/they will provide overall vision and strategic thought leadership for fueling and operationalizing innovative national and local program initiatives. In addition, he/she/they are responsible for developing these innovative ideas and concepts within a network of philanthropic partners in order to advance the organization’s $14M and growing annual revenue goal.
As an integral member of the Executive Leadership team, this position is responsible for leading strategic planning and budget management and implementing key collaborations with youth-serving and community-based organizations, key partners, and funders that support the achievement of strategic goals. He/she/they are subject matter experts on advancing equitable whole child health, and can authentically advocate for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion through role modeling within the internal teams as well as with external constituents. This position supports the supervision of and directs the work of Healthier Generation’s school and community programs along with a leadership team and staff of approximately 25 and fluctuates based on grant funding.
Executive Leadership and Programmatic Vision (45%)
- Partner with the CEO and executive leadership to develop and execute the strategic vision and business plan relevant to programs.
- Teach and develop staff to advance professional development and knowledge of evidence-based and evidence-informed practices.
- Work with leaders across the organization to continually assess and improve the scalability in community engagement and virtual delivery, balancing continued growth with long-term sustainability.
- Lead the budget development process for programs and maintain a high level of fiscal responsibility.
- Collaborate with senior leadership to develop operational plans and organizational goals.
- Center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in all aspects of leadership, communications, and practice.
- Oversee whole child health programmatic development and operations, while providing leadership opportunities to guide planning and implementation processes.
- Assess and evaluate potential mission-aligned programming, including reach, impact, cost, and opportunity, partner with senior leaders on development of new initiatives.
- Implement and lead a continuous quality improvement process throughout program and service areas, focusing on systems/process improvement.
- Develop, cultivate and manage key collaborations that will extend and sustain the strategic objectives of programs.
- Serve as a thought partner to inform the development of technology tools that enable strong program delivery, client engagement, and progress tracking.
Advance Programmatic Partnerships & Funding (45%)
- Serve as national thought leader and brand ambassador for social and economic impact of Healthier Generation’s strategic framework.
- Research, identify and steward fundraising partnerships between Healthier Generation and national and state institutional and government partners.
- Strategically imagine and design grant/funding opportunities to advance programmatic initiatives and long-term goals.
- Research and seek opportunities to enhance programmatic work to increase visibility by leveraging existing relationships with funders, allies, and partners, communities, policymakers, by creating new strategic partnerships.
- Partner with the business development and fundraising team to develop new revenue generating opportunities to grow and diversify fee-for-service funding sources (mission related sales and services).
- Serve as a key relationship builder and holder with established key funders and/or assign key relationships to program leadership, especially as it relates to designing fundable, relevant programs and initiatives.
- Ensure timely delivery of all grant deliverables and responsible budget management.
Talent Development and Steward of Culture (10%)
- Lead a high performing, diverse team of programmatic leadership and staff to the next level by further developing and implementing recruitment, training, and retention strategies.
- Ensure strong, core-values-driven organizational culture and productive engagement across departmental functions.
- Leverage communication skills to develop, coach, and mentor teams centering in an inclusive, equitable, supportive, collaborative, and strengths-based approach in enabling a culture of trust, collaboration, and shared accountability.
Required Competencies: Who You Are
You should have a genuine interest in and commitment to making kids’ lives healthier. You are a dedicated equity driven, solution-oriented professional who values community centered approach and systems-level change. Your ability to prioritize tasks, build internal and external relationships and be self-driven prepares you for this position.
Your professional experience will show that you practice many of the following Healthier Generation core values:
- Mission driven: You are passionate about creating equitable environments for young people and believe every mind, every body, and every young person should be healthy and ready to succeed. You demonstrate passion for school and youth-serving organizations, health and wellness, quality standards and processes.
- Crave Solutions: You strategize to transform systems and drive sustainability through evidence-based, data-driven approaches. You have an ability to assess and identify significant opportunities and potential problems and develop feasible solutions to address the problem.
- Bridge Builders: Making intentional and effective connections externally and internally to fulfill our purpose. You can build and maintain relationships with a variety of diverse stakeholders and have an understanding of the challenges facing communities that serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color populations.
- Engage and connect: You demonstrate professionalism and courtesy with open and proactive communication to increase synergy. You assume best intentions and practice self-management and empathy to acknowledge our own and each other’s perspective. You can effectively provide and receive feedback that is constructive, timely, as appropriate.
- Never settle: You strive constantly for excellence and equity with an eagerness to improve and a zeal to stand up for generations of healthy, thriving kids. You have demonstrated knowledge and experience in cultural competency and applying an equity mindset with colleagues, leaders, stakeholders, and communities.
- Virtually here: You respect the time and contributions of colleagues by being punctual, attentive, and responsive in all virtual settings. You use available technology to create an environment that facilitates person-to-person connectivity and workflow. You also have effective presentation skills (internal, external, small, large, conference calls, in-person).
Education and experience requirements for this role:
- Bachelor’s Degree in a related field or comparable combination of education and experience; an advanced degree in a related field or commensurate combination is strongly preferred.
- 15 or more years of progressive experience in a senior leadership role within a complex organization.
- 10 or more years program leadership experience in a non-profit environment and leading large teams.
- Demonstrated track record of successful engagement and cultivation of new funding relationships at the six- and seven- figure levels– especially national corporations and/or foundations.
- Demonstrated experience leading, supporting, coaching, developing, and supervising large teams across multiple time zones.
- Experience developing strategic, operational, and implementation plans.
- Experience managing change and developing culture in a collaborative and remote work environment.
- Experience in promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at the system level as evidenced through policy changes and applied practices.
Other Requirements
- Demonstrated ability in project management needed to lead and help fund a national and dispersed program.
- Prior experience in developing and managing budgets.
- Broad knowledge of the school and youth-serving environment and established credibility with the education, youth development and health communities.
- Demonstrated ability in leading a large-scale team to results and managing both people leaders as well as individual contributors.
- Proven success in stewarding multiple funding relationships, securing grant funding, ongoing grant management and working with multiple budgets.
- Leading with equitable and inclusive language both orally and in written form; ability to influence and engage a wide range of individuals and build long-term relationships.
- Ability to work both independently without close oversight, but also a team player who will productively engage with others at varying levels of seniority within and outside the organization.
- Strong organizational and time management skills with exceptional attention to detail.
- Ability to manage multiple competing, complex tasks and projects at the same time.
Travel Requirements:
- Up to 30% of regular travel, often regionally or domestically.
Compensation and Benefits
At Healthier Generation, we believe in a holistic approach to rewarding and supporting staff. We work to balance financial stability with competitive pay and meaningful benefits – while offering unmatched schedule flexibility and mission-based work. Some of the benefits we offer include:
- Flexible PTO (available immediately upon hire)
- 100% remote work, highly flexible work environment
- Competitive health benefits program and employer contributions
- Professional development and learning opportunities
- 401(k) employer match of up to 4%, with 100% vesting of the match upon hire
- Stipend income to support communication and wellness in the amount of $1,500 per year (in per-paycheck increments)
Each job at Healthier Generation is assigned to a salary grade built on market data. For this position, the targeted salary range is between $165,600 - $186,300.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is committed to Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, or veteran status in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.