Country: Liberia
Closing date: 16 Jul 2018
About Last Mile Health
Last Mile Health (LMH) saves lives in the world’s most remote communities by partnering with governments to bring critical primary care services to the doorsteps of people living in the last mile. Last Mile Health is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization with offices in Liberia, Boston and New York. For more information, visit www.lastmilehealth.org.
The Community Health Academy ("Academy") is seeking to reinvent the training of community health workers and the leaders who support them for the digital age. The Academy has established the world's first digital Continuing Education (CE) platform tailored for community health workers and the supervisors, managers and policymakers who support them.
In partnership with governments, the private sector, philanthropic and non-governmental organizations, the Academy enables community health workers to receive the very best in continuing clinical education resources like video lessons on promoting family planning and podcasts on identifying the next outbreaks, and will support countries to develop accreditation programs for community health workers so they don't remain an undervalued group, but become a renowned, empowered profession like nurses and doctors.
In parallel, the Academy will also develop a continuing professional education platform creating a free, open, online continuing professional education platform leveraging massive open online courses and supporting local communities of practice - for policy makers, managers, supervisors working to build stronger systems to support these community health workers.
Watch Last Mile Health CEO Raj Panjabi's TED Prize Talk, which articulates the vision for the Academy to contribute to the training of hundreds of thousands of community health workers and the leaders who support them - from the forest communities of West Africa to fishing villages of Alaska, from the hilltops of Appalachia to the mountain tops of Afghanistan.
General Position Summary
The Regional Engagement Director – West and Central Africa, Community Health Academy, is a high-performing leader who will engage and manage relationships with Community Health Academy users and partners, including country governments, academic institutions, clinical experts, health service delivery organizations, CHWs, and CHW supervisors. The Director will be responsible for generating interest in the Academy from users and partners in the region. He/she will serve as a link between the region and headquarters and will serve as a representative of the Executive Director in the region. The Director will also contribute to content development for two digital health education platforms – the Health Systems Leadership Development and Continuing Clinical Education platforms.
This is a two (2) year fixed term position with possible extension contingent on funding. This position will be housed at the University of Liberia as part of a collaboration and collaborate closely with faculty members.
Essential Job Functions
Engage and manage Community Health Academy users and partners.
- Lead the implementation of the Continuing Clinical Education (CCE) and Health Systems Leadership Development (HSLD) platforms at the country level, working with users (CHWs and CHW supervisors) and partners (country governments, academic institutions, clinical experts, and health service delivery organizations).
- Generate interest and engagement in the Academy from users and partners; leverage this interest and engagement to develop business for the Academy.
- Manage relationships/engagements with government partners to negotiate the digitization of national CHW curricula.
- Contribute to content development for the CCE and HSLD platforms, including training curricula and the digitization of training curricula.
- Identify and cultivate new partners as necessary to implement CCE and HSLD platforms.
- Lead the coordination of a Regional Faculty Network to create and deliver content for the both the CCE and HSLD platforms, including identifying faculty members for the network and chairing the network.
Serve as the link between the region and headquarters.
- Collaborate with headquarters leadership (Executive Director, Director of Operations and Director of Health Systems Leadership Development) to ensure alignment between headquarters and the field on the implementation of the CCE and HSLD platforms.
- Provide technical assistance to countries and partners on implementing the CCE and HSLD platforms.
- Identify and manage local consultants to source, adapt, or develop training content.
- Coordinate the delivery of in-person trainings, including working with partners delivering training content.
- Serve as a representative of the Executive Director at the regional/country-level as needed or delegated.
- Collaborate with other Regional Engagement Directors through regular calls.
- Collaborate with University of Liberia (the institution at which this position will be housed) senior academic staff and Last Mile Health senior leadership in Liberia to ensure alignment between the Academy, the University of Liberia, and Last Mile Health.
Contribute to the creation and adaptation of CHW training curricula and Health Systems Leaders training curricula.
- Lead the coordination of country-level partners on the creation and adaptation of training curricula.
- Contribute to the review and revision of existing curricula from country governments and training/implementing partners for quality assurance.
- Identify gaps in training curricula and create/source content where gaps exist.
- Assist in the adaptation of existing curricula for digitization on the CCE and HSLD platforms, in consultation with partners, the Senior Educational Technologist and Directors of CCE and HSLD.
- Identify new in-country partners as necessary to create or enhance training content.
Qualifications
- A minimum of a Master of Public Health
- A Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Nursing Practice, a Master Science in Nursing, or a PhD in a health-related field would be an advantage.
- Bilingual: French and English (spoken and written) as a minimum.
- 8-10 years of work experience, with some of this experience focused on clinical education for frontline health workers and/or management practices for health systems leaders
- Minimum of 5 years of managerial experience
- Experience in using web-based or digital platforms for delivering education content
- Experience working alongside government partners and operational partners in the implementation of health programs
- Experience in training facilitation and delivery, curriculum design, and instructional design
- Experience in business development in the non-profit or private sector
- Experience working in and/or developing a social enterprise would be an advantage
- Strong relationship building and management skills
- Existing relationships with relevant health and education sector partners
- Knowledge of effective clinical practices for frontline health workers and management practices for health systems leaders
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Strong project management skills
- Understanding of the use of digital platforms for clinical education
- Understanding of designing/adapting curriculum for digitization
- Experience working in international settings
- High level of initiative to innovate with limited guidance
- Commitment to health and social justice
- Comfort working with a casual but high-performing team
- Ability to work with remote teams and remote supervision
- Ability to work in a flexible and adaptable manner as part of a start-up initiative
How to apply: