Senior Public Health Specialist - Emergency Preparedness and Response

About the position The Senior Emergency Preparedness Specialist is a leader in public health emergency preparedness and response. The position is responsible for emergency planning, project coordination, grant management, and department readiness. Job duties require extensive collaboration with partners in the city and across the metro area. This position will work extensively with the City’s Emergency Management Department to ensure the City approaches emergency preparedness and response with one set of objectives.

Responsibilities

• Administer and implement a training and education curriculum that supports all personnel who have a role in public health emergency preparedness as part of a department-wide, multi-year emergency preparedness education, training, testing, exercise program in accordance with grant requirements and citywide emergency response standards.
• Maintain professional and collaborative relationships with city staff from all departments, the public, officials from other governmental and industry groups, and emergency responders from multiple jurisdictions as a means of aligning resources and preparing them for emergency responses.
• Maintain strong partnerships with other local, state, and federal agencies.
• Support regional, state, and national response and recovery efforts through mutual aid, incident management teams and similar regional, state, or federal organizations and deploy with such organizations as warranted.
• Support the development of a department-wide, multi-year emergency preparedness education, training, testing, exercise program, and interpret and apply State and Federal guidance to assure compliance.
• Coordinate with other City staff across departments to deliver accurate, critical information about health preparedness during emergencies.
• Participate in formulating operational plans, and advising on department policy, department incident management team organization structure, and staffing decisions.
• Coordinate, evaluate, and improve all activities related to the public health preparedness program within the Health Department.
• Assess overall emergency preparedness against established metrics based on performance in assessments, federal reviews, exercises and incidents capturing lessons learned that lead to program improvement.
• Lead the creation of After-Action Reports from actual emergency situations and/or training exercises; document relevant lessons learned that could improve the quality and effectiveness of the Health Department’s emergency operations plan.
• Work with key internal and external stakeholders in the planning process by using a whole community approach.
• Research and analyze emergency preparedness issues for department staff, City officials, and external sources.
• Represent the City of Minneapolis at various grant-required exercises, forums, meetings, task forces, work groups, etc.
• Support regional, state and national response and recovery efforts through mutual aid, incident management teams and similar regional, state or federal organizations and deploy with such organizations as warranted.
• Develop and maintain systems for inventory and accountability of assets, including but not limited to grant-funded assets.
• In coordination with City departments, consider technology enhancements for Health Department emergency preparedness.
• Anticipate future disasters and take preventative and preparatory measures to build disaster resistant and disaster-resilient communities.
• During emergency response operations for the Health Department, serve as a skilled staff position in Health Incident Command, including as command or general staff.
• For emergencies where the Health Department is not the lead, serve in an Incident Management Team role in the City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) under the direction of the EOC Director or designee.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in emergency management, public health or health care, nursing, human services, planning, public administration or equivalent degree in a closely related field.
• Minimum of 3 years relevant experience in health, public health, public administration, emergency management, public safety or disaster services.
• Equivalency An equivalent combination of education and highly related experience in a similar environment may be considered.
• Licensure Highly desirable before hire or must obtain licensure within 12 months of hire: Licensure FEMA IS 100, 200, 700, 800; FEMA ICS 300 and 400 Psychological First Aid Emergency Management Training Certificate from the State of Minnesota and/or a Certified Emergency Manager Certification through the International Association of Emergency Managers
• Must have comprehensive knowledge of national, state, and local emergency preparedness issues, and documented training in the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
• Must have comprehensive knowledge of public health functions and public health issues, with particular emphasis on public health emergency preparedness.
• Background or exposure to program or community initiative planning for public health, human services, or public safety.
• Experience in working with community or advocacy organizations helpful.
• Experienced in working with community agencies and neighborhood groups, particularly with diverse and special needs populations.
• Ability to work in an environment which requires flexibility, responsiveness, and multi-tasking.
• Experience in and ability to work in a collaborative environment, particularly with health care systems, public safety systems, multiple agencies, and levels of government.
• Ability to present information and ideas accurately, effectively, and concisely.
• Good written and verbal communication skills; exposure to and training in public speaking.
• Ability to gather, synthesize and communicate information about biological, chemical and other situations or agents requiring public health emergency response planning and implementation.
• Knowledge of contract management, grant writing, policy development and implementation.
• Familiarity with City of Minneapolis departments, staff, and capabilities.

Nice-to-haves

• Master’s degree is preferred.
• Fluency in another language helpful.

Benefits

• The City of Minneapolis does not sponsor applicants for work visas.

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