at American Heart Association in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Job Description
Overview
As we celebrate our Centennial year, we invite you to join us in shaping the next century of impact. Be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives as we remain devoted to a future of health and hope for everyone, everywhere. At the American Heart Association, your contribution matters, and so does your career.
The American Heart Association has an excellent opportunity for a National Senior Advocacy Consultant in our National Center office located in Dallas, TX. ( Flexible work arrangements available )
Voices for Healthy Kids, an innovative initiative of the American Heart Association, works around the country to improve or build equitable policies at the tribal, state and local levels to make the places kids live, learn, and play healthier. The Voices initiative is committed to advancing health and racial equity through elevating public health issues by centering the communities most impacted by the needed policy changes. Voices has also contributed to growing access to decision-makers and building the advocacy skills and capacity of small, community-based organizations led by and representing Black, African American, Latino, Native American, Alaskan Native, Hawaiian Native, Pacific Islander, and Asian American communities and families with low incomes. Those skills and relationships are carried over into any other issues these grantees and partners work on in the future.
The Voices for Healthy Kids National Senior Advocacy Consultant is responsible for providing strategic consultation and mentorship, as well as technical assistance to policy change campaigns across the country starting where the needs are greatest and disparities exist. National Senior Advocacy Consultants work to boost capacity and build skills to increase the potential to pass good public policy today and, in the future, all with a focus on equity. National Senior Advocacy Consultants are colleagues, thought partners, sounding boards, innovative thinkers and cheerleaders in developing and refining campaign strategy with a continuous focus on building equity; supporting campaigns to find paths to success and the meaningful engagement of community; and partners on the best practices for building capacity and transferring power to organizations and individuals most impacted by disparities.
(This is a grant funded position with funding through 1/30/2025. Funding likely to extend)
The Association offers many resources to help you maintain work-life harmonization through your changing needs and life situations. To help you be successful, you will have access to Heart U, our award-winning corporate university, as well as additional training and support, locally.
\#TheAHALife is our company culture, our way of life, reflecting our diversity, equity & inclusion, our focus on work-life harmonization and our Guiding Values. Discover why you will Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Valued at the American Heart Association by following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and at heart.jobs.
Responsibilities
+ Support effective relationship management and provide effective, strategic consultation to policy change campaigns with a strong emphasis on building capacity and growing equity.
+ Provide excellent direct technical assistance, as well as connecting campaigns with other staff and technical assistance providers, for strategic campaign planning, coalition development, communications and media advocacy, community organizing and engagement, decision maker advocacy, issue expertise, equity and anti-racism, power sharing and building, fundraising & sustainability, policy analysis & development, and science & research, as well as training needs. Facilitate and lead affinity calls and peer workgroups.
+ Lead strategic planning on assigned issue areas to build and support short- and long-term plans for moving policy issues forward with the goals of capacity-building and passing good public policy.
+ Collaborate internally with American Heart Associations’ Advocacy Enterprise including serving as the Issues Specialist on specifically assigned issue(s), including understanding the overall policy direction for the issue, campaign activities inside and outside American Heart Association around the country, emerging trends and tactics, and managing relationships with related national and regional stakeholders.
+ Build and foster relationships with diverse local, regional, and national organizations and develop sustainable engagement strategies to support the movement for healthier kids.
Qualifications
+ Proven knowledge of tribal, local, state, and federal government activities and structures.
+ Five years of Direct lobbying experience at the federal, state or local level.
+ Five years of experience in advocacy/public policy including strategic campaign planning and management, community organization/mobilization, media/communications, and grassroots advocacy tactic development and implementation.
+ Proven understanding of health equity and structural racism and the role it plays in public policy and experience working in/with historically and/or systemically oppressed and marginalized communities.
+ Capacity to learn new software and processes for managing data and constituency relationships.
+ Desire to be a part of and sustain an inclusive and equitable work environment that challenges us all to grow and build a just community.
+ Organizational, project management, and prioritization skills with the ability to meet multiple deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
+ Strong interpersonal skills. The ability to work as a self-starter and interdependently with volunteers, staff, and the public as part of a team.
+ Voices for Healthy Kids believes that lived experiences are important qualifications in community-driven policy change work and seeks lived experience in our candidates.
Preferred Qualifications
+ Knowledge of voluntary health organizations or nonprofit organizations
+ Experience working in public health policy
+ Exceptional oral and written communication skills.
+ Bi-lingual skills preferred
Compensation & Benefits
Expected pay range will be $85,000 – $95,000. Pay is commensurate with experience; geographic differentials to the pay range may apply. The American Heart Association reserves the right to pay more or less than the posted range.
The American Heart Association invests in its people. Here are the main components of our total rewards package. Visit Rewards & Benefits to see more details.
+ Compensation – Our goal is to ensure you have a competitive base salary. That’s why we regularly review the market value of jobs and make adjustments, as needed.
+ Performance and Recognition – You are rewarded for achieving success by merit increases and incentive programs, based on the type of position.
+ Benefits – We offer a wide array of benefits including medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance, along with a robust retirement program that includes an employer match and automatic contribution. As a mark of our commitment to employee well-being, we also offer an employee assistance program, employee wellness program and telemedicine, and medical consultation.
+ Professional Development - You can join one of our many Employee Resource Groups (ERG) or be a mentor/mentee in our professional mentoring program. HeartU is the Association’s national online university, with more than 100,000 resources designed to meet your needs and busy schedule.
+ Work-Life Harmonization - The Association offers Paid Time Off (PTO) at a minimum of 16 days per year for new employees. The number of days will increase based on seniority level. You will also have a total of 12 paid holidays off each year, which includes several days off at the end of the year.
+ Tuition Assistance – We support the career deve