Job Opening: Community of Practice Coordinator -- DiSTRIBuTE Project

Overview
The mission of the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) is to improve population health by advancing the field of disease surveillance. The Society provides an educational and scientific forum to explore and address population health monitoring across institutional and professional boundaries. The DiSTRIBuTE project was developed by ISDS members as a distributed, influenza surveillance system. DiSTRIBuTE uses aggregate, influenza like illness (ILI) emergency department data from existing syndromic surveillance systems developed by state and local public health departments.

ISDS is seeking an experienced public health professional for a grant-funded project that could develop into a longer term opportunity, based on performance and future funding. The DiSTRIBuTE Community of Practice Coordinator (CoP Coordinator), working under the direction of the Sr. Project Manager and in collaboration with the Scientific Director and other members of the project team, will be responsible for recruiting, enrolling and facilitating the rapid expansion of the DiSTRIBuTE Community of Practice. Currently the DiSTRIBuTE Community of Practice is a 10 site proof-of-concept project which will expand nation-wide to improve the timeliness, availability and accessibility of syndromic surveillance information related to H1N1 influenza cases and outbreaks in the United States.

Job Description
The CoP Coordinator will have excellent group facilitation and meeting coordination skills, as well as strong communications and organizational capabilities, to coordinate the rapid expansion of a diverse and dynamic, geographically dispersed DiSTRIBuTE Community of Practice (CoP). This person will ideally have close working relationships within the public health surveillance community and will be highly motivated to ensure that the DiSTRIBuTE CoP succeeds in meeting project goals. The CoP Coordinator will champion the CoP’s success in developing a national, distributed influenza surveillance system and work with the Sr. Project Manager, Scientific Director and others to ensure that communications about the project flow to and from participating sites to the sponsors, stakeholders and other DiSTRIBuTE team members. Other duties may include: providing perspectives and resources to participating DiSTRIBuTE sites; periodically reviewing progress and developmental needs of current and future sites; ensuring that data submission and reporting needs of sites are met; troubleshooting data collection and submission problems in collaboration with the DiSTRIBuTE Technical Site Liaisons; and building collaborative relationships with officials and sponsors from other national, state and local agencies. The CoP Coordinator will report directly to the Sr. Project Manager with a matrix reporting relationship to the Scientific Director.

Duties
• Develop documents to be used to recruite new sites that communicate the Federal/State/Local plans for summarized ILI surveilance and the importance of participation in the DiSTRIBuTE CoP.
• Work the DiSTRIBuTE Public Health Site Liaisons to recruit sites into the DiSTRIBuTE CoP and facilitiate connection with DiSTRIBuTE Technical Site Liasions to establish and maintain the collection and submission of data to the DiSTRIBuTE website.
• Support new and existing DiSTRIBuTE CoP sites.
• Moderate CoP discussion web group, manage two-way social media conversations.
• Organize and run meetings weekly webinar/conference calls; ensure that meetings stay on track, and that meeting goals are accomplished.
• Organize community documents (charter, agendas, meeting minutes, etc.) and produce weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports and post to the DiSTRIBuTE website as appropriate.
• With the Sr. Project Manager, Scientific Director and others, manage effective distribution of the CoP’s messages and findings to users, working group members and stakeholders.

Skills
Highly organized and self-directed with ability to work with minimal supervision; excellent people and team building skills; detail- and results-oriented, a fast learner and flexible; ability to prioritize and multi-task effectively; excellent written/verbal communication skills, ability to work in a time-sensitive, deadline driven, political environment. Extensive travel may be required in early stages of the project.

Experience
A minimum of 5 years experience in public health ideally working within a local health department on planning or training projects. Strong knowledge of MS tools including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Familiarity with and experience managing virtual and face-to-face meetings and communitications including email, conference calling, webinars, bulletin boards and blogs. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, Master’s in Public Health preferred.

How to Apply
Resumes should be sent to: Barbara Honthumb, Sr. Consultant Finance and Planning, Tufts Health Care Institute (THCI)