Project Manager, Research and Evaluation Group

Posted by Public Health Management Corporation on March 16, 2015

PROJECT MANAGER

Research & Evaluation Group at PHMC

POSITION DESCRIPTION FOR EXTERNAL POSTING

POSTING DATE: March 4, 2015

ABOUT PHMC:
PHMC is a 501(c)(3) non‐profit corporation founded in 1972. It is a member institute of the National Network of Public Health Institutes, and is designated as the Public Health Institute for the State of Pennsylvania. For 40 years, PHMC has been working in partnership with communities, government, the health care sector, and other non-profit agencies to address the public health challenges facing southeastern Pennsylvania. PHMC employees share a passion and commitment to improving the lives of the region’s most vulnerable citizens. While PHMC’s focus has always been on serving the southeastern PA region, some of its programs have a multi-state focus, and a few are national in scope. Major program areas at PHMC include behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, primary health care, chronic disease prevention, health promotion, child welfare, early childhood education, services to the homeless, and criminal justice services. To learn more about PHMC and its many programs, visit http://www.phmc.org.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH AND EVALUATION GROUP AT PHMC:
PHMC’s Research and Evaluation Group has been the backbone of the organization’s program monitoring and performance improvement efforts, working in partnership with programmatic staff across the organization to support and strengthen the delivery of best practices agency-wide. PHMC’s Research and Evaluation Group has also worked closely with hundreds of external organizations to design, implement and evaluate the impact of a diverse portfolio of public health programs. Our team has completed a wide variety of community needs assessments, program evaluations, and scientific research projects during the past 40 years. Some of our current research and evaluation studies focus on statewide and regional tobacco prevention, cessation and control; violence prevention and human trafficking; LGBT health and wellness; maternal and child health; substance use and behavioral health; HIV/AIDS prevention; nutrition and food security; chronic disease prevention; injury prevention; emergency preparedness; and, worksite wellness.

Our work is primarily conducted in Southeastern PA, however we are also actively involved in research across the State of PA, and are leading evaluations of public health programs in other States. We also are leading studies with a national focus. Our funders and clients include: federal, state and local government; private and non-profit organizations, including foundations and community-based organizations; health care systems; and, national organizations and their regional chapters.

JOB OVERVIEW:
PHMC’s Research and Evaluation Group is seeking a full-time, experienced Project Manager to join its team. The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that data and evaluation projects within the research department operate efficiently and effectively. The Project Manager will work on multiple public health evaluations and research projects, and will be responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of these projects. The Project Manager reports to the Senior Project Director, and has responsibility for the supervision of Research Assistants, Interviewers and Student Interns. Because the Project Manager is responsible for leading some evaluation projects, he/she should be comfortable with communicating with funders, preparing and monitoring budgets, contract development, and related project administration functions. In addition to primary responsibility for project management, Project Managers contribute to the growth of the department through the pursuit of new funding via contracts, grants, and partnerships. Key duties include:

 Participating in developing and implementing evaluation plans for an array of public health programs.
 Drafting research materials, protocols and guidance documents.
 Collecting and tracking data. Conducting data collection activities such as interviews, focus groups, surveys, and observations.
 Data analysis and report preparation.

The Project Manager reports to the Senior Project Director.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
 Leading the day to day operations of and participating in research and evaluation projects. Activities may include organizing and participating in data collection, oversight of database creation and maintenance for research projects, participating in developing data analysis plans and interpretation of analyses.
 Supervision and mentoring of research assistants and students. Train and supervise research assistants and students to conduct their responsibilities for research projects, such as data collection, data abstraction, qualitative or quantitative analysis, preparation of presentations. We are committed to a culture of learning, and expect that Project Managers will mentor junior staff under their supervision.
 Grant writing. The Research and Evaluation Group is dependent upon funding via grants and contracts. The Project Manager will have the opportunity to support grant development, and also to lead grant applications. Project Managers are expected to contribute to identifying new funding opportunities and to leading the submission of 2 proposals per year. The Project Manager also will provide significant support to senior staff with the completion of grants and proposals.
 Manuscript writing. The Project Manager will have the opportunity to participate in writing manuscripts for publication as an author or co-author.
 Production and management of research-related documents and materials. Responsible for creating or supervising the creation of important study documents and systems for maintaining documents. These documents include but are not limited to letters, recruitment materials, questionnaires, protocol documents and consent forms, study procedure manuals, manuscripts, and presentations.
 Compliance with project reporting and documentation to internal and external organizations. Responsible for identifying, tracking and contributing to the fulfillment of reporting and documentation requirements related to each research project. These include but are not limited to interim progress reports and final reports.
 Working to develop new research collaborations. Working with colleagues, develop new research collaborations with other researchers and with community partners, especially community agencies focused on public health.
 Knowledge of basic programming and analyses. Ability to develop small datasets for analyses and conduct basic descriptive and bivariate analyses. Ability to conduct inferential statistical analysis (e.g., regression analyses) highly desired. Mapping and spatial analytics skills also highly desired.
 Continuous knowledge development. The Project Manager will have the opportunity to, and be expected to, participate in a minimum of 2 new training or professional development opportunities each year focused on knowledge and skills development.
 Represent PHMC and the Research and Evaluation Group at national, state and local meetings and conferences to communicate accomplishments and share information about our work, and to build new opportunities for partnership and funding support.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:
-Minimum of 3 years of experience carrying out similar duties described herein is required.
-Candidates must have the ability to conceptualize research problems, design and implement appropriate research methods, apply appropriate quantitative and qualitative techniques, and effectively communicate both orally and in writing with internal colleagues, constituents, funders and clients.
-We currently have a need for expertise in criminal justice research, chronic disease prevention and primary care, behavioral health, and early childhood education.
-Demonstrated technical proficiency in office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
-Experienced in use of statistical analysis tools, such as SPSS, Stata, or SAS. Experience with mapping software desired.
-Must be proficient in descriptive statistics; experience with inferential statistics desired. Experience with cost-benefit or economic analysis desired.
-Demonstrated expertise in preparation of state-of-the-art data presentation materials including figures,
tables and graphs and communication tools for different target audiences. Experience with infographics
highly desired.
-Demonstrated proficiency in managing budgets and financial information, preparing invoices to comply with
requirements, and generating routine user-friendly reports to funders.
-Experience in supervision and mentoring of others.
-Experience in handling confidential information according to regulations including study subject enrollment,
payment records, and confidential correspondence.
-Expert knowledge of literature searching and retrieval required.
-Experience preparing required materials for grant applications.

EDUCATION REQUIREMENT:
Minimum of a master’s degree in Public Health, Health Services Research, Psychology, Criminology, or other relevant field is required.

SALARY:
Grade 19
Salary is commensurate with experience. PHMC offers an extremely competitive benefits package to its employees, including but not limited to paid time off for personal, sick, vacation and holidays; health and dental insurance; company paid pension plan; a 403B tax deferred annuity plan; flexible spending account; and, transportation benefits program.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Forward Resume and Cover Letter to the PHMC Research and Evaluation Group at: [email protected]