Regional Advisor for Infectious Diseases

Job Location: Washington, DC      

Telework Eligible: Yes, at least 3 days per week in-person reporting at Washington, DC office. 

Remote Eligible: No. 

Summary Statement:

The Public Health Institute (PHI) is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health, well-being, and quality of life for people throughout California, across the nation and around the world. As one of the largest and most comprehensive public health organizations in the nation, we are at the forefront of research and innovations to improve the efficacy of public health statewide, nationally, and internationally.

Credence and its partner, the Public Health Institute (PHI), are both employers for GHTASC, and are seeking a Regional Advisor for Infectious Diseases under GHTASC. This position will be hired under Public Health Institute (PHI).

The Global Health Training, Advisory and Support Contract (GHTASC) delivers effective global health programming to advance the mission of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Global Health (GH) through institutional support and workforce development services from junior, mid-level, senior and expert advisory and administrative professionals.

The Africa Bureau’s Office of Sustainable Development (AFR/SD) provides intellectual, technical, and strategic leadership to the bureau on sectoral policies, priorities, and budgets through analyses, strategy development, program design, technical assistance, advocacy, and information dissemination. It comprises four divisions: health; education; conflict, peacebuilding, and governance; and economic growth, agriculture, and trade.  AFR/SD’s Health Division (where this position will sit) is dedicated to improving health outcomes across Africa and supporting our Missions to do so. Programming of $13 million USD each year, the team focuses on: 1) strengthening, supporting, and elevating regional institutions and partnerships; 2) recognizing and leveraging multi-sectoral approaches responsive to key health and development challenges; and 3) identifying and communicating regional trends, challenges, and opportunities. The team, comprised of 18 technical experts spanning COVID-19, HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child health, family planning, health systems strengthening, and global health security builds relationships between AFR and other work units across the Agency and interagency, ensuring that AFR context is applied to global health policy, programming, and decision-making.  

The Bureau for Africa’s Health Division routinely partners with the Bureau for Global Health’s Office of Infectious Diseases Emerging Threat Division to support regional, sub-regional, and country-level preparedness and outbreak response activities on the continent. When it comes to combating new, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases, USAID plays a unique role supporting preparedness, detection, and response by bringing together technical and programmatic expertise in global health and humanitarian assistance along with country and regional expertise to produce a comprehensive and holistic approach to global health security. The Emerging Threats Division’s Global Health Security (GHS) Program provides support for countries and regions to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics more effectively. The GHS program implements projects across countries in Africa to include advancing country capacities in the International Health Regulations through the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), and provides a framework for international, multi-sectoral, intra-, and inter-agency collaboration and coordination. USAID supports GHS through a portfolio of activities implemented and coordinated by the Emerging Threats Division.

Full salary range for this position is $94,900 to $147,940 per year, with the starting salary determined based on candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.

Position Summary:

The Infectious Disease Advisor will primarily support the Health Division of the Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development as a PHI Institutional Support Contractor (ISC). In this role, the selected candidate is responsible for supporting USAID’s efforts to advance GHS across the African continent to assure that Bureau for Africa leadership is aware of USAID’s efforts in this space. The Infectious Disease Advisor will work in close collaboration with teammates in the Health Division and across the Bureau for Africa, the Emerging Threats Division in the Bureau for Global Health, as well as other USAID Bureaus, including the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance. They will coordinate strategic and technical support to USAID missions in the Africa region, conduct GHS program reviews, review regional infectious disease trends and analyze cross-sector factors that may contribute to outbreaks, draft communication materials related to infectious disease outbreaks, support outbreak response as needed in coordination with outbreak response teams, and support implementation of other Agency priorities as needed.

More specifically, the objective of this position is to provide coordination, partnership building, and programmatic support to promote successful implementation, monitoring, and reporting on GHS and new, emerging, and re-emerging infectious diseases across the African region. Successful completion of this objective will require intensive networking, collaboration, and coordination with a wide array of stakeholders including USAID missions in Africa, government partners, ministries, economic entities, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other implementing partners.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Be an Agency-wide Resource for Infectious Disease Issues:

• Conduct regional outbreak analyses and provide summaries to Agency, Bureau, and Mission leadership on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases across the African continent, providing technical support to advance strategies and programs that protect health, including and especially programs that prevent, detect, and respond to pandemic threats.
• Attend interagency technical meetings and discussions on infectious diseases, including outbreaks in the Africa region; actively consult and coordinate with relevant organizations internal and external to the U.S. Government.
• Participate in interagency outbreak response activities for the Africa region; provide guidance during disease outbreak situations, to ensure USAID assets are well coordinated and aligned to support U.S. Government, partner government, and local community priorities and needs; help to ensure that necessary support (personnel, information, resources, relationships) is available to effectively respond.
• Ensure that outbreak response is appropriately represented in communications; that leadership is well-informed on outbreak status; and that all affected bureaus are appropriately engaged.
• Provide coordination and technical expertise to USAID to prepare, develop, implement, and monitor activities associated with infectious disease outbreaks in Africa; assist with the production of key deliverables and ensure their approval; and monitor outbreaks within Africa to assess threat level and provide technical recommendations for containment.
• Provide technical guidance on development assistance activities in the areas of GHS and infectious diseases at Bureau, Mission, Agency, interagency levels, including by reviewing and analyzing data, developing strategies, analytical models, and methodologies, and providing assistance and advice on sectoral issues.

Be a Geographic Area/Regional Technical Resource for Infectious Disease Issues:

• Serve as liaison between the Africa Bureau and the Bureau for Global Health to ensure that the African context is applied to GHS strategic planning, design, implementation, and evaluation and to facilitate coordination with USAID/Washington and Missions, the USG interagency, regional bodies, and other partners.
• Participate in monitoring the expansion of GHS program initiatives throughout the Africa region, including their relationship to policy reform and development constraints.
• Advise and support Missions and USAID/Washington on courses of action; review Mission policies and project planning documentation for coherence, relevance, and programmatic realism; advise Missions on defining program content and identify resources within or outside USAID; and support Missions who are briefing national government partners, including ministers, permanent secretaries, and prime ministers on global health security assets and accomplishments.
• Consult with other USAID bureaus and other USG counterparts on region-specific interventions. In conjunction with the Bureau for Global Health, monitor, backstop, and direct Mission requests for strategy development and support for major infectious diseases activities.
• Share Africa Bureau and GHS perspectives with senior-level and other host-government officials, as well as representatives of regional and local private sector and NGO entities. Advise senior Bureau management on key issues/constraints to program development. Provide strategy and development support on the design and implementation of AFR/SD’s and GH/ETD’s portfolios.

Provide Centralized Project Management Support:

• As needed, coordinate and evaluate centrally managed grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. Serve as Activity Manager for GHS activities led by the Africa Bureau.
• International and domestic travel for approximately 25% of the time.
• Work at least 3 days per week in-person at Washington, DC office
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualification Requirements:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree with 6 years of relevant experience, bachelor’s degree with 8 years of relevant experience, Associate’s degree and 10 years of relevant experience, or High School graduate and 12 years of relevant experience.
• U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain secret clearance.

Other Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to understand the strategic purpose and goals of multiple organizations from different sectors (e.g., public health, animal health, environment), identify and solve problems, and coordinate and support activities that lead to mutual success across the different sectors.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate highly technical information related to human health, animal health, and environment to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with monitoring and evaluation methodologies, including frameworks, data quality assurance, analysis reporting and best practices in data dissemination in international/resource-challenged settings.
• Knowledge of USAID policies, procedures and reporting requirements desired.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• High degree of judgment, ingenuity, and originality to interpret strategy and to analyze, develop, and present work results.
• Fluency in English required. High-level professional proficiency in French (spoken and written) desired.
• Ability to work at least 3 days per week in-person at Washington, DC office.
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically for approximately 25% of the time. 

Competencies:

• Innovation: Takes initiative to propose new ideas/approaches and demonstrates ability to find new and better ways to accomplish work. 
• Client Service: Communicates with clients, handling any issues politely and efficiently; understands and is available to clients; maintains pleasant and professional image. 
• Accountability: Takes ownership of work responsibilities and holds high standards. Keeps commitments and takes appropriate actions to ensure obligations are met.  Pursues efficiency and effectiveness and adheres to organization policies and procedures. 
• Interpersonal Skills: Works in cooperation with others and communicates effectively with co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, and other outside contacts. 

Prior to submitting your application your resume must include relevant paid and non-paid experience showing dates held with month, year and hours worked per week for each position. Please ensure that all relevant experience and education is documented on your resume. There is no limitation to resume length; updates to resumes will not be accepted during the interview and selection process.