Summary

Incumbent functions under the authority of the Director, Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) and will serve as a key leader, promoter, and catalyst for the alignment of OBH priorities and strategies to advance the behavioral health service system and meet current and projected needs of service users and providers, including but not limited to community prevention, intervention, treatment, and residential services related to mental and substance use disorders The Special Assistant will work closely with OBH leadership and executives across the DHS to coordinate overarching OBH and DHS systems transformation.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Acting as a trusted associate responsible for providing direct assistance to the Director, OBH through a combination of executive-level support, project management, oversight and coordination with internal and external stakeholders.
• Working with the Director and senior OBH leadership to develop organization strategies, goals and objectives, and working with internal and external organizations to accomplish established system goals and objectives.
• Coordinating management projects, ensuring that projects are carried out in a timely manner, and in accordance with established policies and procedures.
• Developing and/or facilitating improvement projects with objectives and tasks, establishing completion timelines, and monitoring implementation.
• Developing special reports for the Director that can be used to inform/guide systems transformation using available data, analytics and other resources.
• Initiating recommendations for improved processes and procedures for greater efficiency and effectiveness of organization and service systems operations.
• Advising the Director of operational and system problems and recommending solutions/alternatives including but not limited to new policies needed for the effectiveness of the organization in carrying out its mission to advance the behavioral health service system.
• Conducting research and fact-finding investigations, and analyzing, interpreting, and documenting projects. With the Director of OBH, establishing priorities and following through on major projects to ensure that deadlines are met before matters are referred to DHS Director.
• Tracking reports and the Director's assigned projects schedule and quality goals. Preparing reports and briefings to assist the Director and attends, for the Director, internal and external meetings to represent position papers, policy positions, and appropriate information as designated by the Director.
• Personally handling various administrative and operational problems that are presented to the Director on a day-to-day basis, some of a sensitive and confidential nature.
• Responding to inquiries received from other officials, the general public and outside representatives of governmental, public and private sectors regarding the purpose and intent of the OBH, and its various functional components.
• Discussing pertinent issues with OBH leadership, representatives of outside interests, and various groups and individuals as required to obtain desired information. Correlating and analyzing facts to draw conclusions and to provide meaningful recommendations to the Director.
• As needed, attending meetings with the Director as an aide to provide supporting information on the subject matter. Attending executive staff and operational meetings to keep abreast of plans, projects, decisions, problems, etc., pertaining to the various functions of the OBH.
• Performing other related duties as assigned.

• Excellent collaboration and leadership skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to establish measurable goals for program performance and lead team(s) and stakeholders in attaining those goals.
• Ability to establish structure for developing and implementing projects determined by the Director.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external officials and community members.
• Ability to maintain high standards for the quality of services and consistently focus on the DHS and OBH missions.
• Cultural competence, and the ability to listen to and respect people with varied experiences, as well as the capacity to clearly present information and ideas.
• Knowledge of the Allegheny County behavioral health service system preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of quality improvement strategies, including data driven approaches to decision making.