Senior Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisor

Job Description

FELLOWSHIP TITLE: Senior Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisor

HOST ORGANIZATION: Office of Professional Development and Management Support, Bureau for Global Health, US Agency for International Development

LOCATION: Washington, DC

POSITION LEVEL: Senior Level Advisor

ANTICIPATED LENGHT: One year

STAR-P3-144

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP

The STAR Fellowship is a one-year global health and learning opportunity with:

• Individualized, tailored support to enhance the fellow’s achievement personal and professional goals
• Personalized learning plans and access to learning resources (courses, conferences, mentoring) based on fellow’s learning style and preferences.
• Access to broad professional networks to enhance peer learning and knowledge sharing.

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

Background:

The Bureau for Global Health (GH) established an Antidiscrimination and Diversity Council (ADC) representative of the 8 offices in GH in June 2020 in response to the repeated killing of Black members of society and the systemic structural racism and discrimination inherent in American society. The Antidiscrimination and Diversity Council is a coordinating body within GH to help address systemic issues in the workplace around race, ethnicity, gender, ability, age, sexual orientation, and other identities. The ADC is committed to addressing pervasive inequities in the Global Health Bureau and increasing diversity, inclusion, representation, and belonging, as well as exploring how USAID can become a more active member in the movement to decolonize global health and international development.

On January 20, 2021, the White House issued a renewed commitment to addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion by issuing the Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government. The Executive Order (EO) calls upon the Federal Government to pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality. The EO also calls for each agency to assess its programs and policies that perpetuate systemic barriers to opportunities and develop strategies and plans to remove these barriers to provide equal access to opportunities and to advance equity for those communities. The Senior DEI Advisor will support this mandate by providing senior-level facilitation and coordination skills to support GH’s existing and emerging efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Bureau.

Introduction:

The primary responsibilities of the Senior DEI Advisor will be to coordinate the initiatives and activities of the Antidiscrimination and Diversity Council, communicate across offices and to senior leadership on the progress and deliverables of the Council; support offices as needed with cross-cutting DEI initiatives, programs, and policies; and leverage best practices in DEI to implement other internal and external activities. Further, the Senior DEI Advisor will ensure GH develops and implements proactive and integrative strategies and practices that lead to a more inclusive and diverse work culture in GH, and regularly conveys bureau-wide communication on efforts and progress.

The Senior DEI Advisor will draft, solicit input, socialize and finalize a GH Bureau DEI Strategy and Action Plan. The Senior DEI Advisor will also be expected to engage with the Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) and the Agency DEI Advisor to keep abreast of the latest Agency policies and practices and provide lessons learned and best practices for greater Agency awareness and learning. The Senior DEI Advisor will support data collection and coordination on diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and engage with the PDMS and HCTM to support equity assessment and auditing activities and status reporting to the GH on progress against these goals.

Reporting structure:

The Senior DEI Advisor will receive technical direction from the PDMS Office Director who will serve as their Point of Contact (POC).

Essential Duties and Outcomes:

Lead the Coordination of Anti-Discrimination and Diversity Council:

• Facilitation and coordination of regular council meetings, including the identification of action items and delegation of tasks to council members.
• Collection and documentation of office activities and initiatives for information sharing to council members and adaptation for Bureau-wide efforts.
• Communication of progress of council deliverables and initiatives across the Bureau to GH offices and GH Senior leadership.
• Communication with Senior Agency DEI POCs and coordination between the GH council and OCRD activities and initiatives to ensure information sharing on GH best practices to inform Agency policy developments and provide lessons learned for greater awareness, inclusion and learning
• Coordination and communication of all GH internal and externally contracted efforts for a coordinated response to DEI activities.
• Under the auspices of the Anti-Discrimination and Diversity Council, track and report on current state and progress made towards GH’s DEI commitment.

Development of GH Bureau DEI Strategy and Action Plan:

• Lead, socialize and finalize the development of Bureau DEI Strategy and Action plan that aligns with Agency plans (if available) with clearly defined accountability mechanisms within each office, including the incorporation of existing plans and identifying resource gaps and other needs. This deliverable will serve to both track and guide individual office DEI efforts, and provide parameters around which the GH Bureau can address all forms of structural racism and discrimination, lack of inclusion, and inequality in the workplace.
• Provide technical expertise to Bureau action plan development, including in the provision of trainings (both those available within and outside of the Agency), identifying gaps and challenges, developing and disseminating surveys, facilitate regular convening of anti-discrimination and anti-racism working groups and allied groups.
• Work with technical offices within GH to align their DEI initiatives and action plans with that of the Bureau, and/or help offices develop operational plans as desired.
• Support leadership, PDMS, and others to operationalize evidence-driven, anti-racist organizational recommendations to influence Agency policy at both the Bureau and Office levels.

Lead Implementation of DEI Strategy and Action Plan:

• Provide regular technical support of current and/or future agreements related to DEI activities within the Office.
• Facilitation of technical activities as needed, to support the implementation of action plans and/or complement existing technical support work.
• Lead the coordination of data collection of audits/assessments, executive and leadership coaching, tailored workshops, structured listening sessions, development of opportunities for cultural awareness raising, and other forums to create working groups on anti-discrimination and allied group community support within the offices and the Bureau.
• Lead the collaboration with GH funded DEI activities to design tailored interventions, (e.g., training, coaching, skills building) for Bureau and individual office needs.
• Lead the design of targeted approaches to improve DEI within organizational culture, recruiting, retention, performance management, talent development, leadership commitment, etc.

Anticipated learning outcomes: approximate 10% time

• Cultivate mentorship skills based on the STAR GH mentorship curriculum to more effectively support and improve knowledge transfer and skills acquisition of staff, incoming fellows and interns.
• Advance leadership skills to successful support capacity building and knowledge sharing activities, and mentor develop junior staff.
• Apply leadership skills and technical expertise to support programmatic growth and scale-up within Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programming.

FELLOWSHIP REQUIREMENTS

Required:

• Minimum 13 years of professional experience with master’s degree or a minimum of 15 years of professional experience with bachelor’s degree in public health, public policy, social or behavioral sciences, management, organizational development, human resources, or related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in working on DEI issues within a large and complex workplace required.
• Evidence of excellent interpersonal, facilitation, motivational, and teambuilding skills/experience required.
• Demonstrated ability in working across multiple offices and multiple levels of management.
• Demonstrated organizational management, leadership skills in negotiating, influencing and managing diplomatically sensitive issues, in order to build and sustain a culture of accountability, ownership, and delivery among stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to apply policy directives to activity design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
• A depth of understanding of the US and international issues of diversity and inclusion and experience with implementing organizational transformation activities.
• Excellent oral and written communication, interpersonal, facilitation and presentation skills, able to hold meaningful conversations.
• US citizenship/ or US permanent residency required.

Additional skills (preferred)

• Master’s degree or higher or relevant experience in equity and diversity, social justice, Race/Ethnic Studies, human rights/justice, student affairs/higher education or other relevant fields is preferred.
• A deep understanding of the issues facing underrepresented populations through lived experience or work experience highly preferred.

TO APPLY:

All applicants are required to apply for this position through STAR’s online recruitment system at https://www.ghstar.org/, which allows you to store your CV/resume and separate cover letter describing your qualifications and experience, interest and familiarity with issues relating to this position, and how this position relates to your career goals is required for each application. Application will remain open Until Filled.

Public Health Institute is proud to be an EEO/AA employer.

About the Organization

STAR PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Sustaining Technical and Analytic Resources (STAR) is a project of the Public Health Institute (PHI) in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). STAR is a Global Health talent hub. Through fellowships, internships, and strategic partnerships, STAR supports building the capacity of diverse global health professionals and organizations at all levels to make inclusive, collaborative, and innovative contributions to global health. STAR participants collaborate in the development of systems and tools that strengthen and sustain the local and global health response. https://www.ghstar.org/ Sign up with our listserv.