Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention (NYC)

The Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention is a member of the High School Programs team within JED’s School Programs and Consulting division, and is an excellent opportunity for experienced student affairs practitioners and/or mental health clinicians who are seeking to utilize their talents on a national level. The Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention will aid in the creation and implementation of strategic plans for partner high schools which support student mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention efforts. The Consultant will engage in reviewing school processes, programs and protocols and analyze school-specific data to inform the strategies and guidance that they provide to the school. The Consultant’s experience and knowledge of mental health, and educational environments and systems will be utilized in the implementation and development of program delivery to school leadership. This role is skilled in relationship management, problem-identification and problem-solving, and resource development, while also providing guidance and technical assistance in school mental health. The Consultant will report to a Senior Consultant in their program (or the Senior Director, as needed) and work collaboratively with the entire JED team. This is a remote position for an individual located in the NYC Tri-State Area. The consultant should reside within an easy (approx. 60-90 min) commuting distance from NYC and an airport to facilitate transit to various regional schools nationwide. The consultant must have the ability and desire to travel to partner high school campuses, conferences, regional internal meetings. (up to 30% travel).
Key Responsibilities

Program Implementation and Technical Assistance Provision (80%)

Relationship Building and Advising Support

• Build relationships with school contacts within your assigned portfolio (approx. 30 schools).

• Assist schools in developing and executing strategic plans and measuring the efficacy of the mental health promotion efforts they implement on their campus.

• Provide ongoing support to participating JED schools on mental health promotion, suicide and substance abuse programming, services, and policies.

• Serve as a resource consultant to schools and school systems, and to JED program staff.

Assessment, Data Analysis and Reporting

• Conduct programmatic reviews of internal systems within a portfolio of schools.

• Analyze student data of assigned schools to inform support provided to schools.

• Draft feedback reports and executive summaries for school stakeholders.

• Aid schools in ongoing assessment of their efforts. Benchmark the work of schools against a measurement rubric.

• Utilize Salesforce to record and codify contacts with participating schools, tracking progress, types of intervention, utilization of resources, etc.

Project Management

• Build and maintain positive and effective working relationships with high school and district faculty, staff and leaders to ensure success throughout the duration of program engagement.

• Monitor an institution’s progress throughout the engagement lifecycle.

• Oversee project timelines and ensure schools are meeting program milestones in a timely manner.

• Assist institutions with internal project management related to accomplishing goals in the implementation phase of JED’s High School Program and other programming.

Content Expertise

• Serve as content expert regarding best practice in policies, procedures and practices in PK-12 school mental health and suicide prevention related to JED’s comprehensive approach core domains.

• Act as both an advisor and subject matter expert during all phases of JED’s High School and related programs.

• Maintain current knowledge about best practices related to unique school district and school types and contexts, such as rural, urban and suburban, and private, parochial, and independent schools, as well as public charter schools.

• Support content development of and facilitate convenings, learning series, and related activities surrounding specific topics affecting PK-12 institutions to provide guidance, JED stances, and facilitated communication between school partners.

• Collaborate with leadership to update programmatic materials such as assessment tools, measurement tools, deliverables, and implementation tools to align with best practices.

School Programs & Consulting Team Support (20%):

• Work closely with the Senior Consultants, Senior Directors and other leadership of the JED School Programs Division on assigned projects, team culture and other key areas related to education programming.

• As needed, provide technical and analytical support to Senior Consultants and other team members conducting external consulting projects; assignments may include landscape analyses, report generation, etc.

• Assist in the curation and development of mental health support and suicide prevention activities, materials, presentations, and other related resources for campus professional development, community meetings, etc.

• Support internal JED functions by leveraging expertise to assist with other mental health and related projects, as assigned. May include content development for other JED offerings; training and development of new Consultants; support for other functions such as advocacy, recruiting, and community engagement teams.

• Assist with the delivery of training, workshops, and other educational programming for partners, as assigned.

And other duties, as assigned, by JED leadership related to education programming and projects.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

Required:

• Minimum of master’s level training in education, educational leadership, counseling, psychology, social work, or related field required; LPC, MSW, MPH, MED, and early to mid-career PhD degree-holders are encouraged to apply.

• At least 5-7 years professional experience working within, or in direct partnership with PK-12 schools and school districts, with experience in school or system-level leadership preferred.

• Strong technical knowledge of school based mental health, Social Emotional Learning, suicide prevention, and substance use prevention, required.

• Deep knowledge of PK-12 school systems and systems-level change, including data, daily operations, and the current educational landscape, especially for higher education leaders, required.

• Self-driven and results-oriented with a positive outlook and strong problem-solving skills.

• Strong research, analytical, and critical thinking abilities, and the ability to analyze and apply data to draw meaningful conclusions.

• Experience leading, building, and managing secondary education programs and collaborating with education leaders.

• Experience in research and evaluation methodology, strongly preferred.

Additional Qualifications:

• Excellent verbal communication.

• Excellent written communication with experience in drafting report-style formats, with attention to detail.

• Excellent presentation skills with experience and comfort presenting to large groups, including senior leadership.

• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, including comfort with establishing new partnerships, identifying new business opportunities, and a history of maintaining high partner engagement.

• Experience working with Asana, Salesforce or other CRM and project management systems strongly preferred.

• Ability to travel to schools, conferences, and other JED engagements nationwide, as well as JED headquarters in NYC regularly (30% travel).

Originally posted on Himalayas