Community Health Worker Workforce Development Specialist

UW School of Medicine and Public Health; Madison (WI); Hybrid; USD 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

UW School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison seeks a Community Health Worker Workforce Development Specialist to provide subject-matter leadership and implementation support across Envision's CHW program initiatives.

You will help develop resources, facilitate learning opportunities, and guide workforce development activities with state, Tribal, local, and territorial partners, while balancing CHW values with organizational needs.

Qualifications

• Experience with CHW roles, values, and community-based practice.
• Experience in CHW workforce development and sustainability.
• Experience designing training, TA, learning collaboratives, etc.
• Experience collaborating with CHWs and public health partners.
• Proficiency with Office tools and virtual collaboration platforms.

Responsibilities

• Delivers outreach program content to community members.
• Leads the implementation of programs, policies, and procedures for staff and volunteers.
• Schedules and secures resources and communicates logistics for outreach.
• May assist with monitoring outreach program budget spending.
• Develops and evaluates curriculum and programs and provides recommendations.
• Identifies, promotes, and maintains external partnerships to support outreach.

Skills

Webinar facilitation

Learning collaboratives

Technical assistance

Curriculum development

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Microsoft Office

Google Workspace

Zoom

Project management software

Job description

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category

Academic Staff

Employment Type

Regular

Job Profile

Outreach Specialist

Job Summary

The Community Health Worker (CHW) Workforce Development Specialist provides CHW subject matter expertise, leadership, and implementation support across Envision's programmatic development — including webinars, learning collaboratives, and resource vetting and development. This role ensures that Envision's resources, trainings, technical assistance, and sustainability efforts remain grounded in CHW values, practice, and lived experience while supporting State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) public health departments in strengthening and sustaining CHW programs. The position works collaboratively with the Envision Team, Communications Team, CHW Council, and national partners to develop resources, facilitate learning opportunities, provide technical assistance, and guide strategic workforce development activities.

• This position is full or part-time, 50%-100%
• This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

Candidates who demonstrate the following knowledge, skills, and abilities will be given first consideration.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of Community Health Worker (CHW) roles, competencies, standards, and values, including community accountability, cultural humility, and CHW-led practice.
• Knowledge of CHW workforce development, sustainability, and integration strategies within public health and healthcare systems.
• Knowledge of adult learning, popular education, technical assistance, and peer-learning approaches.
• Knowledge of evidence-based and promising practices related to CHW infrastructure, financing, supervision, and workforce sustainability.
• Knowledge of State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) public health systems and the environments in which CHW programs operate.
• Knowledge of resource development, dissemination, and workforce capacity-building strategies.

Skills

• Skill in developing and facilitating webinars, learning collaboratives, technical assistance activities, and peer-learning opportunities.
• Skill in providing technical assistance to organizations and teams to identify priorities, develop action plans, and implement improvements.
• Skill in developing training curricula, facilitation guides, toolkits, and workforce development resources.
• Skill in engaging and collaborating with CHWs, public health agencies, community-based organizations, healthcare organizations, and national partners.
• Skill in reviewing, vetting, and synthesizing evidence-based resources and promising practices.
• Skill in project planning, coordination, communication, and management of multiple concurrent activities and timelines

Abilities

• Ability to provide strategic leadership and subject matter expertise on CHW workforce development, integration, and sustainability.
• Ability to ensure that resources, trainings, and technical assistance activities remain grounded in CHW values, lived experience, and community-centered approaches.
• Ability to identify emerging workforce needs and translate them into actionable learning opportunities, tools, and resources.
• Ability to build collaborative relationships and facilitate consensus among various stakeholders and partner organizations.
• Ability to balance CHW movement values with organizational, funding, and administrative requirements while maintaining program quality.
• Based on lived and/or professional CHW experience, ability to anticipate workforce challenges, manage multiple priorities, and proactively develop solutions that strengthen CHW capacity and sustainability.

Key Job Responsibilities

• Delivers outreach program content and materials to community members
• Leads the implementation of programs, policies, and procedures through oversight of day-to-day activities for program staff and student and community volunteers
• Schedules and secures resources and communicates logistics in support of an outreach program
• May assist with the monitoring of outreach program budget spending
• Develops and evaluates curriculum and programs and provides recommendations for improvement
• Identifies, promotes, and maintains external partnerships to support the outreach program
• Researches, develops, and facilitates outreach program content and materials

Department

School of Medicine and Public Health, Population Health Institute, Workforce Development Pathways Unit

The UW Population Health Institute (UWPHI) works to improve the health of all people in Wisconsin and beyond by conducting research and providing technical assistance to policymakers, practitioners, and communities. The Workforce Development Pathways (WFDP) unit leads statewide Community Health Worker workforce development, including coordination of the Rural Health Transformation Program CHW initiative in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Compensation

The starting salary/hourly wage for the position is $70,000 annually, but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information, refer to the campus benefits webpage.

Required Qualifications

• Lived and/or professional experience as a Community Health Worker (CHW), Community Health Representative (CHR), or Promotor(a).
• Demonstrated understanding of CHW values, principles, and practice, including trust-based relationship building, community accountability, cultural humility, and community-driven approaches.
• Experience working with CHWs, CHW-led organizations, public health agencies, healthcare organizations, or community-based organizations to support workforce development, program implementation, or systems change efforts.
• Experience designing, facilitating, or supporting training, technical assistance, learning collaboratives, communities of practice, coaching, or workforce development activities.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Zoom, project management systems, and other virtual collaboration tools

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing CHW workforce development resources, toolkits, training curricula, webinars, or technical assistance materials.
• Experience working within grant-funded programs and/or providing support to organizations, public health departments, or community-based grantees.
• Experience working with State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial (STLT) public health departments or other public health systems.
• Knowledge of CHW sustainability strategies, financing approaches, Medicaid policies, workforce infrastructure development, or healthcare integration efforts.
• Experience facilitating learning collaboratives, peer-learning networks, CHW councils, advisory groups, or national partnership initiatives.
• Experience supporting resource dissemination, communications strategies, online learning platforms, or virtual communities of practice.
• Multilingual skills, particularly Spanish or other languages commonly spoken by CHWs and the communities they serve

Education

Bachelor's Degree preferred; focus in public health, community health, social work, business administration, or a related field preferred.

Contact Information

Brittany Brown, 608-265-2978, [e-mail]

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Institutional Statement on Diversity

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

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