Program Director

Impact Justice; Oakland (CA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

FSA plans

Vacation and wellness leave

401K with generous match

Job summary

Impact Justice seeks a Program Director to lead The Menopause Project, driving expansion, partnerships with CDCR and healthcare collaborators, and strategic fundraising. This external-facing role requires public speaking, cross-functional leadership, and a track record of program design and evaluation.

Based in Oakland, LA, or DC with a hybrid schedule, the role oversees a growing team, reports to VP of Innovation Programs, travels up to 10%, and builds a diverse coalition to advance menopause

Qualifications

• Adaptive problem solver with a willingness to learn and grow.
• Flexible self-starter who thrives in changing, dynamic environments.
• Experience in program evaluation and program expansion.

Responsibilities

• Strategize, manage, build out, and implement the Menopause Project expansion efforts.
• Manage project deliverables, guide best practices, and support program refinement and budgeting.
• Maintain and expand partnerships with CDCR and other health and corrections partners.
• Engage in fundraising efforts and public speaking opportunities, including media interviews.
• Develop and execute Advisory Board strategy and operations.
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with funders and grant opportunities.
• Build out a growing team and oversee the Senior Program Manager.

Skills

Public speaking

Project management

Fundraising

Budget management

Stakeholder relationships

Public health background

Diversity, equity, inclusion

Education

Professional training/education

Tools

Google Suite

Microsoft Office

Canva

Job description

About Impact Justice

Impact Justice advances safety, justice, and opportunity through boundary-breaking work that honors and empowers people and is changing expectations about what we can accomplish together. We imagine, build, and scale innovations, leverage research and other knowledge to connect the desire for change with informed action, and work to shift the narrative so that decision-makers and the public understand what’s at stake and what’s possible.

About The Menopause Project

The Menopause Project is a first‑of‑its‑kind effort to bring comprehensive, evidence‑based menopause and perimenopause care into correctional systems. Over two years, Impact Justice designed the program in close partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and launched it across California’s women's prisons in January 2026. The launch included clinical training for dozens of medical providers, a broad patient awareness campaign, and the creation of a bespoke training curriculum for Peer Support Specialists. We are now seeing positive results from the pilot and thinking about where to take the program from here.

When we began this work, our research found that no program in California - or anywhere in the United States - explicitly provided comprehensive, up‑to‑date menopause and perimenopause care to incarcerated women. While some corrections departments provide a basic level of care, thousands of incarcerated women across the country still lack access to what they need, and this crisis has long been absent from national conversation.

We are now entering a second and more consequential phase. In California, we are refining the model and using the state as an innovation lab for additional interventions - testing what works, at depth, in a live system. Beyond California, we are in active conversations with corrections departments in a handful of states to adapt and replicate the model. And we are carrying what we’ve learned well beyond correctional circles, into the clinical, research, and public conversations where this population is routinely left out.

The Program Director will lead this phase.

Who You Are

You likely have a background in public health, women’s health, or general healthcare, or experience working with incarcerated populations or other marginalized groups. You have an ethos of social justice, racial justice, community, and mutuality. You have a strong commitment to ending the criminalization of Black, Indigenous, Latine, and other people of color, financially disenfranchised people, and other marginalized groups. You have an orientation and belief that criminal justice involvement should not be an impediment to employment, career, wellness, and personal growth opportunities.

This position is the lead manager for this project. This position is external‑facing and you will be skilled in public speaking and facilitation with a high degree of comfort in translating complex information to meet the needs of a myriad of audiences, including impacted populations, policymakers, health professionals, criminal justice system staff, funders, and community members.

You are a go‑getter and a forward thinker!! You want to join a fast‑paced Innovations team that provides the flexibility for ingenuity in the implementation of a program model. You have a background in program design, implementation, and evaluation. You are an innovative thinker who wants to be part of building and expanding programming. You can balance competing priorities, and you are simultaneously committed to the details while being able to envision, develop and implement program work that is currently in its development stages. You enjoy working both collaboratively and independently. You have a track record of effective, cross‑functional collaboration across disciplines. You have highly developed interpersonal skills with good relationship‑building techniques. You are a leader. You are adept at time management and highly organized with a proven ability to ensure you and a team can meet deadlines, plan, organize, and execute.

That said, we know great candidates may not think they fit what we’ve described above or may have important skills we haven’t considered. If that is you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself! We would like to hear from you even if you have most (but not all) of the skills listed. We welcome all applicants, including formerly incarcerated individuals, those with family members who have been incarcerated, and persons with direct criminal or juvenile legal system experience.

What You Will Do

The anticipated start date for this position is December 1, 2026. You will report to the Vice President of Innovation Programs. At the start of this position, you will manage one senior staff member. You’ll be the owner of The Menopause Project, and your core responsibilities will be:

• Project Expansion – Strategize, manage, build out, and implement the Menopause Project expansion efforts.
• Project Management – Manage various project deliverables, guide best practices and encourage iterative program refinement, manage program budget, effectively navigate challenges in program implementation, assess needs, identify helpful collaborators, and support and make high‑stakes decisions.
• Relationship Building – Maintain and expand partnerships with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), other Departments of Corrections, policymakers, non‑profit and for‑profit partners, and healthcare providers.
• External Engagement – Participate in organizational and project‑based fundraising efforts. Engage in public speaking opportunities, including media interviews, podcasts, and other events as they arise. Seek out creative fundraising strategies, e.g. public and private healthcare providers.
• Advisory Board Management – Develop and implement the strategy for the program’s Advisory Board, engaging members for feedback and guidance on various aspects of the project. The position will also manage Advisory Board operations, including scheduling biannual meetings, maintaining regular email communications, and ensuring members are kept informed of program progress and impact..
• Fundraising – Actively engage in fundraising efforts, including cultivating and maintaining relationships with funders, identifying new funding opportunities, and supporting proposal development and reporting.
• Team Leadership – Build out a dynamic, growing team as needed, and oversee the current Senior Program Manager of the Menopause Project. Plan and implement enrichment, engagement, and camaraderie‑building opportunities with the team in an effort to create an environment where each team member can thrive.
• Impact Justice Leadership – Join the Impact Justice Leadership team and collaboratively work with senior and executive staff across Impact Justice and all community partners.
• Supervision – At the start of this role, you will manage one senior staff member. It is anticipated that this project may add additional staffing support as budget allows and as needed. You will also work closely with the consultant who helped launch the project. The consultant will support the transition of this role and will roll off of this project in early 2027.
• Travel – this position is expected to travel. Travel will include new and current project sites, as well as travel to the main Impact Justice office location, if not located in Northern California. Travel is estimated at 10%.

Education / Experience Level

Successful candidates typically have at least four years of professional training/education or closely related experience, and at least ten years of relevant experience, including at least five years of program leadership experience and at least five years of people management experience.

Required Qualifications

• An adaptive problem solver with a willingness to learn and grow.
• A flexible self‑starter who thrives in changing, dynamic environments.
• Able to juggle and implement multiple project elements.
• Experience in program evaluation and program expansion.
• Comfortable interacting with a wide variety of people, including individuals impacted by the criminal legal system, criminal legal system staff, officials, and individuals from diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
• Experienced project manager with previous experience collecting programmatic data.
• Able to build and maintain key external relationships.
• An experienced and effective public speaker.
• Grant/fundraising and budget management experience.
• Tech‑savvy: comfortable with Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Canva, etc.
• A critical thinker with a high level of analytical/interpretive thinking and a positive, solutions‑oriented approach to challenges.
• Methodical, efficient, and able to synthesize and organize disparate information clearly.
• Can hold their own with executives, funders, and public officials – professional, unintimidated, and credible as a peer in high‑stakes settings.

Preferred Qualification (but Not Required)

• Experienced professional within public health, women’s health, healthcare, or work with incarcerated populations with an emphasis on health.
• An understanding of menopause, perimenopause care, or other related public health topics.

The position will be paid $130k-140k. Salary offers are based on the candidate's experience and qualifications and our practice of maintaining salary equity within the organization. The benefits that come with working at Impact Justice include medical, dental, and FSA plans, significant vacation and wellness leave, and immediate vesting in our 401K with a generous match.

This is a full‑time, salaried position. The candidate should be located in our Oakland, Los Angeles, or DC office and will work under a hybrid schedule. Periodic deviations to the regular hybrid schedule may be required due to program needs.

We are not considering remote staff for this position.

We plan on making decisions on a rolling basis, so the earlier you apply, the better.

Equal Opportunity Employment

Impact Justice provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants without regard to race/ethnicity, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, national origin, age, criminal history, or disability.

Hiring Process

Elements of the Impact Justice hiring process may include phone screen interviews, candidate exercises (written or presentations), Zoom interviews, in‑person interviews, and reference checks. Candidates are welcome to ask for alternative arrangements in the process if needed (for example, conducting an interview via phone rather than Zoom), Impact Justice will do our best to accommodate reasonable requests. Please communicate any alternative arrangements requested to the hiring manager.

Compensation Range: $130K - $140K