Health & Safety Associate
Company Overview:
With an annual budget of $2.3 billion and more than 6,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health, and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We're tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.
Since January 2020, DOHMH has been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic- activities include but are not limited to surveillance & epidemiological investigations; lab testing; engaging and providing guidance to healthcare partners; ensuring the safety & health of responders; providing timely and accurate information to the public; promoting the emotional health of New Yorkers and coordinating citywide COVID-19 vaccine administration. With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative to establish, expand, train, and sustain the public health workforce to support jurisdictional COVID-19 prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives over 2 years.
The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but will work be supervised by DOHMH.
This is a grant-funded position ending June 30, 2023.
Program Description:
The Office of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) within the Division of Administration monitors and promotes a safe and healthy workplace for DOHMH employees. OSH works with agency programs to identify and assess regulatory requirements under NYS Department of Labor, Public Employee Safety & Health Bureau (PESH)/Federal Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA); workplace safety and hazardous conditions; addresses hazards through controls such as procedures, training and personal protective equipment.
OSH also plays a vital role in emergency response by developing and drafting emergency specific safety protocols for DOHMH staff and providing guidance to other city agencies. OSH works with DCAS Citywide Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) on health and safety issues in common with other agencies and with the Office of Emergency Preparedness and Response (OEPR) to support and promote the CHASP (Citywide Health and Safety Program) during multi-agency emergency response operations.
Job description:
DOHMH has an opening for a Health and Safety Associate. Reporting to the Executive Director of the office, this individual will help develop and implement safety and health guidance and training tools to respond to current phase and future emergency response needs around COVID-19 (which can also be leveraged for future infectious disease events).
Duties:
- Develop training content to address current training gaps or training to respond to future COVID-19 needs (or other potential disease outbreaks)..
- Conduct research and literature reviews associated with COVID-19 (and other infectious disease) best practices and inform team members about updates that should be reflected in guidance.
- Support site evaluations around COVID-19 precautions and other infection control practices
- Identify and support plan and program development and implementation to address COVID-19 related regulatory compliance needs during the course of the grant period.
- Develop quick guides or other tools to enable staff to obtain the most relevant information about a particular subject area (e.g. respiratory protection) in an easy and quick-to-read format.
- Support and maintain the Office’s inventory of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for immediate/emergency and longer-term use. (This includes receiving requests and distribution of respirators and other PPE needed for COVID/other purposes).
Qualifications:
Required
- A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, including or supplemented by twelve semester credits in health education, or in health, social or biological sciences; or
- A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, and six months of full-time satisfactory experience in a health promotion or disease intervention/prevention program, performing one or more of the following: interviewing, conducting community investigations, assessing health risks, making referrals, or collecting and analyzing epidemiological data; or
- A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and four years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "2" above; or
- Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2" or "3" above. Undergraduate college credit can be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for one year of full-time experience. However, all candidates must have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and either twelve semester credits as described in "1" above or six months of experience as described in "2" above.
- Previous work experience in occupational safety and health or related field.
- Capacity and willingness to learn training/online authoring tools.
Preferred:
- Experience with stakeholder engagement and project management.
- Excellent communication (verbal & written) and interpersonal skills.
- Strong analytical skills and ability to manage and report complex information.
- Pro-active and self-motivated individual with the ability to work in teams and in a highly dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders and timelines.
- Desire to grow professionally, develop new skills and willingness to work outside of comfort zone.
- Fluency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
Additional Information:
- This is a temporary grant-funded position ending June 30, 2023.
- Preference may be given to individuals residing in New York City (5 boroughs) or surrounding New York State counties.
- This individual must reside in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, CT) by their confirmed start date.
- This individual will be expected to work non-business hours during emergencies.
NOTE: All applicants must comply with PHS’ vaccination policy. Effective October 1, 2021, employees will be required to provide verification that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (with an FDA-authorized vaccine).
PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and veterans.