This position is within the Office of Research and Development (ORD), part of VA Central Office in Washington, D.C. ORD provides national policy and direction for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) research programs nationwide. This national research program supports health conditions affecting Veterans through the discovery of new risk indicators, treatments, and programs, as well as evaluating clinical and administrative procedures to ensure every Veteran gets the same top-of-the-line care.

Duties

The Public Affairs Specialist serves as the Office of Research and Development with responsibility for planning, designing, and executing comprehensive, nationwide campaigns to convey information concerning the organization's programs to publics served or affected by such programs. Evaluates information problems encountered in communicating the organization's programs. Advises on and recommends specific information activities designed to meet these problems. Analyzes the information needs of the general public and of the health care community. Develops plans for campaigns to disseminate information about organization's programs, discoveries, and innovations. Organizes campaigns to bring about timely and coordinated use of all facilities and resources available in the organization and with cooperating stakeholders. Develops and transmits informational materials to a variety of publics to enhance the understanding of certain attitudes and practices advocated by the organization for the planned and efficient use of natural resources. Uses a variety of methods and techniques in achieving communication goals such as response to queries (RTQ), fact sheets, news releases, radio and television scripts, feature articles, personal appearances, new conferences, exhibits, brochures, pamphlets, etc. Analyzes and evaluates ORD needs to advise the director and other management officials of the information that should be made available to the public or approaches to take to attain communication goals. Advise, assist, and train clinical and medical research subject-matter experts to enable them to translate the impact and importance of their work to the general public through interviews and public speaking engagements as needed. Provides administrative support to the Office of Research and Development to include writing letters, memoranda, and emails. Responsible for writing communication with internal and external organizations, to include the Office of Research and Development, OPIA and VHA Communications. Advises staff of any changes in style or format requirements and disseminates current policy. Prepares written guidance and virtual or in person instruction to advise staff at all levels on proper conduct for successful interviews, current policies, question methodology commonly used by press agencies, and relevant or trending topics that should or should not be presented in the interview. Presents briefings at team meetings as a basis for discussion and agreement on appropriate procedures. The position also requires researching, preparing, and writing of technical and nontechnical health science reports, pamphlets, manuals, and brochures. Reviews findings and recommendations and other assessments for which Office of Research and Development. Examines policy, legislative, and congressional issues by critically evaluating data from multiple sources and identifying key issues that needs to be resolved. Engages with subject matter experts to develop responses that are thorough, concise, clear to laypersons, and addresses the intent of the recommendation. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday; 8:00am - 4:30pm or as negotiated Compressed/Flexible: Not available Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual/Remote: This is a not a remote position. Position Description/PD#: Public Affairs Specialist/PD594450 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/18/2024. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note:Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: developing written materials designed to encourage affected publics to adopt positions on a variety of issues, when such policies have been determined as a result of a broad involvement of interested or concerned individuals or groups in the decision making process; making oral presentations or training others to conduct meetings designed to obtain public input on program issues and develop a consensus position from among divergent viewpoints; establishing and maintaining working relationships with a variety of publics, some of whom may have opposing points of view from the organization where the specialist must defend the developed policy or point of view in the face of heavy criticism in unstructured settings; and analyzing and developing recommendations from a wide array of possibly conflicting and divergent input to arrive at a final statement or official position acceptable to all participants in concurrence. High level knowledge and expertise of grammar, writing, and editing guidelines as they pertain to the preparation of complex technical health science manuals, publications, and congressional reports. Knowledge of audit, evaluation and research work conducted by research and development, You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Communications and Media Decision Making Multimedia Technologies Organizational Awareness Partnering Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: This is a primarily sedentary position. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address VSHO - Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks 2402 Wildwood Ave Suite 301 Sherwood, AR 72120 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]