This position serves as the Women Veterans Outreach and Communications Specialist with the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System Office of Public Affairs. Responsibilities include collaborating with community organizations to reach out to women veterans and their families, inform and educate community of an array of high quality services that women veterans can receive at the VA.

Duties

Outreach to Women Veterans: Develops strategies for reaching out to women Veterans who are not engaged with VA and enrolling them. Identifies and increases community outreach opportunities, coordinate attendance, communication materials, and logistics for community events.. Establishes methods of eliciting input from women Veterans. Utilizes analytical techniques to evaluate program success and quantify enrollment growth for women Veterans. Strengthens community partnerships by establishing, sustaining, and promoting positive and collaborative relationships. Identifies, schedules and coordinates speaking engagements for women Veterans program manager or designee. Identifies barriers and threats to successfully encouraging women Veterans to Choose VA and develops strategies to overcome them. Communications with Women Veterans: Initiates, develops, and coordinates innovative methods, messaging and events to accomplish specific communication and engagement objectives and implementation methodologies in order to enroll and retain women Veteran patients. Makes recommendations on the content and timing of messaging and events. Conducts the near and long-term development, planning, and implementation of communication events, programs, and plans. Solves difficult problems wherein guidelines and precedents are lacking and anticipates reactions and responses. Applies appropriate action to ensure strategic messaging objectives are understood and supported. Researches, writes, and coordinates comprehensive communication strategies and plans. Develops and writes informational materials and presentations with the purpose of educating and often persuading a diverse audience regarding programs, initiatives, and services available for women Veterans. Writes and edits social media posts, speeches, feature stories, etc. Works with graphic designers to create visuals that coincide with briefings/presentations. Assesses communication objectives on a monthly, bi-annual, and annual basis to measure against the objectives. Analyzes the data to develop sound recommendations for improvements. Administrative: Performs assigned duties in a manner that promotes outstanding customer service. Answers and responds to personal and telephone inquiries relating to administrative issues. Supports VAPHSs overall outreach program to all Veterans using many of the same tactics and methods used to reach out to women Veterans. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 8am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: not authorized Telework: This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Public Affairs Specialist/PD030640 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): not authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): not authorized

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/13/2024. 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-09 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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 and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience GS-09: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: monitor implementation of communications plans and execute changes in consultation with staff, identify and increase community outreach opportunities, coordinate attendance, communication materials, and logistics for community events, prepare written materials and presentations, develop communication plans, meet deadlines, promote positive and collaborative relationships, research reference sources and gather information from sources. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have a master's or equivalent graduate degree OR 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree OR LL.B. or J.D. , if related.. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond . You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: CommunicationCustomer Service (Clerical/Technical)Manages and Organizes InformationPartneringWriting 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: The work is primarily sedentary. Some work may require walking and standing at events, meetings and conferences including some off-site. The employee may carry light items (papers, books) OR moderately heavy items such as file boxes, may push carts of supplies or drive a motor vehicle. The work may require bending, stooping, kneeling. May be needed to lift and transport delicate graphic, photographic and audiovisual equipment. 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

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Pittsburgh VA Medical Center 1010 Delafield Road Pittsburgh, PA 15215 US
• Name: Christene Ammoscato
• Phone: (570) 824-3521 X24536
• Email: [email protected]