The incumbent reports directly to the Deputy Director, Special Projects, who reports directly to the Senior Consultant for Operations of the Suicide Prevention Program (SPP) within the Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) and is responsible for overseeing the entire workstream of SPP Education. The Sr. Consultant for Operations - Suicide Prevention Programs (GS 15) reports directly to the SES Executive Director, Office of Suicide Prevention.

Duties

The first 50 applicants will receive first consideration. Additional applicants will be referred in increments of 50 at management's request. Major duties include but are not limited to: The Associate Director Education supports the Deputy Director and the Senior Consultant for Operations in overseeing SPP Education and is responsible for coordinating and supporting VHA's National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide and develops national suicide prevention training and education as well as recommends policy, programming and planning actions, and strategic guidance for suicide prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Associate Director Education provides support to the operationalization of the VA's 10-year National Strategy and its four major domains (Healthy & Empowered Communities, Clinical & Community Prevention Services, Treatment & Support Services, Surveillance, Research & Evaluation) through the SP NOW initiative. The incumbent is responsible for the advancement of the translation of new suicide prevention initiatives into educational resources across the VA system and works closely with the Rocky Mountain MIRECC and VISN 2 CoE for Suicide Prevention in the translation process. The Associate Director Education is responsible for ensuring national rollout of initiatives are in alignment with implementation science principles and include interface with a wide range of clinical and administrative offices within VHA. These initiatives embody the mission to make "suicide prevention everyone's business" by co-leading the integration of suicide prevention into the broad VHA health care continuum. The Associate Director Education will provide primary leadership to the Education team within the SPP office, leading the national suicide prevention education and training program as well as development of a policy and legislative agenda. The work directed is, administrative, technical, and complex. The incumbent adheres to local and national VA policies, often consulting with peers on professional and technical matters. The incumbent assists the Senior Consultant of Operations with complex reviews of effectiveness, efficiency and productivity of suicide prevention office efforts and develops detailed plans, goals, and objectives for the long-range implementation and administration of the program, which has wide ranging impact on other VA and national level programming. The incumbent uses critical decision-making skills to prioritize difficult needs and solve problems quickly, logically, and accurately. Employs good judgment, initiative, and creativity in independent and collaborative problem solving and in designing solutions when guidelines do not exist or apply or where gaps exist. In this way, the Associate Director Education, under the supervision of the Senior Consultant for Operations, affects the workings of SPP and the outcomes for Veterans and stakeholders. This work includes developing new ways to resolve major administrative problems or planning the most significant administrative management aspects to ensure successful program implementation.

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 12/12/2024. 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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13 grade level. 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. SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR (SPF): In addition to the specialized experience requirements, an SPF will be used to determine basic qualification. If you do not possess the required SPF, you will not be given consideration for this position. SPF: Experience developing national training and education, recommending policy, programming and planning actions, and strategic guidance for a national initiative and experience translating new initiatives into educational resources. Individual Occupational Requirements: Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- hospital administration, public health administration, or related fields such as business or public administration with course work in health care administration. OR Specialized Experience Progressively responsible analytical or administrative, or clinical management or supervisory experience in the health care field. This work may have been performed in an operating health care facility or a higher organizational echelon with advisory or directional authority over such facilities. Work must have involved a close working relationship with facility managers and analysis and/or coordination of administrative, clinical, or other service activities, and provided knowledge of the following: Missions, organizations, programs, and requirements of health care delivery systems; Regulations and standards of various regulatory and credentialing groups; and Government-wide, agency, and facility systems and requirements in various administrative areas such as budget, personnel, and procurement. Special Provision for Inservice Placement: Successful completion of an agency-sponsored on-the-job training program may be substituted for qualifying experience, provided it included a formal individualized training plan. Such a training program must have been conducted in an operating health care system and included: Assignments providing a knowledge of basic health system administration philosophies, practices, and procedures, and basic government administrative policies and requirements; Practical assignments providing an opportunity to apply health system administration skills and principles (as the individual progresses, work assignments must be characteristic of the grade level to which he or she is assigned); and Oversight by an experienced health system administrator with periodic evaluation of the individual's progress and appropriate adjustment of the training program. Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-13 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: significant creativity, in-depth knowledge of suicide prevention programs and services, both within VHA and externally; professional administrative expertise, mature judgment, tact, discretion, and the ability to interact with a variety of contacts in an effective manner; able to analyze and interpret a wide variety of issues and policies in order to ensure program goals and objectives are met; must be able to understand and interpret various types of studies, concurrently or in sequence, of an existing range of data, and in conjunction with other recognized experts in the field; responsible for planning and organizing program or management reviews, assigning portions of these reviews and providing direction to groups charged with a subunit of the review and for consolidating findings and recommendations into comprehensive reports that may have a wide scope of effect on VA and non-VA services for Veterans nationally. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analytical Reasoning Communication Technical Competence Analytical Thinking 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, although some slight physical effort may be required. 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 Office of Suicide Prevention, Veterans Crisis Line 810 Vermont Avenue NW Washington, DC 20420 US
• Name: VHA National Recruitment Center
• Phone: (844)456-5208
• Email: [email protected]