About Centering Healthcare Institute

Centering Healthcare Institute is a non-profit organization that collaborates with healthcare providers across all sectors to transform healthcare. Our mission is to improve health, transform care, and disrupt inequitable systems through the Centering group model. We empower patients, strengthen patient-provider relationships, and build communities through three main components: health assessment, interactive learning, and community building.

We are dedicated to creating a future where the risk of preterm birth, the inequities faced by Black women in pregnancy-related outcomes, and the disparities in early childhood are significantly reduced—ensuring that every child has the potential to enjoy better life chances, social and economic opportunities, and overall well-being. With over two decades of experience as the leading resource for group care, we have developed and sustained the Centering model in nearly 500 practice sites and some of the largest health systems in the world.

For more information about our mission and work, please visit www.centeringhealthcare.org. 

About the Opportunity

Centering Healthcare Institute is embarking on a new strategic plan, for the next three years, in service of a longer-term goal of increasing access to Centering for all, and particularly for vulnerable populations who face the greatest disparities in outcomes and access. The plan is focused on testing and learning to develop a pathway to significant scale for Centering and building a strong organization to achieve that scale. Under new and growing leadership, and with significant philanthropic investment, this is an exciting opportunity to join the team as we build the organization and imagine the next chapter of growth and impact for CHI. We are looking forward to welcoming passionate, adaptive leaders who are eager to roll up their sleeves and engage in this collaborative, co-creative process.

We are seeking a driven and passionate healthcare leader to spearhead CHI's efforts in testing the viability of significantly scaling Centering through large health systems and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). This role will focus on developing partnerships and refining services to inform the long-term strategy for growing CHI's impact at scale.

To date, Centering Healthcare Institute has worked with individual healthcare sites, one at a time, to adopt and implement Centering. This approach has enabled organic growth to approximately 500 sites. Given the significant need and untapped demand for Centering, this one-by-one approach will not be scalable to achieve CHI’s desired impact. As such, CHI seeks to understand more efficient ways to enable Centering to be offered widely where vulnerable populations access their care, with near-term focus on exploring partnerships with large health systems and FQHCs to permeate those systems.

This is a unique opportunity to lead the exploration and inform a future strategy for Centering expansion and - one day - grow the Centering network and explore model diversification with existing and prospective partners and in new and different markets.

Areas of Leadership 
The Vice President of Health Systems Strategy & Partnership (VPHSSP) leads the team charged with growing the organization’s accounts, both new and existing, playing an influential role in continuing to promote Centering Healthcare as the partner of choice for large and medium-sized health systems.

The VPHSSP executive will be supported by members of the Business Development and Diversity and Equity teams and will also have access to members of the Executive team to achieve signed customer contracts and maintain relationships while expanding Centering services to multiple sites within multiple hospital systems.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to excel in each of its essential functions. Centering Healthcare Institute’s first-ever Vice President of Health Systems Strategy & Partnerships brings experience and a passion for leadership in the following areas which are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these functions. 

Mission and Vision

• Be a champion for improving health, trans­forming care, and disrupting inequitable sys­tems through the Cen­ter­ing group model
• Demonstrate commitment to and knowledge of CHI’s priority focus on: diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging and its values of advancing high-quality, evidence-based group care; creating an environment that inspires relationships of collective power in the health system; and disrupting the structures and systems that drive poor health to co-create communities where everyone has an equitable opportunity to thrive

• Over the next three years, CenteringPregnancy will focus on developing scalable channels by cultivating relationships, forging system-level partnerships, and testing evolved services. This strategy aims to assess and capitalize on viable scaling opportunities, ultimately expanding the program's reach and impact in maternal healthcare. This role will lead that strategy and team. 
  • Develop and execute partnership approach to test and cultivate pipeline of potential system-level partners (e.g., develop criteria for partnerships, landscape analysis to prioritize shortlist of potential partners, collaboratively outline the features of a pilot partnership with ways to test willingness to pay)
  • Oversee development and testing of new system-level services that would support permeation across a system
  • Identify implications for CHI’s staffing and pricing model, should CHI pursue these channels (e.g., develop a “playbook”)
• Partner with other senior leaders to inform the direction of the organization’s services and growth strategy
  • Collaborate with external evaluation partner to identify barriers and enabling conditions for health systems and FQHCs that could inform new services, partnership model, and policy efforts
  • Collaborate with other staff across the organization who are leading efforts to refine CHI’s site-level services for scalability and develop organization-wide learning and innovation capabilities
• Envision a future growth strategy for CenteringPregnancy and other Centering models that leverages lessons from the current three-year plan to expand internal capacity and resources, including: recommendations for policy efforts to support system-wide adoption and consider how system-level partnerships could inform CHI's data strategy, particularly regarding data collection from sites

Executive and Organizational

• As an Executive team member, spearhead the organization's growth strategies, championing both near-term expansion and long-term vision for the Centering network and lead efforts to diversify the Centering model, exploring partnerships and new markets to broaden its impact and reach
• Participate in the organization’s strategic planning and develop impact and evaluation priorities, including the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for near and long-term growth

• Envision, build, coach, and grow/develop a team charged with developing three-year goals to develop and test the viability of system-level partnerships to scale CenteringPregnancy with large health systems and FQHCs
• In time, determine the right team structure and necessary professional skills required to staff teams focused on growth within FQHCs, health systems, and policy in order to support the implementation of Centering in each of these three areas

Key Qualifications

• At least 8-10 years of executive level non-profit leadership in accelerated research, and/or innovation and learning
• Experience working with Black birthing communities or Medicaid-qualifying populations required
• 3-5 years of experience partnering with health systems and engaging system leaders in identifying scaling opportunities for healthcare programs/initiatives
• Experience developing growth strategies in dynamic and complex health settings
• Experience working in large health systems and/or FQHCs preferred
• Strategic thinker who is experienced working in a remote, national nonprofit setting
• Strong relationship building and collaboration skills with an ability to engage many stakeholders in developing solutions
• Experience with innovation processes; demonstrated comfort with testing and learning
• Experienced and creative with leveraging lean resources 
• Proven experience building out a department/function, including new systems, strategy, and process flows, with exceptional leadership, management, supervisory, and coaching/mentoring skills
• Brings a collaborative and flexible style, with a strong service mentality; a team player who is committed to continuous professional development for themselves and their staff to ensure planned results
• Strong communication skills and ability to build meaningful relationships with diverse constituencies, including existing and prospective partners and colleagues
• Excellent attention to detail and organization; highly skilled in follow-through, communication, and project and time management
• Willingness to travel within the U.S. to meet with prospective partners

Salary, Benefits & Location

The starting salary range for the Vice President of Health Systems Strategy & Partnerships role is $160,000 - 170,000, based on the qualifications and number of years of relevant experience the selected candidate brings. 

Centering Healthcare Institute offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes but is not limited to: health, dental and vision insurance, 14 paid holidays, 401(k) retirement plan with a 100% matched employee contribution of up to 6%, and flexible vacation time (unaccrued vacation time that full-time eligible staff can utilize after three months working with CHI), among many other health and wellness offerings.

The organization’s headquarters office is in Boston, MA and many of CHI’s team works remotely nationally. This role can be based anywhere in the continental U.S. and the person in this role will need to be able to travel nationally, approximately 20% of the calendar year, to various venues in order to meet with stakeholders and prospective partners.

Work is sedentary in nature and performed in a remote office environment and will involve frequent phone and email contact with stakeholders.
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Vaccination Requirements 
We are a healthcare consulting company committed to putting health and safety first for our staff, partners, constituents, and the larger communities in which we live and work. Staff who join Centering Healthcare Institute after December 6, 2021, will, as a condition of employment, be required to have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine prior to their start date with the Centering Healthcare Institute and be fully vaccinated (as that term may be defined by the CDC) within 30 days from that date, unless approved for an exemption. 

Equal Opportunity Employer
Centering Healthcare Institute actively seeks to build a diverse staff that is reflective of the populations we aim to serve and the communities where we work. CHI encourages multiple perspectives and experiences and strives to hire and retain a diverse workforce. Our employees are passionate, curious, and eager for the challenge of changing healthcare.