School Mental Health Specialist - District (Mountain West Region - CO, ID, MT, UT, WY )

Application Deadline: 30 April 2025

Department: 02. Academic Programs - School Programs / HS / District

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Regional Remote

Reporting To: Senior Director, District Programs

Compensation: $76,000 - $106,000 / year

Description

Key Responsibilities

• Manage a consulting portfolio of 15- 20 districts in various JED program phases and locations across the country, as assigned by JED leadership. 
• Guide districts through the full cycle of JED’s PK-12 programs with an emphasis on collaboration through consultation and coaching Leveraging school mental health expertise and understanding of the unique context of the mountain west region, provide direct technical assistance to districts on best practices in system-wide mental health practices, programming, and policies in the PK-12 sector. 
• Analyze and synthesize data from a variety of sources to inform development of baseline reports, strategic plans, and other support resources for district partners, and help partners to draw meaningful conclusions from data.
•  Lead collaboration with district personnel to develop a data-informed strategic plan to improve their district-wide practices, procedures, and policies around school mental health support and suicide prevention, including the related fields encompassing student support. 
• Support district personnel and leadership in district-wide communications planning in their efforts to leverage community engagement throughout various phases of JED’s PK-12 programs.
• Assist in the curation and development of mental health support and suicide prevention activities, materials, presentations, and other related resources for district professional development, community meetings, etc. 
• Recommend evidence-based strategies and creative solutions to meet individual district challenges throughout multi-year project execution.
•  Leverage expertise to assist with other school mental health and related consulting projects, as assigned. 
• Collaborate with other internal teams to develop high quality materials, activities, and other collateral to support program delivery. 

• Motivate and advise districts in completion of baseline assessment protocols, surveys, and other program activities and data collection methods. 
• Lead district partners through a continuous evaluation process to review progress and measure effectiveness. 
• Regularly update strategic plans to include measurable progress made on JED assigned action items. 
• Utilize Salesforce and comply with other JED procedures to record and track program metrics for quality assurance and evaluation. 

• Build and maintain positive and effective working relationships with district leaders to ensure success throughout the duration of program engagement. 
• Monitor district progress throughout the engagement lifecycle. 
• Oversee project timelines and ensure districts are meeting program milestones in a timely manner. 
• Assist districts with internal project management related to accomplishing goals in the implementation phase of district programming. 

• Serve as content expert regarding best practice in PK-12 policies, procedures and practices at the district level related to JED’s comprehensive approach core domains. 
• Act as both an advisor and subject matter expert during all phases of the district program.
• Maintain current knowledge about best practices related to unique district system types.
• Support content development of and facilitate convenings, learning series, and related activities surrounding specific topics affecting school districts to provide guidance, JED stances, and facilitated communication between districts. 
• Collaborate with leadership to update programmatic materials such as assessment tools, measurement tools, deliverables, and implementation tools to align with best practices. 
• And other duties, as assigned, by JED leadership related to PK-12 programming and projects. 

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Minimum of master’s level training in education, educational leadership, counseling, psychology, social work, or related field required; LPC, MSW, MPH, MED, and early to mid-career PhD degree-holders are encouraged to apply. 
• At least 7 years professional experience working within, or in direct partnership with, PK-12 education systems in the mountain west region, with experience in district or organizational level leadership required. **Experience or Knowledge working with school districts in WY a plus
• Strong technical knowledge of school based mental health, Social Emotional Learning, suicide prevention, and substance use prevention, required. 
• Deep knowledge of school district systems and systems-level change, including data, daily operations, and the current educational landscape, especially for education and school district leaders, required. 
• Self-driven and results-oriented with a positive outlook and strong problem-solving skills. 
• Strong research, analytical, and critical thinking abilities, and the ability to analyze and apply data to draw meaningful conclusions. 
• Experience leading, building, and managing PK-12 programs and collaborating with PK-12 leaders. 
• Experience in research and evaluation methodology, strongly preferred.

• Excellent verbal communication. 
• Excellent written communication with experience in drafting report-style formats, with attention to detail. 
• Excellent presentation skills with experience and comfort presenting to large groups, including senior leadership. 
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, including comfort with establishing new partnerships, identifying new business opportunities, and a history of maintaining high partner engagement.
•  Experience working with Salesforce or other CRM and project management systems strongly preferred. 
• Ability to travel to districts, conferences, and other JED engagements nationwide, as well as JED headquarters in NYC regularly (40% travel).