THE ORGANIZATION

The National Council for Behavioral Health (www.thenationalcouncil.org) is the unifying voice of America’s health care organizations that deliver mental health and addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery services. The National Council’s 3,400-member organizations annually serve over 10 million adults, children, and families living with mental illnesses and addiction. The National Council is committed to ensuring all Americans can access comprehensive, high-quality care that affords every opportunity for recovery.

The National Council’s dedicated staff accomplishes this through: advocacy; providing state-of-the-science education and practice improvement; and public education that seeks to destigmatize and to promote greater understanding of mental wellbeing as a core component of comprehensive health and health care.

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA: www.mentalhealthfirstaid.com) is the National Council’s flagship public education program and has provided 2.5 million people, through a network of 20,000 certified Instructors, with the tools necessary to identify and support family members, friends, and co-workers that may be experiencing symptoms associated with their mental health or Substance Use Disorder (SUD). MHFA’s training solutions are currently tailored to support four audiences: youth; teens; adults; and at-work.

The department has a talented team of 50+. Current annual revenue of $20M+ is generated from private and public sources; in partnership with the National Council’s policy arm, MHFA is working to enact legislation that would provide $100 million annually for grants to state or local government, nonprofit organizations, faith institutions, institutions of higher education, and small businesses.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Vice President, Mental Health First Aid will be joining at a crucial moment, for two primary reasons: the overwhelming need and inequities in communities across America, exacerbated by compounding crises; and, the National Council’s ambition that MHFA’s lifesaving tools become as commonly known and accessed as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

In collaboration with executive leadership colleagues, the Vice President, Mental Health First Aid will develop the department’s growth plan and one that integrates into the National Council’s overarching strategy.

In parallel, she/he/they will galvanize and support a passionate departmental team, ensuring clearly aligned workplans, roles, objectives, and the resources to achieve ambitious goals: expanding reach through business development; ensuring measurable outcomes; driving disciplined product development; and supporting quality/timely delivery through multiple learning models (virtual and/or hybrid).

The Role: Vice President, Mental Health First Aid

Reports to: Executive Vice President

Direct Reports (3): Senior Director, Curricula and Research; Assistant Vice President, Strategic Partnerships; and Assistant Vice President, Operations

Location: Open, with frequent travel to Washington, D.C. after the COVID-19 crisis

Organizational Leadership

• Embody, in all interactions, the National Council’s values of: collaboration; compassion and empathy; equity and inclusion; innovation; and persistence.
• Engage fully as an executive leadership team colleague to guide the National Council’s organization wide strategy.

Mental Health First Aid - Strategic Leadership

• Engage colleagues across the National Council and within the MHFA department to develop a growth strategy that is grounded in market intelligence/data, with sound financial and implementation modeling.
• Propose recommendations and options for action that are sequenced, based on disciplined evaluation of new opportunities, and can be delivered to partners with exceptional program integrity and quality.
• Organize and segment market opportunities, by client/industry and product offering.
• Identify and sequence investments in product development and the cutting edge technology needed for growth.
• Transparently report on progress against programmatic and impact goals as well as business results.

Mental Health First Aid – Business Development and Client Delivery, at scale

• As a key advocate for MHFA, represent the program and the National Council externally through:
  • • Public speaking;
    • Outreach efforts to federal, state, and local agencies;
    • Business development with private clients, corporations and other partners.
• Review internal processes and operations; ensure that business development and client delivery teams, workplans and resources are coordinated and efficient while also meeting client needs/timetables.
• Support key account relationship initiatives that cut across the National Council’s different offerings.

Team Development, Management and Culture

• Attract, manage and mentor a passionate team.
• Clearly define MHFA’s departmental structure, team roles, accountabilities and decision-making.
• Promote an organizational culture of excellence, adaptability, efficiency, continuous improvement, and innovation.