Health Equity Lead

Position Summary
Interior Health is looking for an experienced Health Equity Lead to join our team on a full time permanent basis.

This position offers a Hybrid work location from within the Interior Health Region, and will require travel to Kelowna as and when is required.

This position is supporting Interior Health to fulfil its commitment to health equity, including equitable access to health services. This work is innovative and collaborative and can have a big impact at a system and population levels.

What we offer:
-Employee & Family Assistance Program
-Employer paid training/education opportunities
-Employer paid vacation
-Employer paid insurance premiums
-Extended health & dental coverage
-Municipal Pension Plan
-Work-life balance

Salary Range:
The salary range for this position is $90,770 (min) to $113,462 (midpoint) to $130,481 (max) per annum, based on 1.0 FTE. Interior Health typically establishes salaries within the minimum and midpoint of the salary range based on qualifications, experience of the applicant, and an internal equity review of the salaries of other employees.

About the job:
In accordance with the established vision and values of the organization, and in support of Interior Health’s (IH) strategic priorities, the Health Equity Lead brings strategic leadership, strategic coordination, subject matter expertise, and experience of applying health equity at an organizational and systems level. Working closely with Population & Public Health and Clinical Operations leadership, the Health Equity Lead promotes and enables system-level change toward equity of health and wellness outcomes, including equity of access to health services.

The Health Equity Lead collaborates with internal and external partners to establish structures, processes and plans that embed a population health approach and health equity tactics across IH portfolios, builds organization-wide accountability for advancing health equity and access to health services, and coordinates efforts to address the underlying determinants of health and equity. The Health Equity Lead uses data to make systemic health inequities visible and create/implement frameworks for applying health equity to practice, while respecting Indigenous knowledge and holding space for the voices of people who experience inequities.

Typical duties and responsibilities:

• Leads the planning and implementation of strategies and initiatives that advance health equity and access across IH. Works with leaders to translate health equity concepts, frameworks, and approaches into practical and coordinated action.

• Builds capacity and shared understanding across IH to advance health equity and access, including through education, consultation, decision-support tools, knowledge summaries, presentations, and policy recommendations. Contributes to external engagement, including media communications and medical health officer reports.

• Develops regular and ad hoc status reports for internal and external audiences. Proactively identifies opportunities to improve health equity and access and works collaboratively with internal and external partners to develop and implement strategies to reduce inequities.

• Facilitates engagement with population groups that experience inequities, and enables the participation of people with diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences to inform decision-making.

• Develops and leads quality improvement initiatives that inform the continuous development of evidence-based services across the health authority. Recommends and monitors key indicators, including client perspectives and outcomes, and proactively recommends improvements to support health equity and access.

• Collaborates with community-based staff and community liaisons to align internal strategies and operations with external partnerships to address the underlying determinants of population health and health equity. In doing so, provides expertise, project management, and strategic leadership in the system-wide implementation of the population health approach.

• Works together with the IH Indigenous Partnerships portfolio to advance health equity through shared accountability, and initiatives identified by, and in collaboration with, Indigenous partners.

• Facilitates partnerships to lead and coordinate health equity work across IH and convenes project groups to develop and implement specific health equity initiatives.

• Collects and maintains an inventory of equity-focused services, policies, data, and indicators, structures, and partnerships, to demonstrate progress in applying health equity and guide further action.

• Works with Data & Analytics, and other internal and external partners, to define measures of health equity and access and guide health equity analysis, impact assessment, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, for the purpose of highlighting inequities, building accountability, improving quality, and demonstrating progress.

• Completes literature reviews and jurisdictional scans to stay up-to-date with health equity research, policy, and practice, and collaborates with internal (including Research, Quality, and Health System Evaluation) and external (including National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health) partners to generate and translate knowledge and address knowledge gaps.

• Identifies funding opportunities, recruits partners, develops funding proposals, writes contracts, monitors performance of contractors, manages projects, and coordinates reporting to funding bodies.

• In alignment with IH’s Occupational Health & Safety Program, employees shall adhere to all Occupational Health and Safety policies and procedures at all times and attend all required training. Employees are responsible to report any identified hazards, unsafe conditions or incidents to the manager or supervisor immediately.

• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Honouring Interior Health’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), and Pursuant to Section 42 of the BC Human Rights Code, preferential consideration and/or hiring will be given to qualified applicants who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, or Inuit).

Qualfications
Education, Training, and Experience
• Master’s degree in a discipline related to health equity, population and public health, or the determinants of health.
• A minimum of 5 years of recent, related experience and a minimum of 2 years of leadership experience.
• Experience working with communities that have been marginalized by systems of oppression (i.e, equity-deserving groups), including Indigenous communities.
• Experience working in a health-related organization at a regional, provincial, or federal level.
• An equivalent combination of education, training, and experience will be considered.
• Lived and/or living experience of discrimination based on one or more identities (e.g., gender, ethnicity, culture, neurodiversity, etc.) would be an asset.

Skills and Abilities
• Lived and/or living experience as a member of an equity-deserving group, with proven ability to use this experience to inform and enhance health equity initiatives.
• Expert knowledge, skills and experience in health equity, the determinants of health, and the population health approach, including key concepts, frameworks and approaches, and their tangible application in the health system context.
• Demonstrated ability to interact professionally and respectfully with multiple interested and affected parties, including internal and external partners, and representatives of equity-deserving groups.
• Indigenous cultural safety training or experience, a commitment to reconciliation, and a track record of creating respectful and collaborative relationships with Indigenous partners.
• Working knowledge of health equity analysis, health equity impact assessment, and population health assessment, and their use in planning and decision-making.
• Working knowledge of monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, including indicator development, and their use in governance and quality improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to collect, synthesize and integrate large amounts of information from various sources, including scientific literature, government reports, and partner engagement.
• Skills and experience communicating verbally and in writing with a wide range of audiences.
• Previous experience of project management, group facilitation, and change management, and associated documentation (e.g., project charter, action log, communication plan etc).
• Highly motivated, self-starter, with ability to work effectively as a team member or independently.
• Demonstrated ability to organize and prioritize work, work under time constraints to meet deadlines, and handle interruptions and changing priorities.
• Proficiency in computer use and other technologies for writing reports, presenting information, searching online, managing data, team working, and remote working.