Applications are currently being accepted for a Health Promotion Specialist for the Cooperative Extension Immunization Education Project who will provide technical assistance and support to an Extension-wide project to promote the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines.  The successful candidate may be a current LGU employee who's services will be supported by a full-time buy-out of their professional time or service contract beginning April 1, 2021.

See the position announcement immediately below for additional information.

Position Announcement: Vaccinate with Confidence Health Promotion Specialist

This project is a collaborative effort among the Extension Committee on Policy (ECOP),  eXtension, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  It grew out of efforts undertaken by the ECOP Health Innovation Task Force. eXtension anticipates receiving funding for Immunization Education efforts.  Key Extension leaders on this project are Dr. Roger Rennekamp, Dr. Michelle Rodgers, Dr. Caroline Henney, Ms. Ali Mitchell Dunigan and Dr. Chris Geith.  This project will allow CDC and the Cooperative Extension System to address health disparities among rural and other underserved communities by facilitating discussions at the community level to address barriers and concerns about COVID-19, flu and other adult vaccinations.  It is designed to help increase connections and communication between the community and health care practices, as well as increase accessibility and acceptability of local vaccination clinics and opportunities with the goal to and mobilize communities to implement public health programs to reduce health disparities, especially in rural areas. The four broad areas of emphasis for this project are:

• A National Assessment
  • Create a landscape report through a national assessment of current activities, locations and delivery of extension immunization education, community dialogue, and the cooperative delivery of immunization clinics.  Timeline:   April-July 2021
• Vaccinate with Confidence National Campaign
  • Work with all 111 LGUs who are eligible to apply for funding to support their customization and deployment of the Vaccinate with Confidence Campaign. The package includes materials from the CDC, professional development offerings by the Vaccinate with Confidence technical assistance team available to all LGU’s and funding. LGU’s will complete a standardized and simple online application organized around a rubric to ensure funding priorities, such as serving underserved audiences and collecting standard data.  This information will be built into an application form briefly requiring a description of their planned implementation and their planned budget.
• An Impact Collaborative Summit
  • Work with eXtension Foundation to offer an Impact Collaborative Summit to develop opportunities for immunization education and clinics utilizing Extension resources, staff and locations as well as their partnerships with local health education resources, staff and immunization locations.  This Summit will help potential pilot recipients incubate and plan to accelerate opportunities for immunization education in rural and underserved communities.     Timeline:  April 2021.
• Implement immunization education and clinic pilots, community dialogues, and the cooperative delivery of immunization clinics. Timeline:  May 2021-March 2022.
  • Pilots will test out immunization education programs, community dialogue frameworks, and clinic models in rural and underserved communities that will include data collection and use of common metrics for reporting.
  • A non-research report of what is learned will be created and shared with the Cooperative Extension System and collaborative leaders of this project. This report is to be a brief report and summary of the pilots from the pilot leaders.

This project is seeking a health promotion specialist (a full-time buyout from a Land Grant University (LGU) or a service contract) to provide expertise and coordination working LGUs to successfully deploy the Vaccinate with Confidence Health Promotion in a local context through the Cooperative Extension Service.  eXtension will serve as the principal investigator for the project and eXtension will serve as a backbone for the project efforts.  This position will work collaboratively with the Project Director, Assistant Project Director and the Operations Manager to lead this project. This position will report to the Project Director, Dr. Michelle Rodgers. The Health Promotion Specialist for this project will:

• Provide expertise and coordination working with LGUs to encourage, recruit and assist them in the customization and deployment of the Vaccinate with Confidence campaign.
• Work with the LGUs as they implement the Vaccinate with Confidence campaign to ensure local success and impact and provide a communications/promotion toolkit for LGUs’ use.
• Offer different forms of professional development and other resources as needed throughout the project to support the Vaccinate with Confidence campaign package available to the 111 LGU’s and the selected pilot projects (approximately 20).
• Assist LGUs to best utilize the Vaccinate with Confidence Campaign Packaging funding.
• Connect and coordinate successful LGU pilot applicants with the Vaccinate with the  Confidence Technical Assistance (Market Research Firm) service provider.
• Work with the pilot projects in the design of their projects and in the deployment of their work.
• Serve with the eXtension Foundation Team to deliver and serve teams and participants attending the Impact Collaborative for Immunization Education to expand the Vaccinate with Confidence campaign.
• Work with the Evaluation team/firm to help insure the success of campaign and pilot efforts to achieve impact and provide consultation as appropriate.
• Participate and learn about the Impact Collaborative and possibly serve on the Impact Collaborative Design Team.
• Provide feedback and reports (quarterly and final).
• Serve on the project advisory and planning team committees.
• Work collaboratively with the 1890 and 1994 Engagement Coordinators.
• Work collaboratively with the Evaluation Team.
• Work collaboratively with the Immunization Education Fellow.
• Participate and engage in the Connect Extension group.

The projected timeline for this position is  April 1, 2021 through March 30, 2022: (dependent upon project funding)

Now: Accept letters of interest and resumes until position is filled.
April 1, 2021: Start date for Health Promotion Specialist
April 1, 2021: Official start for the Project

If there are questions, please contact Project Director Dr. Michelle Rodgers, PhD, Associate Dean and Director, University of Delaware, mrodgers@udel.eduMobile 302-635-4306.

Persons interested in this position should send a letter of interest and a resume to Brenna Kotar, eXtension Foundation at ceoassistant@extension.org. by February 19, 2021.