BSD ITM - Community
The University of Chicago (UC) Institute for Translational Medicine (ITM) was created in 2007 to assemble, integrate, and create the intellectual, administrative, and physical resources required to catalyze research and research training in Clinical and Translational Science. Its ultimate goals are to train scientists and health care providers at UC and in our community to determine the molecular, genetic, pathophysiologic, and social determinants of disease and disease predisposition in individuals; to test interventions directed toward those mechanisms; and to achieve these goals in a way that is rigorous, efficient, ethical, respectful of, and responsive to our community’s needs and values. Over its nine years, the ITM has capitalized on the outstanding intellectual and physical resources throughout the University and at ITM affiliate Institutions, Argonne National Laboratory, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Access Community Health Network, and on substantial institutional and CTSA financial investments, to build the infrastructure for a transformative, energized, and self-improving home for clinical and translational research, ensuring the continued progress of clinical and translational science at the University of Chicago, its affiliates, on the South Side of Chicago, and beyond. Center for Community Health and Vitality The Center for Community Health and Vitality (CCHV) uses a systematic approach for addressing personal and community health within the neighborhood setting via three main program elements: • Academic partnerships • Community connections • Community grand rounds. The CCHV and its partners recognize that good health is not merely the absence of disease, it also fosters vitality - the capacity to live and develop. The CCHV works individually and collectively with the community to develop programs and activities that address issues determined by the community as concerns. The center engages the community to provide a place where community residents and organizations, along with university physicians, professors and staff, can work together to determine ways to improve health and vitality within South Side communities. The CCHV puts this approach into practice via: • Educational innovation • Workforce development and career training • Violence prevention • Capacity building for community-based organizations • Wellness programs • Employment and economic development opportunities CCHV was originally conceived by first lady Michelle Obama during her tenure as vice president of community affairs at the University of Chicago Medicine. The CCHV, along with the Urban Health Initiative, aims to promote positive relationships between the University of Chicago and South Side communities and improve health services and support to residents. The CCHV also provides a means by which the university and South Side communities can create sustaining collaborative relationships and partnerships that address both medical and social issues that threaten the health and vitality of community. Through positive engagement with communities served by the medical center, these initiatives were developed to build positive relationships that will initiate a new spirit of collaboration and cooperation. CCHV and its partners seek to achieve this goal by finding new ways to understand more fully the perspectives of our communities’ members, organizations and institutions.
The ITM Community and Collaboration Cluster Manager is responsible for planning, directing, implementing, and managing all aims and daily operations of the community cluster program, including financial, meetings/events, and cluster services. This position ensures the stability, success, and growth of program by accomplishing the cluster’s strategic aims. The Cluster Manager has similar responsibilities for adjacent and shared programs within the Center for Community Health and Vitality (CCHV), a part of the Urban Health Initiative (UHI) with indirect reporting to the leadership of the UHI.

The ITM Community and Collaboration Cluster seeks to broadly engage members of the communities surrounding ITM institutions, the public, industry stakeholders, and patient advocacy groups in the mission, governance, and work of the ITM.

This position requires in-depth knowledge and experience of community engagement and outreach in an academic health/medical setting, and of community based participatory research. The Community and Collaboration Cluster Manager uses broad and deep knowledge of community engagement, best practices in the field, and awareness of evolving internal or external issues both nationally in community engagement and locally across the ITM institutions to improve the work of the Community and Collaboration Cluster and its services offered to investigators and the public. This position requires a significant understanding of the culture, lived experience and the history of the South Side of Chicago and ways to connect to its residents. This position requires strong inter-institutional collaboration skills, with the ability to interface with other Community Relations Managers or their equivalents at other ITM partner institutions.

The Cluster Manager supervises the work of a full-time Program Assistant who provides logistical, clerical, and administrative support of the manager’s work in implementing all the aims of the cluster. The Cluster Manager works independently with overall responsibility for all cluster aims and reports to the ITM Administrative Director and faculty leadership.

• Uses in-depth knowledge and experience to administer the delivery of cluster services to program participants.
• Develops and maintains key relationships in the ITM’s stakeholder communities among leaders, residents, and organizations, ensuring that these collaborations further cluster aim and positively contribute to the work of the ITM.
• Develops and implements the cluster work plan, assuring adherence to program aims.
• Develops and maintains a comprehensive inventory of research and program initiatives focused on the community across ITM institutions.
• Facilitates relationships between the ITM and the community for research, prevention and education initiatives, and community benefit programming.
• Provides program development guidance to community-faculty collaborative efforts.
• Participates in the management and evaluation of the Director of Planning and Research at the Chicago Department of Public Health, ensuring this position carries out cluster aims.
• Manages and produces Community Grand Rounds, a shared program of ITM and UHI, and oversees its expansion across all ITM institutions.
• Works with leadership on the development of inter-institutional collaborative programming as it relates to ITM activities.
• Sets and communicates program priorities and performance standards and assesses operations using these criteria. Plans and conducts quality assurance reviews and recommends changes as appropriate.
• Establishes and tracks performance metrics for the impact of ITM Community and Collaboration interactions.
• Drafts and submits cluster progress reports.
• Provides regular updates and presentations on cluster activities and accomplishments, as needed.
• Works collaboratively with ITM Communications regarding dissemination/advertisement of cluster events.
• Manages the cluster expenditures and budget and recommends or makes budgetary recommendations.
• Supervises and directs the work of the Community and Collaboration Cluster Program Assistant.
• Interacts with faculty, researchers, external stakeholders, and staff for committee work or information.
• Manages and carries out all activities of the ITM’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB), Patient Advisory Board (PAB), Community Advice and Research Council (CARC), and Community Grand Rounds (CGR) Consultant Boards.
• Manages ongoing cluster work, ensures communication and fosters accountability through regular meetings of the cluster leadership: tracking agendas, action items, decisions, and minutes.
• Coordinates the work of the ITM Community Cluster participants across ITM institutions.
• Together with cluster leadership, participates in the governance of the ITM, ensuring the dissemination of cluster activities and accomplishments, advocating for the inclusion of community voices in ITM direction and activities, and coordinating cluster activities with other ITM clusters.
• Ensures cluster participation in national CTSA activities, including the Collaboration and Engagement Domain Task Force.
• Serves as liaison and coordinator for the Chicago Community Trust (CCT), assisting this organization in their ITM-related tasks.
• Serves as a liaison with the Urban Health Initiative’s community outreach programming.
• Directs and implements the Wellness Arts Resiliency Program.
• Manages community-engaged research consultations with researchers and community members.
• Manages the Community Consultants network for the Center for Community Health and Vitality.
• Manages and produces WVON health segments for the Director of CCHV.
• Uses in-depth knowledge and experience to administer the delivery of services to program participants and/or beneficiaries such as communicating with programs sponsors and academic advising for undergraduate students.
• Develops and communicates program priorities and performance standards and assesses operations using these criteria. Plans and conducts quality assurance reviews and recommends changes as appropriate.
• Manages program budgets and recommends or makes budgetary recommendations.
• Has a deep understanding when interacting with faculty, researchers and staff for committee work or information.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field. Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

• Masters' degree in social/human services is strongly preferred.

• Minimum five years of professional experience in project management and extensive experience working within urban communities strongly preferred.

• Ability to work as part of a collaborative team as well as autonomously.
• Demonstrated accuracy, precision and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated depth of experience in project management.
• Good writing abilities and relationship-building skills.
• Strong Microsoft Office experience/computer abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills.
• Familiarity with administration within a complex research university environment.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Ability to handle public contacts with courtesy, clarity, and diplomacy.
• Ability to maintain a calm and courteous demeanor and to work productively despite heavy workload, competing priorities, complex problems, and tight deadlines.
• Genuine interest in leveraging assets and extending core competency in health outside UCM’s walls benefit to the neighborhood and the broader community.
• An interest in managing people, possess strengths in community building, administrative oversight, and organizational development; and/or be intensely committed to learning about these topics.
• Ability to understand the dynamics of neighborhoods/communities within a large urban environment.
• A community builder who must be able to assess people's talents and abilities and be strategic about how to include people in the outcome.
• Ability to demonstrate sound judgment especially when dealing with the community, sensitive when dealing with confidential issues and projects.
• Able to work in a busy office environment in the Community.
• Valid driver's license and reliable transportation (automobile) in order to attend meetings in community settings.

• Standard Office Environment.
• Community Venues.
• Occasionally will need to work evenings and/or weekends (<10% of hours/month).

• Resume (required)
• Cover Letter (preferred)

Administration & Management
Individual Contributor
Exempt
Monthly
40
Yes
No
No
Yes