Job Type Details: Full-time, exempt, remote positions

The Opportunity: Reporting to the Reach Out and Read Wisconsin Program Director, the Program Manager has a unique opportunity to help shape the future direction of Reach Out and Read in Wisconsin. The Program Manager works closely with the Reach Out and Read Program Director and program teammates to sustain, expand, and enhance the implementation of our evidence-based, clinical intervention in pediatric primary care clinics throughout their region. Supporting parents as their children’s first and best teachers assists in strengthening parental bonds, family, and community health. Enhancing positive childhood experiences through shared reading time can act to mitigate adverse childhood experiences and social determinants of health. Our strength-based approach aims to promote health early relationships, school readiness skills, and set children on a path to fulfilling their potential.

The Program Manager is an experienced professional who provides leadership to and coordination of Reach Out and Read programs in Wisconsin. The Program Manager works closely with the Reach Out and Read Program Director and program teammates to sustain, expand, and enhance ROR programs and raise awareness in local communities and among strategic partners, helping to ensure that children across Wisconsin arrive at kindergarten prepared to succeed. This is a highly relational job, both within a virtual team, and when working directly to support our medical and clinic partners. As the Program Manager you will need to be a problem solver eager to learn new skills and technology; adapt to an evolving and growing organization; and work as an effective team member with remote colleagues in a virtual working environment. It requires a commitment to equity combined with the ability to influence without direct authority and diagnose systems challenges, while respecting and supporting clinic and family cultures. The position provides a unique opportunity to contribute to taking a nationally proven program to scale in Wisconsin, while simultaneously providing creative, collaborative leadership in an organization that partners with both the health care system and early learning efforts.

The Program Manager is responsible for providing multi-site program support and quality assurance to enhance the capabilities of our existing programs in Wisconsin. The Program Manager will cultivate relationships with medical providers and strategic community partners to expand our reach in alignment with organizational goals. The Program Manager is a visible leader and valued strategic contributor, actively helping cultivate and maintain public, private, and strategic partnerships. The Program Manager will contribute to a positive work culture and be expected to be visionary in their approach.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Assistance and Quality Assurance (60%)

• Develop relationships with clinical and administrative staff and cultivate Reach Out and Read champions and advocates from among each clinic’s medical providers and staff.
• Work with Program Director to ensure each health system with three or more clinics has an assigned system point person; meet with system point people on regular basis to ensure continued engagement in ROR and facilitate program implementation at the clinic level.
• Provide regular and on-going technical assistance and support to all assigned programs to assess site adherence to the ROR program model, assign quality ratings, and identify additional site needs.
• Conduct site visits to assigned programs with a frequency appropriate for sites’ identified needs and quality rating.
• Create and implement technical assistance plans to support sites’ efforts to reach a higher level of program quality, as needed.
• Support programs’ implementation of program quality improvement processes, monitor progress, and reassess, in partnership with program sites.
• Support site leaders to identify and overcome barriers that negatively impact their program’s quality and sustainability.
• Ensure all programs have training processes in place for their providers, so that existing and new providers can provide a high-quality program.
• Assist in implementing, updating, and creating quality assurance or improvement tools.
• Guide new programs through the process of applying, training providers, and implementing
• Identify opportunities for health system engagement through interactions with site contacts, build relationship with system leaders, and articulate best practices for program sustainability.

Program Data and Reporting (20%)

• Assure sites’ completion of twice-yearly progress Analyze, understand, and address barriers to accurate completion.
• Review progress report data for assigned sites and use it to inform technical assistance plans and quality ratings for each site.
• Continually track and document quantitative and qualitative site data, using established tools and databases.
• Maintain accurate data within the myROR.org database.
• Gather, analyze, and report data from myROR.org as needed to support funding applications, partnership development, and advocacy activities, as requested.
• Collect anecdotal data, stories, testimonials, photos from ROR programs for use in development and communications.

Book Support and Funding (10%)

• Support sites in selection and ordering of books to meet the needs of their
• Provide support for efficient tracking processes to support accurate data collection and
• Identify programs in need of book funding support and collaborate with the Wisconsin Program Director to use an equity lens in the allocation of funding to individual sites.
• Coordinate the distribution of book funds and/or books to sites when funds are available.

Partnership Development and Sustainability (10%)

• Assist the Program Director in implementing local, regional, and statewide partnerships to help ROR programs integrate with existing statewide early learning and family support systems.
• Provide information and support to sites regarding partnership opportunities that help sustain and enhance their programs long term.  
• Develop and implement efforts to prioritize and expand programs in rural areas and clinics serving high BIPOC and/or Medicaid populations in alignment with organizational goals.
• Attend relevant community and coalition meetings as aligned with organizational strategy and goals.

Qualifications and Experience: There are innumerable ways to learn, grow, and excel professionally. We respect this when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. We want to get to know you and the unique strengths you will bring to the work. We are most likely to be interested in your candidacy if you can demonstrate the majority of the qualifications and experiences listed below:

• Commitment to the Reach Out and Read mission and model, to increasing equity in opportunity and outcomes for children, and to recognizing factors known to significantly impact differential outcomes for children, including race, ethnicity, language, and socio-economic status.
• Experience providing technical assistance and/or implementing professional development programs.
• Ability to prioritize multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and adapt flexibly within a growing organization and a changing healthcare and political environment.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written skills to interact effectively with medical staff, providers, and colleagues.
• Self-motivated, independent worker who functions effectively in a “virtual” work environment, while being an enthusiastic, collaborative team member.
• Demonstrated ability to take both initiative and direction, maintaining a focus on mission and collective team impact.
• Education and/or experience within the fields of social work, health care, early education, literacy, parenting support or related fields.
• Ability to effectively use electronic communications systems as primary work processes, including database systems, internet use, and MS Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Salesforce.
• Demonstrated ability to think creatively and solve problems, with attention to detail and follow through.
• Demonstrated success cultivating and sustaining partnerships and relationships among diverse stakeholders and organizations.
• Ability to coach, influence, mediate, and deliver results through others.
• Ability to analyze, synthesize, and utilize data to determine trends over time and develop quality improvement plans and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

Additional desirable qualifications (not required)

• Experience with medical practice change efforts and quality improvement processes.
• Database management.

Position Specifications

• Full time, exempt position. The Program Manager works from a home-based office, work with clinics in their assigned region. They will attend team meetings, advisory council meetings, and retreats with the ROR Wisconsin team plus one to two possible national meetings per year.
• Eau Claire position: ROR Wisconsin is looking for staff; located in the Eau Claire/Greater Chippewa Valley area to work with clinics in the northwestern and southwestern areas of the state.
• Green Bay position: ROR Wisconsin is looking for staff located in Green Bay/Fox Cities area that can work with clinics in the northeastern part of the state.
• Other duties as assigned.

Compensation and Benefits: Salary is competitive with similar roles at comparable non-profit organizations. The target salary is $55-$58K, commensurate with experience. Benefits include: medical, vision, dental insurance; 401(k) retirement plan with match; paid vacation, sick time, professional development, and more.