Environmental Health Emergency Response Planner (Project/Program Manager II)

Public Health – Seattle and King County values diverse perspectives and life experiences. The Department encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and veterans.
 

The Environmental Health Emergency Response Planner for the Preparedness Section at Public Health is responsible for developing and maintaining whole community plans and procedures to respond to real-world environmental health risks during emergencies.

The Public Health Preparedness Section is responsible for the mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery activities of Emergency Support Function 8 – Health, Medical, and Mortuary Services for King County.

Under the supervision of the Response Planning and Partnerships Manager, the Environmental Health Emergency Response Planner provides a range of planning services and expert level support to manage the complexities of potential or real-world environmental risks to health during emergencies. This position collaborates closely with the Public Health Environmental Health Services Division to align response plans with internal capabilities, support environmental health response activities in real-time, and to educate all Public Health staff on response plan roles and responsibilities.

Who may apply: This Career Service position is open to all qualified candidates.

Contact: For more information about the application process, please contact Erika Yanak, Human Resource Analyst, at erika.yanak@kingcounty.gov.

• Serve as planning lead for Public Health's Environmental Health Emergency Response Annex, including concepts of operations for Air Quality, Drinking Water, Food Protection, Hazardous Materials, Solid Waste Handling, and Wastewater.
• Create toolkits and checklists for Registered Sanitarians to use during a field response.
• Engage outside agencies, including other county and state departments, in the planning process and represent Public Health at external meetings.
• Integrate equity and social justice into response plans and include community members and organizations in the planning process.
• Gain awareness and maintain knowledge of legal mandates granting Public Health the authority to administer and enforce environmental health rules and regulations.

• Serve as planning lead for Public Health's Environmental Health Services Division Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plan.
• Evaluate and develop methods to maintain priority services and lines of succession during an incident.
• Keep updated contact records for automated mass notification systems.
• Serve as technical consultant for site emergency plans at facilities where Environmental Health Services Division staff work.

• Lead and grow the Public Health's Environmental Health Emergency Response Team, comprised of Public Health employees and Public Health Reserve Corps (PHRC) volunteers.
• Incorporate the Environmental Health Emergency Response Team into existing Incident Command System (ICS) response structures.
• Develop and deliver trainings, tabletops, drills, and exercises to test the team's readiness and to evaluate response plans and procedures.

• Create and lead cross-divisional teams to mitigate environmental risks to health in our communities.
• Lead or assign incident response activities, including drafting health communications and advisories, facilitating meetings or conference calls, documenting policy decisions, tasking action items, and coordinating with outside agencies.
• Develop tools that may be used during an incident response, including contact databases, staffing models, workflow processes, and forms that contribute to Incident Action Plans.
• Staff various ICS positions within Environmental Health Services Division during smaller incident responses.
• Staff various ICS positions within Health and Medical Area Command during larger incident responses.

• Demonstrated experience writing plans, policies, tools, presentations, and reports.
• Demonstrated ability to understand environmental risks to health.
• Demonstrated ability to read and synthesize information from reports and federal guidance and apply at a local level.
• Attention to detail and ability to track and organize multiple elements of a time sensitive project with competing priorities and deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain good working relationships with staff, stakeholders, and partners; facilitate internal and external teams; and work closely with internal and external leadership regarding project development and implementation.
• Ability to direct work of others in order to achieve project deliverables in a limited timeframe.
• Demonstrated skill in understanding and executing complex oral and written instructions.
• Clear and concise oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office products (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SharePoint, and Skype) to complete daily tasks.

• Familiarity with principles of emergency management and response planning.
• Familiarity with the role of environmental health responders in preparing for and responding to emergencies.
• Excellent facilitation and project management skills.
• Ability to maintain composure and productivity in stressful working environments.
• Awareness of equity and social justice issues and ability to apply to incident response and emergency planning.

This selection process may include but is not limited to: evaluation of application materials and supplemental questions, testing and interviewing. For more information on our selection process, please refer to www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/jobs/hiring

If you need a disability accommodation in the application or testing process, please email the contact listed on the job announcement.

The selected external candidates must pass a thorough background investigation.

Public Health relies on office automation (Microsoft Office) and web-based enabled tools, therefore candidates must be proficient and comfortable with computer use to perform functions associated with on-going work.

Regular and reliable attendance, effective communication skills, and development of effective working relationships are requirements of all Public Health positions.

Employees are required to protect the privacy and security of protected health information as defined in State and Federal Law.

Employees are required to adhere to OSHA/WISHA guidelines including but not limited to completing their mandatory trainings on time.