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Program Director

  • Company: St. David's Foundation
  • Location: Austin, TX
  • Date:
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About St. David’s Foundation

St. David’s Foundation (“the Foundation”) is one of the largest health foundations in the United States, funding over $80 million annually in a five-county area surrounding Austin, Texas. Through a unique partnership with St. David’s HealthCare, the Foundation strategically reinvests proceeds from the hospital system back into the community, with the goal of advancing health equity and improving the health and well-being of our most underserved Central Texas neighbors.   

Beyond grantmaking work, the Foundation operates the largest mobile dental program in the country providing charity care and offers the largest healthcare scholarship program in Texas, the St. David’s Neal Kocurek Program.  

Through investments and action, St. David’s Foundation is committed to centering health equity in all that they do so that all Central Texans have a fair chance to achieve optimal health with no avoidable, unjust, or systematically caused differences in health status due to ethnicity, race, age, ability, or geography.  

Strategic Vision and Direction
  • Vision for Central Texas: A vibrant and inclusive community in which every individual can flourish and reach their full potential.
  • Mission for the Foundation: To advance health equity in Central Texas though investment and action.
  • Core Values: Collaboration, Community, Compassion, Innovation, and Stewardship.
  • Guiding Principles: Using an equity lens in the Foundation’s work; Listen, learn, and evolve; Measure outcomes and strive for high-impact work; Embrace effective risk-taking; Make data-driven decisions aligned with evidence, strategy, and community voice.
  • Strategy: The Foundation focuses on removing barriers to better living today and changing systems and conditions to improve outcomes for a healthier community tomorrow.
Strategic Plan 2024-2030 - Pathways to Health Equity: Addressing Needs Today and Building a Healthier Tomorrow

In early 2024, the Foundation launched a new strategic plan. This plan reflects the Foundation’s evolving understanding of health over three decades of work. The Foundation’s view of health has broadened its focus from healthcare to the more expansive mission of advancing health equity. Through investments and action, we are committed to centering health equity so that all Central Texans have a fair chance to achieve optimal health with no avoidable, unjust, or systematically caused differences in health status due to ethnicity, race, age, ability, or geography. 

St. David’s Foundation’s Impact in the Community 

As a community-focused and equity driven organization, the Foundation focuses on removing barriers to better living today and changing systems and conditions to improve outcomes for a healthier community tomorrow. St. David’s Foundation uses its resources and tools to advance change through:

  • Strategic Grantmaking: Investing more than $80M annually to support community health and well-being.
  • Mobile Dental Program: Providing highly accessible, evidence-based oral healthcare for children at low-income schools who lack access to quality, affordable oral healthcare.
  • Scholarships: Easing the financial burden for students pursuing health studies and supporting student success.
  • Learning and Evaluation: Using data and research to bring diverse stakeholders into a shared conversation to realize deeper insights.
  • Communications:  Sharing what we are learning to create a community-wide understanding of health equity.

To learn more about the Foundation’s work, visit www.stdavidsfoundation.org.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Vice President of Community Investments, the Program Director will provide critical support for the growing Community Investments team as it seeks to increase its grantmaking, impact, and reach within the community.

The Program Director will act as a central figure on the Community Investments team, serving as the team lead for the Community Investments Leadership Team (CILT), which includes the Vice President of Community Investments and other senior members of the Community Investments team. In this role, the Program Director will promote and support shared leadership and management and ensure the Community Investments team’s day-to-day work is aligned, effective, and advances the broader organizational strategy.

Representative responsibilities of the Program Director role include, but are not limited to: 

  • Continuously cultivate and expand Community Investments’ expertise on cutting-edge strategies and key levers for systems transformation, ensuring their successful and innovative implementation to foster impactful, community-driven change.
  • As a member of the CILT, engage in direction-setting for Community Investments’ team-level strategy.
  • Steward the creation of the Community Investments’ annual team workplan and budget allocations, as well as oversight for the implementation of those tools.
  • Build relationships across the Foundation to support understanding, information flow, and ability for the Community Investments team to work more effectively with other internal teams toward organizational goals.
  • Directly manage a subset of the Community Investments staff and model the development and growth of team members through collaborative coaching.
  • Drive and ensure strategic alignment and synergy within the Community Investments team, holding responsibility for the seamless integration of initiatives into daily operations. Directly hold the responsibility for achieving cohesive execution and measurable impact of team initiatives.
  • Guide cross-functional teams toward effective decision-making, facilitating collaboration and consensus-building. Responsible for making decisive, well-informed decisions on behalf of the Community Investments team to ensure progress and alignment with organizational goals in situations where consensus cannot be reached.
  • Strengthen the Community Investments team’s infrastructure to support strong knowledge management to help drive consistent implementation across key processes on the team.
  • Proactively work with internal partners to ensure that strategies within the Community Investments department align with other Community Impact departments (Community Programs, Communications, and Learning and Evaluation) and advance the Foundation’s strategic goals. 
  • Strengthen the learning culture within the Community Investments team, ensuring that community investments are data-driven decisions aligned with evidence, strategy, and community voice.
  • Effectively apply an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) lens to the Foundation’s Community Investments activities.
Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics:

An Effective Team Builder and Change Manager 

A resourceful coach and capable facilitator, the Program Director will have the ability to lead and guide staff to both embrace and cultivate change where necessary. The Program Director will be skilled at listening to and learning from others with a deep belief in fostering a transparent, empowered, and productive organizational culture. They will be able to provide honest, kind, and thoughtful but direct feedback to team members at all levels. Deeply invested in staff voice, the Program Director will foster an atmosphere of collaboration and partnership within the team and across the organization. This empathetic and effective leader will have a deep understanding of the issues of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility and will infuse these concepts and values into their work. Culturally competent, the successful candidate will have the character and integrity necessary to develop rapport with people of varying experiences, backgrounds, and philosophies.

A Seasoned Philanthropic Leader that Embraces Emergent Strategy

This leader will have the ability to identify and elevate specific philanthropic strategies focused on the achievement of outcomes and long-term strategic goals to position the organization’s internal systems for the future. The Program Director will possess an acute level of foresight with the ability to forecast for the future and proactively shift strategic goals as needed to embrace learning and evolution in the understanding of the challenges and potential solutions. They will be highly strategic and able to set priorities decisively but collaboratively, articulating responsibilities and providing support to the team, ensuring accountability, and effectively allocating resources to ensure results. A great listener and sound problem solver with excellent reasoning skills, this leader has the ability to understand and deal with complexities with ease and creatively overcome obstacles to achieve goals.

A Compelling Relationship Builder 

The Program Director will be skilled at building and sustaining excellent relationships at multiple levels with varied constituencies, including the Community Investments Leadership Team, other team leaders across the Foundation, community members, and colleagues in the region. The Program Director will be comfortable in a role that expands and enhances the credibility, visibility, and reach of the organization. A demonstrated community builder, the Program Director must be able to build trust quickly while fostering strong and meaningful relationships across a broad range of internal and external community members. A team player, this leader will strategically seek partnerships and build coalitions within the Foundation and with other external organizations. The Program Director will be an even-tempered and humble leader who can talk with all constituents and successfully advance the Foundation’s goals. They will build bridges and engage colleagues internally and externally. The Program Director will ensure that all Community Investments work is consistent and aligned with the strategic plan and vision in a professional and collaborative manner.

Passion for the Mission of St. David’s Foundation 

The Program Director will have a true passion for the mission of St. David’s Foundation and a commitment to effectively supporting the goals of the organization through grantmaking. A strong advocate for community and public health, the Program Director will bring a sense of urgency to the role, championing health equity and the wellbeing of local communities. The Program Director will be compelled by the Foundation’s core values and will embrace the Foundation’s tradition of excellence, while having an eye consistently focused on the future. Empathic and charismatic, this leader will have a strong faith in humanity and will treat others with respect. The Program Director will be an individual of unquestioned integrity, ethics, and values; someone who can be trusted without reservation.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The annual salary range for this role is $200,000 - $215,000 and includes comprehensive benefits.  

Contact

Koya Partners has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by George Theotokatos. To express interest in this role, please fill out our Talent Profile. Any questions can be directed to the search team by emailing [email protected]. All inquiries and discussions are strictly confidential.

Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.