AGENCY INTRODUCTION:

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

PROGRAM AND JOB DESCRIPTION:

NYC Health Department strives to address the prevailing causes of life expectancy, excess and premature deaths, and quality of life in New York City, to make it the healthiest big city in the world.

Our Agency's cross-cutting strategic priorities that bring together work from across the agency, building off a recently completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:

To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a "response-ready" organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems

Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods Address the second pandemic of mental illness including:
reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women's health Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change.

The Bureau of Communications is seeking to hire a Deputy Speechwriter who will report directly Executive Communications Manager.

DUTIES WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

Work directly with the Executive Communications Manager to generate ideas, shape arguments, and craft language, staffing the Commissioner and helping prepare for high-profile events.

Provide primary research support for the Executive Communications Manager, crafting background memos, generating stories and statistics, combing through data, and testing key arguments.

Draft speeches, remarks, talking points, op-eds, and other written materials in the Commissioner's voice, as needed.

Curate high-level messaging to promote the Department's health agenda and elevate the Commissioner's voice.

Edit materials across the Department to ensure message consistency, as needed.

Prepare brief and practice scenarios ahead of public appearances and media interviews, including remarks, panels, broadcast media, radio, and other formats.

Work with the social media team to craft content in the Commissioner's voice for digital materials.

Provide logistical support for the internal events, media interviews, and public appearances.

Minimum Qualification Requirements: A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college and two years of satisfactory, full-time experience related to the projects and policies to be studied in the particular position. Preferred Skills: You're an innovative thinker, dogged researcher, and excellent writer with a knack for communicating complicated ideas in clear, persuasive language. You've written for others or edited their work, whether in government, consulting, advocacy, academia, or another sector. You're an avid consumer of the news and care about public health. You're able to step outside of yourself to consider how different audiences will receive messages, tailoring your writing accordingly. You have the ability to prioritize and execute multiple projects on tight deadlines. You contribute thoughtfully and respectfully in team setting. You have experience designing slide decks in common formats such as PowerPoint or Google Slides. You're a respectful but confident editor who can deliver feedback that your colleagues want to take.

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.