Nutrition and Food Systems Specialist - Term-Limited

Job Title

The Prevention Services Division (PSD) is actively building a workforce reflective of the diverse communities we serve.

The Prevention Services Division (PSD) is actively building a workforce reflective of the diverse communities we serve. The Division strives to understand the needs of Colorado's communities and encourages contributions of stakeholders in identifying and solving public health problems. We are committed to providing a respectful, supportive, and inclusive work environment that demonstrates our commitment to accepting and respecting individuals from all communities.

The Division is also committed to the professional development, collaborative effort, and sustained wellness of its workforce. The Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Branch (HPCDP), in the Prevention Services Division (Division), plans, designs, implements, and evaluates public health interventions related to chronic disease and related risk factors, with a goal of improving health-related quality of life for all Coloradans.

We are aware that many chronic diseases share the same systemic causes: tobacco use, lack of access to nutritious foods, built environments to support physical activity, social connectedness, and poverty and economic instability. These systemic injustices and additional risk and protective factors are shared across many of the outcomes we address. Our work continues until all Coloradans can live healthy lives in a way that celebrates intersectional identities, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, education level, age, language, religion, ability, and geographic location.

The Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) and Cancer Unit exists to create an environment that encourages Coloradans to eat healthy and be physically active in their everyday lives and where the healthy choice is the easy choice. The Unit exists to increase cancer prevention and control across the continuum of care, including primary prevention, screening and early detection, and cancer survivorship.

What You Will Do:

The position exists to implement strategies to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, including produce prescription and incentive programs, increase access to healthy food, and improve nutrition security in Colorado. This position operates independently to support the produce prescription program design, the Colorado food system, produce procurement, and policies regarding reimbursement and sustainability of programs to provide consultation, education, training, technical assistance, and resources for chronic disease and obesity prevention and policy work.

This position determines methods for implementing and accomplishing activities set forth in the Rural Health Transformation Project (RHT), State Physical Activity and Nutrition grant (SPAN), and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) work plan by reviewing the evidence base and literature regarding produce prescription program interventions; determining appropriate technical assistance for specific audiences to increase the likelihood of audience engagement and adoption and identifies gaps in current initiatives or communication strategies to determine appropriate updates or revisions to increase effectiveness.

Further, this position maintains Partnership Development and Maintenance with statewide partners, state agencies, local public health agencies, community based organizations, providers and clinics, community members (i.e., food policy councils, farmers and producers), and other stakeholders to enhance collaboration and eliminate redundancy for chronic disease prevention-related nutrition and healthy eating programming and strategies regarding produce prescription programs and…