Food is Medicine Program Manager

Current Employees:
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Academic Staff

Regular

Project Program Manager

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Family Medicine & Community Health is recruiting for a Food is Medicine Program Manager to provide strategic operational leadership for a transformative, university-wide initiative supported by the Kern Family Foundation. The Food is Medicine Initiative brings together the School of Medicine & Public Health, College of Agricultural & Life Sciences, School of Human Ecology, UW Health, UW Extension, community organizations, agricultural partners, and health systems to advance research, education, clinical implementation, and community partnerships that improve health through food.

The Food is Medicine Program Manager serves as the strategic operations and implementation partner to Departmental Principal Investigators/Co-Investigators, translating institutional vision into coordinated execution across multiple schools, disciplines, and external partners. This position provides integrated leadership for project planning, operational coordination, stakeholder engagement, communications, governance support, and implementation of complex, cross‑functional initiatives while helping establish sustainable infrastructure for long‑term institutional growth.

In addition to leading day‑to‑day program operations, the Food is Medicine Program Manager will participate in executive‑level strategic planning with university leadership, contribute to the leadership of the UW–Madison Food is Medicine Working Group, and support organizational development associated with a future campus‑wide Food is Medicine Center. This position is well suited for a collaborative, strategic leader with demonstrated success managing complex initiatives, building partnerships across diverse organizations, and translating vision into measurable impact.

This is a unique opportunity to help shape one of the nation's leading university‑based Food is Medicine initiatives and contribute to building an enduring institutional model that advances health, strengthens communities, and supports sustainable food systems throughout Wisconsin.

This position may require some work to be performed in‑person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non‑campus work location.

This position has been identified as a position of trust with access to vulnerable populations. The selected candidate will be required to pass an initial caregiver check to be eligible for employment under the Wisconsin Caregiver Law and every four years.

Candidates who demonstrate the following knowledge, skills, and abilities will be given first consideration:

• Proven success building and aligning partnerships across academic institutions, healthcare systems, community organizations, government agencies, philanthropic partners, and other external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate cross‑functional teams while balancing competing priorities, timelines, budgets, and organizational objectives.
• Excellent executive communication skills, facilitation, and relationship‑management skills.
• Knowledge of healthcare delivery systems, public health, community partnerships, implementation science, or Food is Medicine initiatives, or related fields.

• May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full‑time equivalent (FTE) employees.
• Creates a program plan and structure, monitors progress and performance against the program plan, and identifies, resolves, or escalates program risks and issues
• Represents and advances Food is Medicine initiatives through stakeholder engagement, collaboration, impact evaluation, dissemination, and scaling of evidence‑based practices that improve health outcomes, healthcare delivery, food systems, and community…