Extension Educator, Health & Nutrition - St. Cloud

Extension Educator, Health & Nutrition

Extension Department for Family, Health and Wellbeing

Job Code: Assistant Extension Professor (job code 9624FP)

Employee Group: Academic professional, annually renewable

Regular/Temporary: Regular

Office

Location:

St. Cloud, MN

Estimated salary range: $74,000 - $88,000

Apply By: August 28, 2026

To help bridge the gap between community wellness and clinical care, chronic disease prevention plays a vital role in advancing public health outcomes. In this role, the Health and Nutrition Extension Educator will adopt a public health etiology lens to create and execute evidence-based initiatives. These systems-level programs will focus on wellness at the community level, healthcare accessibility, and chronic disease prevention, ensuring alignment with community medicine priorities and broader National Health Extension dialogues.

Key responsibilities include cultivating cross-sector partnerships and collaborations with healthcare institutions, providing training to clinicians and community partners, assisting and partnering with stakeholders, providing direct instruction, and connecting with public policymakers to inform change at a systems and policy level. As part of the Extension promotion track, educators are expected to maintain an ongoing commitment to professional growth within their research-based domain or through scholarship, construct an annual plan of work, and document yearly activities alongside their measurable impacts.

This is a full-time position. The person in this position will report to the Program Leader for Health and Nutrition. This educator will be in the St. Cloud Regional office, and programming will also be conducted in person within 100 miles of St. Cloud. When not programming in the communities, the position is expected to work in the office. Travel to partnering communities is expected and compensated.

This is not a remote position or eligible for visa employment sponsorship.

• Lead community assessment efforts, encompassing needs assessments, identifying how systemic and environmental factors impact programs, and determining potential effects of structural and governmental policies on population-level health outcomes.
• Design, implement, evaluate, and adapt a continuum of nutrition and wellbeing initiatives for chronic disease prevention and management at the individual, family, and community level.
• Cultivate cross-sector partnerships and collaborations with healthcare institutions, providing training to clinicians and community partners, assisting and partnering with stakeholders, providing direct instruction, and connecting with public policymakers to inform change at a systems and policy level.
• Work collaboratively with clinical care teams to promote self-management strategies and person-centered care that reduce risks and optimize health outcomes across the lifespan.
• Actively seek a better understanding of emerging health and nutrition issues, public health approaches, tribal ways of knowing, and new research and strategies in order to develop education programs that meet the needs of audiences.
• Work with the Family, Health and Wellbeing Communications Team to develop and implement communication plans related to programs.
• Provide program leadership on statewide or national programs, projects, or priorities as assigned.

• Collaborate with other Extension personnel regionally, statewide, or nationally to enhance program delivery.
• Prioritizes family and community input to identify and address needs linked to social determinants of health, adapting research-supported health and nutrition initiatives for the prevention of chronic diseases.
• Leverage relationship-building and networking skills to cultivate partnerships with community organizations to identify place-based solutions that are responsive to health and nutrition-related issues and to promote policy, system, and environmental (PSE) changes.
• Develop and participate in state and national Extension, professional, and community networks and organizations for collaborative programming and collective impacts.

• Contribute to the research and scholarship in health and nutrition, including (but not limited to):
  • Leading literature reviews and environmental scans to understand the current gaps in the field
  • Integrating academic scholarship related to H&N programs into practical educational activities that meet the needs of communities across Minnesota
  • Conducting comprehensive, systematic, and ongoing evaluation of educational activities for program improvement
  • Writing scholarly publications
  • Writing research-informed curriculum and other educational resources
  • Presenting at juried national conferences.
• Engage with Extension Specialists and other faculty to better inform research and scholarship efforts.
• Garner funds and resources to support H&N educational programs through grants, contracts, and other revenue…