State Policy Manager - National Programs

Range: $122,500 - $132,500 p/year, based on relevant experience, education, skills, licenses, certifications, and training.

Range: $52,300 to $92,570 p/year, with experience and qualifications.

• Previously worked in state legislative office and/or as legislative liaison for a health agency
• Comfortable working in a bipartisan fashion
• Self-motivated with attention to detail
• Strong analytical skills with ability to understand how proposals fit into larger system
• Willingness to travel as needed

Position Objective: The
Manager, State Policy
position will be responsible for coordinating local and state-level policy related to the interests of Vibrant Emotional Health, including the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline program. This work entails providing members of state legislatures with information on Vibrant and Vibrant programs, coordinating with local and state mental health agency officials, local and state mental health organizations and other stakeholders. The position also entails tracking suicide prevention legislation, crisis line funding trends, and policy hearings of relevance to the Lifeline.

In this role, the position will work with and report to the Director, National and State Policy to identify key state legislature committees and mental health agency contacts in order to leverage legislative and regulatory opportunities to advance priorities and raise awareness of programs within Vibrant. The ultimate goal of this position is to ensure that state-level stakeholders, committees and agencies are better positioned to support Lifeline-affiliated call centers, as well as the overall mission of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The Manager, State Policy position will be responsible for a subset of states across the country with other staff in the Department.

The Lifeline is a national network of independently operated, independently funded crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

• Identify and monitor state legislative and regulatory initiatives using Vibrant legislative tracking platform
• Analyze, summarize and determine viability of state legislation and state regulations
• Communicate with elected officials, policymakers and relevant stakeholders on Vibrant policy priorities
• Build relationships with entities within organization’s network to strengthen state-based policy activities
• Coordinate with state organizations to advance policy priorities
• Collaborate with appropriate stakeholders and coalitions on state legislative days
• Maintain working knowledge of state government processes, resources, information and policy trends
• Write newsletter articles and web updates on state level policy updates
• Work closely with the Director, National and State Policy to execute and advance organization goals
• Other duties as assigned

Required Skills

• Exceptional working knowledge of state legislative processes.
• Demonstrated expertise in creating policy briefings.
• A strong ability to communicate the essence of complex legislation in a way that is concise, relevant to an individual constituent or legislators’ concerns, and that never loses sight of the highly personal and societal impact of Lifeline’s work.
• Strong customer-service orientation.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate to diverse stakeholders across political, social and geographic spectrums.
• Excellent organizational, time management, verbal, written and computer skills.
• Self-motivated approach to work and a strong ability to initiate problem-solving tasks without direction.
• Ability to work effectively, collaboratively and positively in a team environment.
• Comfort in both asking for direction and initiating quality improvement recommendations within the context of remote based supervision.
• Intermediate to advanced skills with MS Office Suite, Slack, Zoom, Google and other technology platforms
• Ability to be flexible and versatile, while maintaining a positive attitude, in an ever-changing work environment.

Qualifications

• Must has a very strong background in state legislative affairs…