Program Associate Jobs

We are looking for a collaborative, detail-oriented colleague to join the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) as a program associate with the Learning and Impact team. As a valued team member, you'll manage schedules, coordinate meetings, organize travel, and maintain files. You will also plan, coordinate, and manage logistics for Learning and Impact–sponsored events, such as learning offsites and training sessions.

About the California Health Care Foundation

The California Health Care Foundation is an independent, nonprofit philanthropy that works to improve the health care system so that all Californians have the care they need. We focus especially on making sure the system works for Californians with low incomes and for communities that have traditionally faced the greatest barriers to care. The best opportunity California has to advance those goals is to strengthen Medi-Cal — the cornerstone of California’s safety net. We are especially focused on strengthening Medi-Cal in these ways:

• Strengthen and diversify the health workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a stark reminder of the vital importance of California’s health care workforce. It also underscored the imperative of solving ongoing shortages of critical health professionals and making sure our workforce has the cultural and language competencies needed to serve California’s diverse population.
• Make care just. There is an urgent need to remove the structural barriers that prevent people of color from getting the care they need. CHCF is working to document inequities in the health care system, hold system leaders accountable, and transform care to uphold the dignity that each Californian deserves.
• Get everyone covered. Three million Californians lack basic health coverage. We need to finish the job and make sure everyone, regardless of income or immigration status, has the opportunity for health that insurance provides. One important part of the solution is to make sure all Californians eligible for Medi-Cal are enrolled in the program.
• Deliver care better. There are steps California can take right now to increase access and to improve the way care is delivered to people with complex health needs, like those experiencing homelessness or serious mental illness.

Learning and Impact Team Overview

CHCF’s Learning and Impact (L&I) team helps our organization learn from our investments, assess and improve grantmaking approaches, and with our grantees and other partners, identify impactful pathways to improve California’s health care system.

Position Overview

As a program associate, you will play a major role in supporting the Learning and Impact Team by providing essential administrative, project management/coordination, and grants administration support. Your primary responsibilities will include scheduling appointments, coordinating meetings and conference calls, managing travel arrangements and expenses, organizing and maintaining files, prioritizing tasks, screening calls and mail, and helping with photocopying, scanning, and faxing materials. Additionally, you will contribute to grants management by overseeing administrative aspects, maintaining grant records, managing timelines, liaising with grantees and program staff, and troubleshooting technical issues.

This role is based in our Oakland office, and the program associate must work in office two days per week (Tuesday and Wednesday).

Primary Responsibilities

Administrative Support

• Arrange travel for L&I team members, complete and file monthly expense reports, and support grantee expense reimbursement requests.
• Manage organization-wide memberships and subscriptions, including coordinating billing, keeping up-to-date information on access, and fielding staff questions.
• Undertake ad hoc special projects, such as literature reviews / locating journal articles and other information, supporting L&I-led staff surveys, responding to requests for information from the L&I team, and other related research projects.
• Receive and screen telephone calls, emails, and mail, and relay messages or follow up, as needed.
• Actively manage the calendars/schedules of three L&I team members who need to meet often with both internal colleagues and external grantees or other partners. This responsibility includes scheduling ad hoc meetings, managing the cadence of standing meetings, scanning calendars for issues needing attention such as double bookings, otherwise supporting team members in managing demands for meetings.
• Work effectively with staff in a dynamic environment to prioritize, determine action, and respond to tasks/issues as they arise.
• Help the Oakland office manager and other program associate colleagues with reception coverage, special projects, board meeting support, grants management, and other related tasks.
• Organize and maintain team files on Box.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with colleagues across the organization to facilitate strong communication.

Meeting and Event Coordination

• For in-house, in-person meetings, prepare the conference rooms with the required seating and A/V equipment, assemble written materials, produce name tags, arrange catering and beverages, greet and check in guests, respond to any individual or group needs during the meeting, and clear the room after the meeting has concluded
• Create agendas and participant lists and compile background materials
• Work with event space staff to arrange rooms, food, and event details
• Manage all aspects of Zoom logistics for virtual and hybrid events
• Manage the logistics and preparation of materials for foundation-sponsored meetings and activities, notably two to four offsites per year hosted by the L&I team, as well as meetings related to the programmatic portfolios of the team members
• Coordinate invitations and other messaging to meeting/event participants

Grants Management

• Support L&I team staff in meeting payout goals and deadlines, making sure grants are current (e.g., deliverables are submitted on time, payments are issued promptly)
• Log new projects into the grants management system, draft grant awards and correspondence, and work with CHCF's Grants Administration team
• Manage all administrative aspects of the grants process for the L&I team, which at this time include investments in the philanthropic field, maternity care, and community resilience/disaster response
• Manage and coordinate request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) schedules and activities when L&I staff issue RFIs and RFPs
• Maintain grant records, including tracking due dates for deliverables, managing the payment process, and tracking payout

Contact Management

• Use a database to generate lists of meeting participants, mailing lists, and other contact-related information as needed
• Work with the Communications and Engagement team to manage contacts for the department in the organization-wide database as well as contacts for the programmatic portfolios of team members

Minimum Qualifications

• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills
• Demonstrated ability to multitask and to meet deadlines, as well as demonstrated resourcefulness in setting priorities
• Strong organizational and follow-through skills and exceptional attention to detail
• Strong command of Zoom
• At least four years of relevant experience supporting senior-level professional staff
• Demonstrated ability to support the management and coordination of projects and events
• Strong command of all Microsoft Office applications (especially Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams)

Skills and Competencies

• You have demonstrated success as a proficient multitasker with impeccable attention to detail.
• You have demonstrated commitment to health equity, CHCF’s mission, and to diversity, equity, and inclusion through your previous education, work, and/or volunteer activities and focus.
• You take initiative, demonstrate strong critical thinking skills, and operate with discretion.
• You are comfortable and capable of working independently, taking on new tasks or projects with little direction and can adjust course quickly in response to information and feedback.
• You have a demonstrated track record of supporting a busy team with ongoing, competing demands.
• You have demonstrated experience establishing and maintaining strong relationships with colleagues across an organization to facilitate effective communication.
• You invite different perspectives into your work and are committed to improving yourself and others by seeking and providing specific feedback and guidance.
• You communicate directly and concisely when speaking and writing.

Other Qualifications

• Curiosity, humility, open-mindedness, and an eagerness to listen to and learn from CHCF’s grantees and other partners in the field
• A professional and personal commitment to the ongoing work of becoming an anti-racist leader and participating in CHCF’s organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion programs as a staff member

Salary and Benefits

The full salary range for this position is $79,872 to $119,808, with a firm starting salary of $94,640. The foundation provides a generous benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and long-term care insurance; commuter checks or paid parking; employee assistance program and wellness program; educational assistance; paid time off; and retirement benefits.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The California Health Care Foundation is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff and will honor your experiences, perspectives, and unique identity. We believe the power of diversity enriches all of us by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, to identify challenges, and to discover, design, and deliver solutions. Read more about CHCF’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion vision.

COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

All employees will be required to show evidence that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.