Job Openings
Vice President, Environmental Health Program
THE HEALTH PROGRAM
Human health is placed at risk in many ways by environmental degradation. Environmental Defense Fund's Environmental Health Program currently works to protect human health across four program areas:
Air Quality
More than half of all Americans live in areas that don't meet clean-air standards. Breathing unhealthy air contributes to asthma, heart and lung disease, and cancer. In the U. S., ozone (smog) and fine particles (sometimes called soot) pose the biggest health threats. Both smog and soot trigger other respiratory problems like bronchitis, and long-term exposure to ozone smog in early childhood can have lasting effects on lung function. Environmental Defense Fund teams are working in the legal, legislative and regulatory arenas to develop and defend innovative real world solutions to reduce smog and soot from power plants and a wide variety of mobile sources. In addition, corporate partnerships have been forged to use the power of the marketplace to drive innovations that lower these pollutants.
Nanotechnology
— the design and manipulation of materials at the atomic and molecular scale — has great potential to deliver manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and other societal benefits, but it may also pose significant risks to human health and the environment. EDF believes that both the public and private sectors need to comprehensively address the potential risks of this important new technology. In the private sector, Environmental Defense Fund, has worked with DuPont to define a systematic and disciplined process to identify, manage and reduce potential health, safety and environmental risks of nano-scale materials across all lifecycle stages. EDF has translated this framework into multiple languages and is now working to expand the global influence of the framework by working to get the International Standards Organization to adopt it as a technical report. Public sector efforts include playing a leading role in a multi-stakeholder coalition to increase risk research funding and aggressive agency advocacy to improve the review and management of nanomaterials.
Food
EDF has been addressing a wide range of environmental threats to human health from food and food production, including:
Antibiotic resistance: Huge amounts of antibiotics are fed to animals on industrial-scale farms - not to treat disease but rather to promote faster growth and to compensate for stressful, crowded conditions.
The massive non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal agriculture helps speed the development and spread of resistant bacteria, even at a time when the effectiveness of many life-saving medicines is waning. In response to the growing health threat of antibiotic resistance, Environmental Defense Fund submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration, asking the agency to withdraw approvals for medically important antibiotics as feed additives for chickens, hogs and beef cattle, on the grounds that such use is inconsistent with FDA's own explicit safety criteria. We also published county-by-county estimates of the quantities of antibiotics used as feed additives. EDF’s partnership with MacDonald’s and other food industry leaders has significantly reduced the use of antibiotics in poultry operations.
Seafood:
Despite the health benefits of seafood, eating fish that are contaminated with toxins and chemicals can pose considerable health risks. Contaminants may include metals such as mercury, industrial chemicals such as PCBs, and pesticides such as DDT and dieldrin. EDF, using information from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, among other sources, has developed the widely used Seafood Selector chart that guides people on how to choose fish that are both low in contaminants and sustainably harvested. Moreover, partnerships with food companies such as Compass, Wegmans and Whole Foods have set new standards to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of aquaculture operations.
Chemical Safety
EDF has a long and celebrated history of reducing exposures to toxic chemicals, from its founding battle to ban agricultural uses of DDT in the United States, to its successful efforts to restrict the use of lead in gasoline and paint and the development of the groundbreaking Scorecard website. More recently, EDF has been the primary NGO watchdog over EPA’s voluntary chemical information programs, including the High Production Volume Chemical Challenge, which EDF had a key role in designing. EDF is now focused on achieving needed, fundamental reform of US chemicals policies, contributing extensive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of existing chemicals programs around the world to the growing efforts for policy reform, both at the state and federal levels.
CHALLENGES FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM
Environmental Defense Fund’s Environmental Health Program has a strong track record of developing practical, innovative solutions to environmental threats. EDF believes that, to fulfill its mission to protect human health, it must expand its efforts to address the most important emerging environmental health threats and have the strategies and resources to successfully advocate for policy solutions to address them. The Vice President, Environmental Health will:
Create a Vision for the Program
The Vice President, Environmental Health Program will work closely with the President, Executive Vice President and Senior Vice President of Programs to articulate a vision and strategic framework for the Program. S/he will be a resource to senior staff regarding specific program issues and will build relationships to accomplish projects across program disciplines. The VP Environmental Health will reach out to external stakeholders, including corporations, governmental, environmental, health and other organizations to build constituencies to ensure that EDF is working on the most pressing environmental issues and that the organization has a clear vision of victory. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of exciting funders to support creative and innovative programs and motivating a diverse group of constituents to support new initiatives both internally and externally.
Ensure a Strong, Diverse Funding Stream for the Program
The Vice President, Environmental Health will work closely with EDF Development staff, Board members and outside funders to ensure the Program has a strong, diverse funding base to ensure sufficient support to expand and broaden the Program. S/he will work closely with the development staff to ensure fundraising strategy is aligned with the Program’s vision to create excitement that will leverage peer relationships, attract new donors and increase support from current donors.
Enhance the Visibility of the Program
The Vice President, Environmental Health will have a broad understanding of policy issues and other stakeholders concerned with environmental health issues. S/he must have strong leadership and communications skills to identify and cultivate internal and external stakeholders to develop support and enthusiasm for EDF’s vision, and enhance the organization’s image as a leading subject matter expert on emerging environmental health issues. S/he will build relationships both externally and internally to articulate a strategy that engages science and policy across program areas and takes national and international environmental health policy discussions to new levels of understanding.
In addition, the VP Environmental Health will ensure that program strategies are closely aligned with strategic partners to garner support of government leaders, and other key decision makers. S/he will create and nurture relationships with new advocates to persuade them to become more fully invested in their support and will oversee ongoing communication with all stakeholders to keep them apprised of the Program’s achievements to increase enthusiasm for the Program’s goals and generate support for ongoing efforts.
Guide a Strong Staff to Ensure Continued High Quality Work and Professional Development
Environmental Defense Fund is recognized as having a strong and diverse team of senior professionals who are acknowledged subject matter experts. The VP, Environmental Health will be responsible for leading these professionals in a collegial and team-centered manner and for maintaining a creative and flexible environment to support ongoing innovation. S/he will ensure that appropriate mentoring and professional development opportunities are available.
QUALIFICATIONS
This is an outstanding opportunity for a visionary leader with broad knowledge of environmental health issues, policy savvy, and demonstrated success in fundraising and building enthusiasm and support for new programs with current stakeholders and potential partners. The VP will have demonstrated success implementing programs and leading a highly motivated, talented and diverse staff. S/he will have a strong commitment to Environmental Defense Fund’s mission and approach. In addition, while no one candidate will possess all of these qualities, the successful candidate will bring many of the following qualifications and attributes:
· Strategic ability and big-picture problem-solving capacity. Experience with strategies that involve economic and market-based solutions to environmental challenges will be a distinct advantage;
· Track record of securing funding from foundations, government, and individuals;
· Highly intelligent; able to operate successfully in a culture ferociously committed to the meritocracy of ideas;
· Ability to lead by influencing and by engaging diverse and competing groups in the strength of EDF’s vision;
· Compelling communicator, strong public presence, comfortable and effective in enlisting multiple internal and external constituencies, including Board members, donors, senior management, staff, and volunteers in support of an organization’s goals;
· Inspirational leader who can inspire others by the breadth of her/his vision and the discipline and creativity needed to realize that vision;
· Exceptional interpersonal skills including flexibility and the ability to listen, to negotiate, synthesize information to build effective partnerships with a diverse groups having competing agendas;
· Ability to work effectively with a wide variety of people at all levels, to inspire trust and to motivate them to work hard and well together across program areas
· Ability to effectively interact with elected officials, government agencies, community groups, and the media;
· Well-developed negotiating and political skills; ability to take ownership as needed yet seek counsel as appropriate;
· Passionate belief in environmental advocacy and citizen involvement in the public arena as a force for change; ability to quickly gain fluency in the relevant scientific and policy issues and to contribute at a high level to the programmatic mission of the organization;
· Tenacity and resilience; comfortable with confrontation and controversy coupled with grace under fire;
· Integrity, warmth, good humor, and a high level of energy.
TO APPLY:
Send resume and cover letter by email or fax in strict confidence to:
Tim McFeeley, Vice President and Director
or
Gail Gregory, Senior Associate
or
Irelene Ricks, Senior Associate
Isaacson, Miller
1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW Suite 710
Washington, DC 20009
202-682-1504
Electronic submission of material in Word format is preferred.
Environmental Defense Fund is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages a diverse pool of candidates for this search.
Posted: 05-Sep-2008; Updated: 14-Apr-2009
