Rural Strategies Specialist - Term Limited

Full Job Description

This position is only open to Colorado state residents.

Although the full salary range for this position is provided, appointments are typically made at or near the range minimum.

Be BOLD and make a real difference...

We are committed to increasing the diversity of our staff and providing culturally responsive programs and services. Therefore, we encourage responses from people of diverse backgrounds and abilities

If your goal is to build a career that makes a difference, consider joining the dedicated people of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Our tobacco-free campus offers free parking and is conveniently located near RTD bus lines, Glendale City Set, and the Cherry Creek bike path.

In addition to a great location and rewarding, meaningful work, we offer:

• Employee wellness programs and facilities

• Extensive internal professional development opportunities on a wide variety of subjects

• Bike to work programs, including access to storage lockers and bike racks

• Distinctive career advancement opportunities throughout the State system

• Strong, yet flexible retirement benefits including a choice of the PERA Defined Benefit Plan or the PERA Defined Contribution Plan, plus optional 401K and 457 plans

• Medical and dental health plans

• Paid life insurance

• Short- and long-term disability coverage

• 11 paid holidays per year plus generous personal time off

• Mentoring program with opportunities for mentors and mentees

• Tuition assistance for college level courses including Master’s degree programs

• Excellent work-life programs, such as flexible schedules, and a variety of employee resource groups

Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. For more information, go to: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service

Please Note - As of August 27, 2025, a hiring freeze is in effect for the Colorado Executive Branch.

State agencies will be allowed to finalize the hiring process only if a position has been posted by August 26, 2025.

Any positions that are posted after August 26, 2025 have been either exempted from the hiring freeze or have been approved for a waiver and the hiring process may proceed.

Requirements

The Work Unit:

The Prevention Services Division works with public and private partners across Colorado to improve the health of all Coloradans.

Division professionals develop, review, implement and evaluate public health interventions proven to promote healthy living, prevent chronic disease, protect against injury and ensure access to health care and opportunities for a healthy lifestyle.

The Division is committed to the professional development, collaborative effort and sustained wellness of its workforce.

The Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) serves as the lead entity for suicide prevention, intervention supports, and postvention efforts in Colorado, collaborating with communities statewide to reduce suicide through health policy, legislation, public awareness and education, training, assessments, and intervention programs.

The Position:

This position leads suicide prevention initiatives related to rural, agricultural, and frontier communities across Colorado.

The position determines and designs appropriate processes and intervention strategies using analysis of complex community, cultural, behavioral health, and systems-level data providing technical assistance to grantees and stakeholders working on suicide prevention initiatives.

Additionally, this position builds and maintains multi-level partnerships by providing staff support and leadership to the Colorado-National Collaborative (CNC) project; outreaches to and supports rural and frontier health systems and the Follow-Up Project implementation; provides technical assistance to the Gun Shop Project in rural and frontier counties and facilitates the OSP Rural Communities Workgroup.

Within CDPHE, this position collaborates with other state injury and violence prevention programs in PSD and CDPHE and with the Gun Shop Project Coordinator within OSP.

This position develops and coordinates programs specific to the rural, agricultural, and frontier communities across Colorado and, together with the OSP team, evaluates the relevance of existing guidelines in order to prepare and tailor plans or individualized approaches to resolve specific management and/or program issues.

The role builds and maintains relationships at the community and state level through strong organization and communication to support the program.

Qualifications

Residency Requirement:

This posting is only open to residents of the State of Colorado at the time of submitting your application.

Additionally, this position is remote and serves the following locations highlighted in yellow in Northeast Colorado, Northwest, Colorado and Southwest Colorado Regions, see maphttps://drive.google.com/file/d/14BeyAHdKtZJPoPaIW5LWqZmmHAm0QZkr/view?usp=sharing

Class Code & Classification Description:

H1S3XX

Public Health and Community Outreach Professional III

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

An applicant may meet the minimum qualifications for this job in one of two ways: They may qualify through their work experience alone or through a combination of education and work experience.

Experience Only:

Six (6) years of relevant experience in prevention and education program planning or prevention evaluation. Experience must clearly show technical assistance, facilitation, and guidance to partners or grantees within health prevention.

OR

Education and Experience:

A combination of related education, graduation from an accredited college or university in health, psychology, sociology, social work, public policy, public administration, public health, or a closely related field, and relevant experience in prevention and education program planning or prevention evaluation.

Experience must clearly show technical assistance, facilitation, and guidance to partners or grantees within health prevention equal to Six (6) years.

**If using education to qualify for this position a copy of your transcripts (unofficial acceptable) must be provided with application.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

In addition to the minimum requirements, the successful candidate in this position will have the following experience:

1. Experience with suicide prevention, intervention, and/or postvention programs.

2. Experience leading equity programs, strategies, activities and practices in organizational or community settings in rural communities.

3. Personal and professional experience living in a rural community and participating in community-driven efforts.

4. Experience managing conflicts and diverse opinions of partners in rural communities.

5. Experience understanding and synthesizing the needs of rural communities and communicating to a broad range of partners the importance of supporting rural communities.

6. Experience with project management which included managing/writing competitive grants, managing budgets and contracts.

7. Ability to demonstrate emotional intelligence with self and when communicating to diverse audiences of varying technical levels, and at various levels within an organization, in groups and individual settings.

8. Experience synthesizing complex research, data, or evaluation measures into understandable and usable resources.

9. Personal experience living in a rural Colorado community, which can include the Northeast Colorado, Northwest Colorado, and Southwest Colorado Regions listed in the residency requirement.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

• Pursuant to CDPHE policy, a background check is required for all positions at CDPHE.

TRAVEL: 20% of time, required to conduct community visits, rural outreach, professional development, and grantee meetings roughly once every month. Some travel is with the team, some is independent.

Travel is across Colorado, as well as professional development opportunities out of state. Some locations within Colorado will require overnight stays and out of state travel requires overnight stays.




Appeal Rights:

If you receive notice that you have been eliminated from consideration for this position, you may file an appeal with the StatePersonnel Board or request a review by the State Personnel Director.An appeal or review must be submitted on the official appeal form, signed by you or your representative.

Appeals to the StatePersonnel Board or the State Personnel Director must be received or postmarked within the filing period: Appeals shall be filed withthe Board no later than ten (10) days after receipt of the written notice of the action, or if no notice was received, no later than (10)days after the employee knew or should have known of the disputed action.

Filings can be by mail, hand-delivery, fax or email.

Sendthe completed form with all supporting attachments to the State Personnel Board and provide a copy to the Department (the“Respondent”) identified by you (the “Complainant”) in PART 1 - General Information and Disputed Employment Action.State Personnel Board1525 Sherman Street, 4th Floor, Denver, Colorado 80203Fax Number: 303-866-5038Email filings: dpa_state.personnelboard@state.co.usFor more information about the appeals process, the official appeal form, and how to deliver it to the State Personnel Board; go tospb.colorado.gov; contact the State Personnel Board for assistance at (303) 866-3300; or refer to 4 Colorado Code of Regulations (CCR) 801-1, State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures, Chapter 8, Resolution of Appeals andDisputes, at spb.colorado.gov under Rules.

Additional Information

A complete application packet must include:

• A completed State of Colorado application.

• Fully answered supplemental questions per guidance.

• If using education to qualify for this position a copy of your transcripts (unofficial acceptable) must be provided with application.

• If using work experience to qualify for this position, please provide an adequate description in the work experience section of the application. Do not write "see resume".

• If you are a veteran, a copy of your DD214 attached to your colorado.gov/jobs application.




The Selection Process:

1. All applications that are received by the closing of this announcement will be reviewed against the Minimum Qualifications in this announcement. Candidates who meet the minimum qualifications proceed to the next step.

2. Colorado Revised Statutes require that state employees are hired and promoted based on merit and fitness through a comparative analysis process.

• Part of, or all of, the comparative analysis for this position may be a structured application review, which involves a review of the information you submit in your application materials by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) against the preferred qualifications.

3. A top group, up to six candidates, will be invited to schedule an interview with the hiring manager.




E-Verify: CDPHE uses e-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.




You must be legally eligible to work in the United States to be appointed to this position. CDPHE does not sponsor non-residents of the United States.

ADAAA Accommodations:

The State of Colorado believes that equity, diversity, and inclusion drive our success, and we encourage candidates from all identities, backgrounds, and abilities to apply.

The State of Colorado is an equal opportunity employer committed to building inclusive, innovative work environments with employees who reflect our communities and enthusiastically serve them.

Therefore, in all aspects of the employment process, we provide employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, medical condition related to pregnancy, creed, ancestry, national origin, marital status, genetic information, or military status (with preference given to military veterans), or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals.

As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment, including completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or to perform essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship.

If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to our ADAAA Coordinator at cdphe.humanresources@state.co.us or call 303-692-2060, option 5.