Program director of the oregon poison center (opc)

Department Overview

Join us at OHSU and help shape the future of public health in Oregon and beyond as the Program Director of the Oregon Poison Center. This high-impact leadership role drives statewide strategy, legislative engagement, funding development, public education, and key partnerships that sustain one of the region’s most vital emergency response resources. Working alongside clinical and academic leaders, you will influence policy, secure critical investments, and advance innovative programs that protect communities across Oregon and Guam. If you're a visionary healthcare or public health leader who thrives on building partnerships and creating lasting impact, this is your opportunity to make a difference every day.

The Program Director of the Oregon Poison Center (OPC) provides leadership for the Center’s programmatic, business, legislative, funding, public education, and external relations functions. This role advances OPC’s long-term sustainability and alignment with state, federal, and institutional priorities, while working in close partnership with OPC clinical leadership and the Medical Director, who retain responsibility for clinical operations, quality, and workforce management. The Program Director holds primary responsibility for developing and executing a sustainable funding strategy for OPC, including leadership of state and federal legislative engagement, public appropriations support, contracts, and grant development, in collaboration with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), OHSU Government Relations, and America’s Poison Centers (APC). The role represents OPC with government agencies, public health partners, funders, and external stakeholders to ensure alignment with public health priorities, statutory requirements, and national poison center policies. The Program Director provides oversight and direction for OPC’s public education and poison prevention programming, including direct supervision of the OPC Public Educator, to ensure programs are evidence-based, appropriately targeted, and aligned with public health priorities and funding requirements.

Function/Duties of Position

In collaboration with clinical and operational leaders, the Program Director supports OPC’s participation in national data, accreditation, and reporting frameworks and advances the Center’s mission as a critical component of Oregon’s public health and emergency response infrastructure. The Oregon Poison Center is a 24 hour emergency response center providing information to effectively triage and assist in management of patients experiencing a poisoning or toxic exposure. The Oregon Poison center serves the public as well as health care providers throughout Oregon and Guam. The center serves patients of all age groups. The Registered Nurses and Pharmacists in the Oregon Poison Center maintain responsibility for answering the emergency phone lines of the poison center.

Physician Faculty provide consultative expertise in patient management. Primary responsibility includes patient assessment, provision of treatment recommendations and facilitating appropriate referral to a health care facility if necessary. The OPC maintains a public education program to promote poison prevention and provides professional education to students or various disciplines, including nursing, medicine, pharmacy practice and prehospital care.

Office-based setting. Occasional remote work available. The position requires intermittent travel for national poison center or professional meetings and rotational, as-needed travel to the Oregon State Capitol for legislative or governmental engagement. Occasional travel within and outside of Oregon may be required for stakeholder meetings or public education activities. Availability outside of standard business hours may be required periodically to support time-sensitive external or programmatic needs.

This position is primarily office-based and requires the ability to perform standard administrative and professional tasks. Physical demands include prolonged periods of sitting, standing, and walking within an office or meeting environment. The role requires frequent use of a computer, telephone, and other standard office equipment for communication, documentation, data review, and presentation preparation.

The position may involve occasional lifting, carrying, or transporting of light materials (generally up to 20 pounds), such as documents, training materials, or presentation equipment. Travel to meetings or external locations may require the ability to walk moderate distances, stand for periods during meetings or presentations, and use standard transportation methods.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in health, public service or management discipline relevant to healthcare or public health programs and 5 years’ experience, OR
• Doctoral degree in health-related or public service discipline and 5 years’ experience OR,
• Bachelor’s and 7 years’ experience
• Prior experience in healthcare, public health, or closely related system or program environment
• Demonstrated experience and competency in public speaking, presentations, or external stakeholder engagement
• Experience supporting or administering healthcare programs or systems, with emphasis on program operations, funding, policy, or coordination across stakeholders
• Strong business acumen and financial knowledge to include budgeting, financial reporting and grants management.
• Proven people management skills to include establishing expectations, performance coaching and oversight, accountability and engagement.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills, including ability to represent the Oregon Poison Center both internally and externally.
• Strong problem solving, decision making and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to accomplish goals and objectives,
• Communication, interpersonal and conflict resolution skills
• Full proficiency in computer word processing, PowerPoint, database management.

Preferred Qualifications

• RN: Doctor of Nursing Practice or PhD in Nursing
• Pharmacist: Pharm D with experience in public health, program leadership, policy, or health system operations
• Certified Specialist in Poison Information (CSPI) with experience in poison center operations or public health programming
• Experience working with or supporting public health programs, emergency response systems, or statewide service organizations
• Experience related to poison center operations, toxicology programs, or exposure prevention initiatives, from a programmatic, operational, funding, or policy perspective
• Experience collaborating with governmental agencies, funders, or legislative bodies
• 3 years of recent leadership or management experience, including responsibility for personnel management and budget or financial oversight within a healthcare, public sector, or non-profit organization
• *If a Registered Nurse or Pharmacist: Current Oregon License

Additional Details

This position also comes with great benefits! Some highlights include:

• Comprehensive health care plans that cover 100% for a full-time employee and 88% for dependents for .75 FTE and higher.
• $50K of term life insurance provided at no cost to the employee
• Two separate above market pension plans to choose from
• Paid time off- 208 hours per year (full-time), prorated for part-time
• Extended illness bank- 64 hours per year, prorated for part-time
• 9 paid holidays per year
• Three weeks of paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance program (up to 5k)
• Substantial Tri-met and C-Tran discounts
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Innovative Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Why apply to OHSU?

We are Oregon's only public academic health center. In addition to caring for patients, we lead groundbreaking research. We also train the next generation of health care professionals. As Portland's largest employer, we give you opportunities to learn and advance in a system of hospitals and clinics across Oregon and Southwest Washington. All are welcome. OHSU welcomes people of all ages, ethnicities, genders, national origins, religions and sexual orientations. We are striving to build an anti-racist, multicultural institution and encourage people with diverse backgrounds to apply. To request reasonable accommodation, contact askhr@ohsu.edu