Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention, District Programs

The Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention is a member of the District Programs team within JED’s School Programs and Consulting division, and is an excellent opportunity for experienced student affairs practitioners and/or mental health clinicians who are seeking to utilize their talents on a national level. The Consultant, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention will aid in the creation and implementation of strategic plans for partner PK-12 school districts which support student mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention efforts. The Consultant will engage in reviewing school processes, programs and protocols and analyze school-specific data to inform the strategies and guidance that they provide to the school. The Consultant’s experience and knowledge of mental health, and educational environments and systems will be utilized in the implementation and development of program delivery to school and district leadership. This role is skilled in relationship management, problem-identification and problem-solving, and resource development, while also providing guidance and technical assistance in school mental health. The Consultant will report to a Senior Consultant in their program (or the Senior Director, as needed) and work collaboratively with the entire JED team. This is a national, remote position. The Consultant, School Mental Health & Suicide Prevention should reside within an easy (approx. 60 min) commuting distance from an airport to facilitate transit to various regional districts nationwide. The Consultant must have the ability and desire to travel to partner school districts, conferences, regional internal meetings, and to the JED headquarters office in NYC regularly (up to 30% travel).

Key Responsibilities

• Build relationships with school contacts within an assigned portfolio (approx. 15 school districts) to ensure success throughout program engagement.
• Assist districts in developing and executing strategic plans and measuring the efficacy of their mental health promotion efforts.
• Provide ongoing support and serve as a resource consultant to participating JED districts, schools, and JED program staff on mental health promotion, suicide, and substance abuse programming.
• Conduct programmatic reviews and analyze student data of assigned districts to inform support provided to schools, drafting feedback reports and executive summaries for stakeholders.
• Oversee project timelines and monitor an institution’s progress to ensure districts are meeting program milestones in a timely manner.
• Serve as content expert regarding best practices in policies, procedures, and practices in PK-12 school mental health and suicide prevention, acting as a subject matter expert during all phases of JED’s DMHI.
• Collaborate with leadership to update programmatic materials and work closely with the School Programs Division on assigned projects, team culture, and education programming.
• Utilize Salesforce to record and codify contacts with participating schools, tracking progress, types of intervention, and utilization of resources.

Functional Ownership

This role owns the program implementation and technical assistance provision for an assigned portfolio of approximately 15 school districts. This includes strategic planning, assessment, data analysis, project management, and relationship building for JED’s District Mental Health Initiative and other programming.

Decision Rights & Collaboration

The Consultant works collaboratively with the entire JED team, reporting to a Senior Consultant or Senior Director. They manage relationships and project milestones independently for their portfolio of schools while acting as an advisor and subject matter expert for school districts. Updating programmatic materials and overarching strategy requires collaboration with JED leadership.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

Required

• Minimum of master’s level training in education, educational leadership, counseling, psychology, social work, or related field (LPC, MSW, MPH, MED, and early to mid-career PhD degree-holders encouraged to apply).
• Strong technical knowledge of school-based mental health, Social Emotional Learning, suicide prevention, and substance use prevention.
• Experience in school or system-level leadership, and experience leading, building, and managing PK-12 education programs.
• Deep knowledge of PK-12 school systems and systems-level change, including data, daily operations, and the current educational landscape.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with experience in drafting report-style formats, with attention to detail.
• Excellent presentation skills with experience and comfort presenting to large groups, including senior leadership.
• Self-driven and results-oriented with strong research, analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to travel to campuses, conferences, and JED headquarters in NYC regularly (up to 30% travel) and reside within approx. 60 min of an airport.

Preferred

• At least 5-7 years professional experience working within, or in direct partnership with PK-12 schools and school districts.
• Experience in research and evaluation methodology.
• Experience working with Asana, Salesforce, or other CRM and project management systems.