Mental Health Workforce Development Director

at State of Vermont in Waterbury, Vermont, United States

Job Description

Are you passionate about transforming mental health care and empowering a workforce to deliver high-quality, person-centered services?

The Department of Mental Health (DMH) is seeking a dynamic Mental Health Workforce Development Director to lead strategic initiatives that promote mental health awareness, workforce development, and practice improvement across the Department's Central Office and State-operated facilities.

In this pivotal role, you will work collaboratively with the staff, leadership, and other state agencies to develop and implement strategies that increase capacity, strengthen staff development, and address complex workforce challenges. You will play a key role in ensuring that DMH professionals are prepared to meet the evolving needs of individuals with serious mental illness and youth with emotional disturbances.

Key Responsibilities Include:
•    Leading internal workforce development and planning efforts to support a skilled, engaged, and resilient workforce.
•    Designing and coordinating training programs in response to regulatory changes and departmental priorities.
•    Enhancing recruitment and retention for hard-to-fill roles, with a focus on nursing and clinical staff.
•    Building and maintaining communication channels among providers, stakeholders, and government entities to support collaborative service delivery.
•    Promoting mental health education and awareness both internally and in partnership with community stakeholders.
•    Integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into all workforce-related strategies and activities.
•    Monitoring workforce trends, evaluating training outcomes, and aligning programming with operational needs and strategic goals.

The ideal candidate will bring strong leadership, strategic planning skills, and a solid background in mental health systems and workforce development. Familiarity with training design, staff engagement strategies, and cross-agency collaboration is essential.

Duties are performed routinely in a standard office setting, but with frequent travel to other DMH facilities and community-based events, programs, and services for which private means of transportation may be needed. The role requires schedule flexibility and availability, often without advance notice. Contacts are both one-to-one and with groups, at which a variety of opinions may be expressed or advocated. Interaction with multiple stakeholder and interest groups with expectations to effectively understand, evaluate, and develop strategies to overcome multiple, complex barriers at local, state and federal level to implementing policy, financial, information technology and practice-related improvements to the health and mental health care systems. Interaction with the public and individuals seeking employment at the department, both in-person and virtually or by phone.