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Epidemiologist

Employer
Washington County, OR
Location
Hillsboro, Oregon, US
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
Sep 22, 2021

View more

Sector
Academic / Research
Field
Informatics / GIS
Discipline
Statistics
Salary Type
Salary
Employment Type
Fellowship
THE POSITION

Washington County Public Health Division is in search of an Epidemiologist to join our Research, Analytics, Informatics and Data (RAID) program.
The RAID program is the public health science unit within the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) providing ongoing epidemiological and research support to the Public Health Division and HHS.
This position requires to meet the Tier 2 (Mid-Level epidemiologist) Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE). This position is responsible for subject matter expertise in community health assessments, program evaluation, strategic planning and health equity. The epidemiologist classification is required to take part in the 24-hour county health department on-call rotation and may be asked to assist in surge capacity for outbreak investigations.

Per Public Health Emergency Response Annex Q, this position trains for and responds to emergencies in assigned areas to support public and environmental health emergency functions including but not limited to: conducting identification of at-risk populations and advising health officials regarding the event and potential associated health risks, data analysis, risk monitoring, and evaluation of relief efforts.
Finally, this position will be required to respond to public health emergencies and/or exercises at any time and understand that personal leave(s) may be canceled during these emergencies. This position must successfully complete basic incident management courses and participate in public health emergency response trainings as required.

The ideal candidate has strong teamwork and problem-solving skills. They are well-equipped to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with individuals and groups who come from diverse backgrounds. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are a must. They would also have a MPH or PhD in epidemiology, prior experience in local/state/Tribal public health in Oregon, and expertise in community health (non-communicable disease) epidemiology from within the government/Tribes.
To learn more about our Public Health Division, please use this link: Public Health
Washington County values a culture of equity, diverse perspectives, and life experiences. Our organization embraces innovation, collaboration and work-life harmony. We offer job stability, a comprehensive benefits package, and an opportunity to serve and support our diverse community. We are an equal opportunity employer with a commitment to diversity and an inclusive workforce. Women, minorities, veterans, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES
Duties may include:
  • Assist in creating a positive and supportive work environment; enforce a safe workplace; establish a culture of teamwork and communication; create a workplace that promotes the organizational values of workplace diversity, equity and inclusion and actively promote an environment respectful of living and working in a multicultural society.
  • Obtain, apply weighting as necessary, analyze, and prepare reports from large county-level public health data sets including PRAMS, BRFSS, NVDRS, ESSENCE, NSCH, vital statistics, etc.
  • Obtain, manage, analyze, and visualize healthcare claims data
  • Analyze and visualize data with SAS, R, Stata, ArcGIS, and Tableau
  • Access and use Census APIs to answer research questions
  • Integrate qualitative and quantitative data skills
  • Conduct, write, and present community health needs assessments for Washington County as part of a regional collaborative.
  • Design, conduct, and analyze surveys across non-communicable disease subject areas such as climate change, environmental assessments, chronic disease, etc.
  • Participate in and lead technical aspects of Performance Management and Quality Improvement (PMQI), including assistance with quality improvement, program evaluation and performance measure work, and strategic planning across the public health division.
  • Participate as the data expert in the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) groups. The current CHIP groups are access to care, aging and connection, youth substance use prevention, suicide prevention and healthy communities.
  • Investigate community health risk/resilience factors, and other health behaviors.
  • Provide consultation on or lead community health studies, including compiling information from multiple sources and evaluating the environmental aspects contributing to chronic disease conditions and identifying corrective actions for morbidity and mortality.
  • Consult with Public Health staff on methods of chronic disease investigation and public health surveillance; advise the Health Officer on epidemiological issues.
  • Coordinate with state and federal public health officials in multi-jurisdictional community health studies; collaborate with community partners, stakeholders, and organizations in investigating community health issues.
  • Design and implement surveillance systems that interact with current systems or systems in development at the state or national level.
  • Monitor surveillance data quality and recommend changes to improve or enhance data quality.
  • Collaborate with staff across local and state public health programs to verify accurate and timely data collection, proper monitoring, and dissemination of information in response to major public health events.
  • Work with Public Health staff to plan, prioritize, and implement community health assessment projects, program effectiveness evaluations, and intervention research. Assist others by clarifying key questions to be answered; determining data to be collected and the data collection methodology, conduct data analysis, disseminating the findings, and planning future steps.
  • Collaborate on projects with researchers from other public agencies and private institutions.
  • Recommend health policy changes based on findings from studies and research.
  • Conduct seminars and classes for department staff, local health care practitioners, professional organizations, staff from other agencies, and students on epidemiologic methods, investigation techniques, and community health.
  • In coordination with Public Health staff, prepare public health information releases and analyses. Write health status reports and articles for the public.
  • Conduct community meetings and explain public health data and epidemiologic issues to members of the public. Present findings of various activities at professional meetings and seminars.
Washington County organizes its positions into classifications. Classification descriptions are typically written broadly. To review full information about this classification, please use this link: Epidemiologist.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Education and ExperienceA typical way to obtain the knowledge and abilities would be:
  • A Master's Degree with a focus in epidemiology and at least two (2) years of work experience in epidemiology with a public health agency; OR
  • A doctoral-level degree in epidemiology; OR
  • Other non-epidemiology graduate degree or certification (e.g., RN, MD/DO, DDS/DMD, DVM, PhD, RS) with specific epidemiology training (e.g., MPH degree, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service or CSTE Applied Epidemiology Fellowship).

Additional Licenses, Certificates, Physical Abilities and Specialty Requirements:
  • Must possess a valid driver's license and have an acceptable driving record per Washington County policy.

Department of Motor Vehicle Records (DMV) Requirement:
Driving a motorized vehicle is an essential function of this position. Successful applicants must possess a valid driver's license and an acceptable driving record. To review the Driver's License and Record Policy for Washington County and instructions for submitting appropriate DMV documentation, please use this link:Driver's License & Records Policy.

Please be clear and specific in the applicable sections of the employment application about how your background is relevant. This information must also be consistent with your supplemental question responses. Please note: Answers to the supplemental questions are typically evaluated separately from your application.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
Washington County is committed to using a Merit Based System in which recruiting, selecting, and advancing employees is based on their relative knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Selection Process:
1. An evaluation of training and experience of submitted application packets will be performed by Human Resources. The timeframe to review will be the week of September 13, 2021.

2. A Subject Matter Expert (SME) Panel will perform an evaluation of experience and training taken from your employment application materials to include responses to the supplemental questionnaire. This process will begin after September 20, 2021 and may take about 2 weeks.

3. Our goal is to schedule oral panel interviews with candidates that successfully passed the SME evaluation as soon as possible.

Please note: candidates that are successful in the evaluation process may have their applications referred for additional vacancies in the same classification, or job family.

Status of Your Application:
You will be advised by e-mail of your status at each step in the application process, from initial application to final employment disposition. Please note that Washington County communicates with all candidates via email. If you "opt out" or "unsubscribe" from email notifications from NEOGOV it will impact our ability to communicate with you about job postings.

Veterans' Preference:
If you are a Veteran and would like to be considered for a Veterans' Preference for this recruitment, please review instructions using this link: Veterans Preference Points Instructions (Download PDF reader).

Accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act:
Reasonable accommodation is available to anyone whose specific disability prevents them from completing this application or participating in the selection process for this recruitment. To obtain confidential assistance please contact Human Resources 503-846-8606, or e-mail at: hr@co.washington.or.us at least 48 hours before any step in the recruitment and selection process for which you feel you need accommodation.

Questions (?) Regarding This Recruitment
Yeji Seo, Talent Acquisition Business Partner
Yeji_Seo@co.washington.or.us

Additional Resources:
  • New to GovernmentJobs.com? Visit https://www.governmentjobs.com/home/applicationguide for a comprehensive, step-by-step guide on the application process.
  • For technical support, contact Government Job's Live Application Support at 855-524-5627.
* Washington County is a drug-free workplace *

Management, Administrative and Professional Personnel System (MAPPS) - FLSA exempt employees are paid on a salaried basis. The premise of salaried/exempt employment is that established compensation recognizes the time and effort needed to accomplish all assigned job duties. Job responsibilities may require work outside of the employee's standard work week or a work week in excess of 40 hours.

For more information on the MAPPS policy, please review the specific document using this link:Click Here

This position is not represented under a collective bargaining agreement.

Washington County offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes family and domestic partner health benefits such as medical, dental and vision. Other benefits include a deferred compensation program, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, long-term disability, paid holidays, vacation and sick leave. Retirement benefits are provided through the Oregon Public Employers Retirement System.

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