Executive Director, Washington State Board of Health

Overview

This position offers a hybrid work arrangement, combining remote work with scheduled onsite work at our facility in Tumwater and meetings with partners throughout the state.

 

Terms of Appointment: The Executive Director is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the Board (RCW 43.20.030). The Executive Director serves as the agency head.

Why Work for the Washington State Board of Health?

Imagine shaping the policies that protect the health of every person in Washington State from the safety of the water they drink to the disorders their newborns are screened for. That’s the work of the Washington State Board of Health, and it’s the work you’d lead as Executive Director.

The Board provides statewide leadership on policies that protect and improve public health. It fulfills this mission by monitoring public health trends to understand and prevent disease, serving as a public forum for policy development, and adopting foundational public health rules that keep communities safe. The Board makes recommendations directly to the Governor, Legislature, and Secretary of Health, and in collaboration with the Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities, completes health impact reviews: evidence-based, non-partisan analyses of how proposed legislative or budgetary changes may affect health and equity.

The Board doesn’t do this work alone. It’s joined by the Governor’s Interagency Council on Health Disparities, a distinct entity staffed by the Board, whose mission is to develop statewide policy recommendations to eliminate health disparities by race, ethnicity, and gender. Together, the Board and Council take on high-profile policy issues of statewide significance.

As part of this mission-driven team, you will work alongside dedicated public servants, agency leaders, policymakers, and community partners to address some of the state’s most complex and important public health challenges. This is an opportunity to influence statewide priorities, drive meaningful change, and help create innovative solutions that strengthen the public health system for everyone in Washington State. If you are passionate about public service, systems transformation, and making a measurable difference, the Washington State Board of Health provides an unparalleled platform to lead change at the highest levels of public health in state government.

The Opportunity

As Executive Director, you will be the Board’s voice in high-stakes, politically significant, and sensitive settings, negotiating and building relationships with the Governor’s Office, State Legislature, governmental public health system partners, other state and local government agencies, professional associations, regulated entities, and community groups.

While the Board sets the overall vision for state public health policy, you carry it out. You administer, manage, and control all aspects of the Board’s operations, and you’re accountable for ensuring the Board’s statutory responsibilities related to critical statewide public health and safety policy and rules are executed. Day to day, you advance the Board and Council’s interests through regulatory and policy research and development activities, exercising strategic and tactical discretion as you negotiate the Board’s responsibilities with key interested parties and influence state government health policy at the legislative, budgetary, and administrative levels.