Senior Vice President, Cardiovascular Health Initiative

Resolve to Save Lives is an initiative of Vital Strategies with a mission to prevent 100 million deaths from heart disease and to make the world safer from epidemics. We are led by Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2017, Resolve to Save Lives has worked closely with low- and middle-income country governments, the World Health Organization, academic and other civil society partners to build capacity for and implement a core package of interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease. Vital Strategies is a US-based international public health organization working in more than 70 countries to strengthen public health systems and address leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Resolve to Save Lives is transitioning to an independent public health organization to maximize its global impact with speed, simplicity, and scale. Read more about our work at resolvetosavelives.org.

We believe our programs are strengthened when they are developed and supported by individuals with diverse life experiences, whose understanding of social and cultural issues can help make our work and workforce more inclusive. We encourage people of all racial, economic, social, cultural, sexual orientation, and gender expressions to apply.

Overall Role:

Reporting to the President and CEO, the Senior Vice President, Cardiovascular Health (CVH) will oversee implementation of the Resolve to Save Lives Cardiovascular Health Initiative with a focus on large-scale hypertension management, global elimination of trans fat, and effective interventions to reduce sodium consumption. These three programs, when successful, will result in saving more than 100 million lives over a 30-year period, making them one of the most impactful of all global health programs. Specifically, the CVH team is:

• Catalyzing the global elimination of artificial trans fat, a toxic, artificial product that has killed an estimated 500,000 people a year before elimination efforts began.
• Scaling up effective treatment of hypertension, the world’s most deadly and one of its most neglected health conditions. Integrating with primary care and applying lessons from other public health treatment programs (including HIV and tuberculosis), and deploying state-of-the-art and practical diagnostic and treatment protocols, Resolve partners with international organizations and national governments with the goal of increasing from the current 14% to 50% or more the proportion of people with hypertension who have it under control. This requires simple, scalable programs to increase the effectiveness of treatment for hundreds of millions of patients.
• Reducing sodium intake through a focus on packaged, restaurant/street food, and home-prepared foods. A 30% reduction in sodium intake would save more than 1 million lives a year.

The SVP of Cardiovascular Health will lead a core team of 20 as well as staff and consultants working in more than 10 countries and with global reach and impact. Responsibilities include strategic and thought leadership, partnership and implementation strategy development, program evaluation and learning, staff management, and representation. Resolve’s hypertension management programming and surveillance is being supported in India, China, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Turkey and the PAHO region, always in partnership with national and subnational governments and other organizations.

This full-time position is currently remote. The incumbent will be expected to convene periodically for team meetings in NYC beginning in January 2022 and up to 30% of time may be spent traveling between locations internationally, at mutually agreed times. 

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Representation

• • Provide strategic leadership for high-quality implementation of a global, population-level initiative to reduce cardiovascular disease
  • Provide thought leadership and guidance to the CEO on program direction, strategy, metrics and evaluation
  • Establish and maintain productive relationships and support planning with the CVH initiative’s global partners including WHO, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Global Health Advocacy Incubator
  • Cultivate high-level relationships with national governments and other key partners in program countries
  • Represent Resolve to Save Lives and the cardiovascular health initiative in national and international forums, profiling and sharing lessons from the work

Program Development and Strategy

• • Provide support and guidance for prioritization and planning of hypertension treatment, trans fat elimination and sodium reduction activities in identified countries or regions
  • Work closely with Resolve to Save Lives India, China, Nigeria and Ethiopia Country Leads and CVH team Directors to successfully implement the CVH initiative including tracking progress and identifying solutions to implementation challenges
  • Keep abreast of relevant public health policy changes and ensure continued strategic focus of the initiative
  • Support the CEO to advocate for policy and systems change at international and national levels, when appropriate
  • Ensure and help facilitate technical collaboration between Resolve HQ and country teams and global partners

Team Management, Collaboration and Operations

• • Oversee the management, development and wellbeing of CVH staff, promoting collaboration, cohesion, initiative, commitment and innovation
  • Lead the CVH initiative planning process, including budgeting, with input from the CVH team and in coordination with Resolve’s Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director
  • Collaborate with Resolve’s Vice President, Communications to ensure strategic and high-quality CVH communications / publications
  • Collaborate with the Vice President, Global Operations on institutional planning and establishment of key metrics for country level programming
  • Support the CEO with fundraising and to develop progress reports to donors

Requirements:
Qualifications, Experience and Skills

• A graduate degree (preferably MD or related degree in clinical medicine) with at least 10 years of experience in public health program implementation and management
• Master’s in public health or related degree is desired in addition to a clinical degree
• Experience working in low- and middle-income settings, ideally within the public sector
• Experience overseeing large-scale multi-stakeholder public health programs
• Experience working on non-communicable disease prevention and control, and in clinical service delivery is desirable
• Well-developed managerial skills, including organizing workflows, effective delegation and supervision, and supporting performance management of staff
• Clear, effective and efficient communication skills, both oral and written
• Demonstrated leadership skills
• Exceptional organizational skills
• Ability to work under pressure and deliver against tight deadlines
• Well-developed interpersonal skills and commitment to fostering harmonious and effective internal teamwork and partnerships across cultures
• Demonstrated commitment to supporting diversity in the workplace and fostering a supportive work culture
• Language(s) other than English desirable