President and Chief Executive Officer Full Time

The Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW) is the leading association working to advance federal policy and educate the public on mental health and substance use disorder care. By advocating on behalf of health plans for improved access and higher quality care, ABHW is focused on ensuring better health outcomes for individuals and communities.

ABHW is the national voice for health plans, insurers and managed behavioral health organizations that provide, manage, and administer behavioral health insurance benefits across government and commercial payers and programs. ABHW member companies provide coverage to over 200 million people in both the public and private sectors to treat mental health, substance use disorders, and other behaviors that impact health and wellness.

Founded in 1994, ABHW is a respected leader in the behavioral health and medical policy and public affairs arena. Poised to effect positive policy change, ABHW provides thought leadership and advocates for regulations and policies that help provide high quality health care to promote healthy living and improved quality of life.

Position Overview

The President & Chief Executive Officer will be a seasoned leader, coalition builder, and serve as the primary spokesperson for ABHW. The successful candidate will be charismatic, resourceful, and engaged in the organization’s mission. They will forge strong relationships with key external stakeholders and lead with a partnership-oriented mindset to inspire cross-sector collaboration and action to advance the vision and mission of the association and its members. The President & CEO will build upon ABHW’s assets, while addressing key challenges impacting the behavioral health policy arena to ensure that the organization remains current to provide continued value and relevancy. The successful candidate will bring agility and an ability to evolve as the market for behavioral health continues to expand, grow, and presents increasing opportunity for ABHW.

Key Responsibilities

The President & CEO will be responsible for positively positioning ABHW with key stakeholders, serving as the organization’s primary spokesperson, and managing overall operations and strategy. Responsibilities will include:

• Cultivating and leveraging relationships with stakeholders including executives from health plans, health systems, provider networks, consulting organizations and healthcare innovators to facilitate collaboration and grow partnerships.
• Drive membership and mutually beneficial partnerships to advance ABHW’s reach and influence among industry leaders, policymakers, associations, and stakeholders.
• Serve as a dynamic and passionate champion for improved access and higher quality care to ensure better health outcomes for individuals and communities by speaking at conferences, participating with relevant, influential organizations, and representing ABHW and the views of members to the media. Promoting the organization’s work, views, and values.
• Optimize ABHW’s role as a policy thought leader through a nonpartisan and unbiased approach while staying current on emerging healthcare policy issues and trends.
• Manage and oversee government affairs for ABHW. Lead efforts to advance timely and constructive policy discussions among relevant policymakers, stakeholders, and experts.
• Accountability for the organization’s financial performance including developing budgets and financial plans and ensuring sound financial controls are in place. Identifies opportunities to diversify revenue, maximizing the financial health of the organization while managing expenses, and acting as steward of the organization’s investments. Leads organizational pursuit of appropriate mission-aligned funding opportunities and builds the organization’s long-term financial sustainability.
• Assuming the role of thought leader and – as needed – overseeing the development of content such as white papers, web resources and tools designed to provide education and information and encourage collaboration among all stakeholders to address emerging critical behavioral health issues.
• Providing leadership and guidance to Board of Directors, and collaborating with the Board to develop, refine and implement strategic plans in alignment with the organization’s mission.
• Providing inspirational leadership and direction to the organization’s five staff members, ensuring the continued development and management of an efficient, professional, and effective team. Includes establishing effective operational procedures and ensuring that formal goal setting and performance evaluation processes are in place and adhered to.

Experience and Professional Qualifications

Personal experience and qualifications will include the following:

• Prior executive level experience within an organization of similar scale and complexity. Demonstrates strong leadership and business acumen. Must be a good manager of assets with demonstrated ability to steward and grow the organization’s financial position.
• A commitment to collaboration, consensus-building, and a non-partisan approach to behavioral health policy. Possesses political savvy and diplomatic skills. An effective advocate for ABHW’s public policy priorities.
• Ability to operate within and lead a small organization with limited resources, budget, and personnel. Ability to manage operations “close to the ground” and provide direction, counsel, and leadership in all areas of the organization including finances, employee development, building and maintaining partnerships, and being responsible for the organizations brand and visibility.
• A personal work ethic of integrity, accountability, achievement, and persistence to model a healthy workplace environment.
• Past experience across the federal health policy landscape; an understanding of federal policy audience needs and ways of working. Ability to interpret and incorporate evidence, along with willingness to put one’s personal opinions on specific health policy issues aside in service to facilitating, synthesizing and clarifying discussion on a range of viewpoints. Ability to synthesize, frame and communicate health policy themes to diverse audiences.
• A track record of effectively working with a board of directors, or other working group, to forge consensus on a strategic vision and execute upon that plan with appropriate urgency, timeliness, and responsiveness against established metrics and benchmarks.
• Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. A strong and demonstrated cultural competency in working with individuals from diverse regions, perspectives, and backgrounds.
• Strong interpersonal skills including empathy for others, engaging in active listening, and building effective working relationships. Ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels and a natural understanding of people, relationships, institutions, and politics.
• An ability to raise the visibility of ABHW’s mission among targeted audiences and forge strategic partnerships and coalitions with organizations that share common objectives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience as an effective public speaker to draw awareness to issues around behavioral health. Superb listening skills and an ability to clearly articulate the message and command the respect. Ability to inspire, engage, and influence others to achieve desired objectives, as well as to promote and expand an organization’s influence and impact.
• Technology savvy with an understanding of how to leverage new tools to better serve members and communicate about the importance of the industry.

Education

Bachelor’s degree required; Advanced degree preferred.

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