Organizational Summary
Upstream USA is a growing, national nonprofit committed to ensuring that equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care is made available to any patient and is fully integrated into the health system as part of basic health care. We envision a future where all patients are screened for their contraceptive needs and offered patient-centered contraceptive counseling that’s free from bias, noncoercive, trauma-informed, and delivered by knowledgeable providers and support staff following best medical practices and evidence-based guidelines. We believe all patients should be able to access the contraceptive service of their choice – when they want it and where it is convenient for them to get it.
We do this by partnering with healthcare organizations to provide them with free training, education and technical assistance – from urban to rural, from large hospitals to small clinics. We know patients and providers want options that meet their individual needs, and our team of practice change experts work hand-in-hand with healthcare organizations to uplift contraceptive care services and drive exceptional patient outcomes, all at no cost to them.
Across the nation, there are challenges to accessing the high-quality, patient-centered contraceptive care patients deserve. To meet this growing need, Upstream is in the midst of a national expansion to transform contraceptive care. We began by partnering with a single healthcare organization in 2014, when Upstream was founded; today, we have partnered with more than 150 across the nation, and we’re on a path to serving 5 million patients by 2030.
Upstream is funded primarily through philanthropic individuals and foundations, and does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies. Upstream’s budget has grown from $1.7 million just six years ago to approximately $60 million in 2024. Upstream’s work has also garnered attention from many leading publications, including Harvard Public Health, Bloomberg, MedPage Today, and Politico.
Travel: 25%
Position Summary
Reporting to the VP of Practice Transformation, the Senior Practice Transformation Director (SPTD) ensures quality delivery and program implementation for multiple healthcare organizations by optimizing within set resources, influencing appropriate strategy, and leveraging key health center c-suite and leadership relationships They lead and guide transformation delivery teams to ensure excellent execution of technical assistance and training to health center organizations, providing oversight of budgets of up to $10M for their entire health center portfolio (up to 20 health care organizations). They supervise a program delivery team that can include up to 5 Practice Transformation Leads, a Practice Transformation Associate and Practice Transformation Coordinator and are responsible for coaching, mentoring and guiding the staff on evidence-informed healthcare practice change. The SPTD will leverage their deep understanding of patient-centered sexual and reproductive health best practices to provide input to the VP of Practice Transformation on recommended project scope and required resources, and will collaborate with team members to determine successful health center strategy and execution. Additionally, the SPTD will hold key stakeholder relationships for state and regional partners in the areas where they are working. Other key responsibilities include:
- evaluating cost to deliver our programs,
- evaluating health center performance outcomes and sustainability of improved patient care standards,
- ensuring efficient and effective delivery of the Upstream program, including technical assistance and training, to support health center partners’s ability to strengthen contraceptive care practices by providing input, mentorship, and guidance to Practice Transformation team members and signing off on final implementation approach recommendations
- ensuring achievement of clinical and administrative best practices related to contraceptive care and health center satisfaction, and
- guiding Practice Transformation Leads in leveraging a cross-functional set of internal experts to drive the best outcome for each individual health center partner.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Accountable for driving outcomes at partner health centers/systems by supervising delivery of high quality and consistent support and technical assistance, optimized for resources allocated
- Responsible for coaching, mentoring, and guiding Practice Transformation team on healthcare best practices, program execution, relationship management, and project management
- Scope technical assistance work to assign workstream ownership (if applicable)
- Acts as the primary point of cross-functional coordination between Program delivery teams and cross-functional support leadership
- Owns relationship with Health Center/System Executive Sponsor (often a C-suite team member), acts as backup for relationship if there is a change in PTL, acts as a resource for health center partners to ensure excellent execution of the Upstream program
- Facilitates sharing of key learnings from program delivery within larger Practice Transformation Team and with Technical Assistance Design team for continuous learning
- Collaborates within and across departments to continuously calibrate against established health center organization project scope while providing a seamless end-to-end experience from program initiation through program completion
- Lead and provide ongoing support to various internal continuous learnings and cross-functional efficiency. Many of these efforts require strong ability to effect enterprise-wide change.
- Additional duties as assigned
Required Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability
Upstream celebrates and fosters an inclusive work environment and encourages people of all identities, perspectives and backgrounds to apply.
- 15+ years of professional experience within a healthcare setting and/or nonprofit organization with demonstrated supervisory responsibilities (5-8+ years have been spent in a leadership role influencing strategy, team development, and internal capacity building to strengthen implementation).
- Accomplished people manager with strong coaching and mentoring skills with a minimum of 7 years of experience to develop direct reports and peers on quality program implementation
- Prior experience building cohesive and high performing teams
- Demonstrates deep knowledge or experience in sexual and reproductive healthcare or primary care best known practice and technical assistance program expertise and track record of commitment to continuous program improvement; prior healthcare services delivery or systems experience
- Experience embedding evidence based clinical practices in primary care preferred
- Understanding of primary care services delivery preferred
- Excellent relationship management skills
- Possesses strong listening skills, training in motivational interviewing a plus
- Innovative with the ability to evaluate outcomes and to reflect in order to course correct as needed.
- Bachelors’ and/or Masters’ degree in related field or combination of applicable education and work experience.
- Valid Driver’s License required
- Upstream USA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Policy requires employees to have completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. As a condition of employment, newly hired employees must provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination or, if applicable, request a medical or religious exemption.
- All Upstreamers must also be able to attend work-related in-person meetings and functions as needed.
- In our hybrid work environments, there is a basic expectation that our Upstreamers will ensure that their work from home setups will have reliable access to phone and Internet to ensure connectivity to their teams.
- At Upstream we gather for moments that matter for training, teaming and connection. Our teams come together for occasional in person meetings and organizational retreats. As part of our hybrid work practices, this travel expectation will be applicable for all Upstreamers, even those based remotely.
- Engage in EDI learning & development, community engagement, and culture building activities up to 5% FTE (i.e., 2 work hours per 40 hour work week). Examples include attending trainings, conferences and summits, volunteering time, participating in local community events, mentoring and learning, participating in Communities of Belonging or Culture Council, developing language acquisition, learning universal design principles, and using professional development benefits for EDI topics, among other activities.
Additional attributes include:
- Collaborative
- Adaptable
- Change agent
- Decision maker
- Facilitator
- Influential
- Communicative
- Thrives in an environment of continuous feedback
- Possesses a team-oriented approach
- Natural leader who organizes and inspires others to achieve goals
- Sense of humor
Travel Requirements
This role will require up to 25% of business travel. All Upstreamers can expect a minimum of 8 days of business travel per year to attend two annual organizational retreats and two annual team/department meetings per year.
Pay Transparency
Final offers for this position will be based upon several factors including the scope of the role, market compensation analysis, position requirements, candidate’s experience level and capabilities, internal pay equity considerations and will be made within the parameters of Upstream USA's compensation framework and philosophy.
Attributes
The ideal candidate will embody and embrace our core values which serve as our operating principles:
- We keep our mission at the center; Upstream's mission is to ensure that equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care is basic healthcare
- We trust each other; we are reliable, empathetic, compassionately direct, and confident in each others’ ability to do the same
- We work every day to build an equitable, diverse and inclusive culture; we respect the backgrounds contexts and experiences of individuals, teams and partners in our interactions
- We bring joy to our work; we create opportunities to celebrate, connect and strengthen relationships with one another.
Upstream Benefits
Upstream USA offers a comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long and short term disability, 401K with a match, generous vacation, personal, sick and holiday time off, parental leave, professional development, a fitness and cell phone allowance for all full time employees and part time employees who work a minimum of 24 hours per week.
Hiring Process
Candidates who advance in our preliminary review process will have an opportunity to discuss the position, their employment background and lived experience with a member of our talent acquisition team by telephone. Those who advance to subsequent steps in our interview process may participate in up to three rounds of meetings by Zoom or in person and in a thought exercise/case study assignment. Each round could consist of multiple meetings with various Upstreamers.
EDI Vision Statement
Internally, we envision promoting equity by reducing disparities in the Upstream talent lifecycle and engagement, cultivating a diverse workforce and inclusive culture, and fostering power sharing when we make decisions.
EDI Guiding Principles
Through Equity, both in the workplace and in contraceptive care, we address root causes that enable disparities to occur, acknowledge that different resources and opportunities may be needed to reach fairer outcomes, and implement systems-level changes that are sustainable over time.
Through Diversity, we acknowledge, respect, and celebrate the collective mixture of differences and similarities of Upstreamers and our community partners. At Upstream, we value the diversity of identities at all intersections, while at the same time centering racial diversity.
Through Inclusion, we succeed at creating a culture of belonging that embraces differences in identities and experiences by building trust, joy, and psychological safety. We cherish and elevate these differences through power-sharing in how things get done internally and in service of our mission.
Communities of Belonging
Serving as employee resource groups for Upstreamers, Communities of Belonging assist in advancing our equity, diversity, and inclusion journey. They assist in instilling organizational values in our work and support our EDI vision. Open to all employees, Communities of Belonging create opportunities for leadership development, community engagement, support, and resource mobilization.
Upstream Careers
At Upstream, we embrace diversity. We nurture it and we thrive on it because it benefits our organization, our partners, and our community. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain exceptional people, and to create a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Upstream is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, genetic information, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. Learn more about working at Upstream, our values, and our commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Upstream USA participates in E-Verify.
Upstream Headquarters
2 Oliver Street, Suite 402, Boston, MA 02109
No phone calls please.
Be advised that we do not ever conduct hiring interviews via text or email. Please protect yourself by learning more about our hiring practices and common red flags to look out for.
