Associate Director, Programs, Prevent Blindness

Wage Category: $90,000.00 – $105,000.00 per year, commensurate with experience.

About Prevent Blindness:

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation’s leading not-for-profit, voluntary eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care through all life stages, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year by promoting eye health, safety, early detection and treatment. As we continue our sight saving mission into the next 100 years, we are fulfilling our vision of prevention through focused attention on our core public health competencies of early detection, patient support, systems enhancement, public policy, research, public awareness, and health education.

The Role:

The Associate Director, Programs executes programmatic initiatives that advance a comprehensive and equitable continuum of care for children’s vision and eye health. This full-time position manages the development and dissemination of evidence-based resources, coordination of education and training events, evaluation and reporting, and ensures alignment with Prevent Blindness’ organizational priorities.

The Associate Director, Programs supports the Executive Director of the National Center for Children’s Vision & Eye Health (NCCVEH) in creating partnerships and relationships, providing technical assistance, and in representing the NCCVEH on national coalitions and committees. This role offers significant opportunities for professional growth and holds potential for internal advancement as the organization and programs continue to evolve.

This position is remote with occasional travel required. Candidates based in the Chicago area are strongly preferred to support in-person meetings, events, and collaboration with team members in the Chicago office as needed.

Principal Duties And Responsibilities

Education & Training

  • Manage and coordinate professional education, including researching opportunities, planning, collaboration with communications and marketing teams, writing abstracts and presentation content in conjunction with NCCVEH staff, and collaborating with external organizations.
  • Conduct presentations on children’s vision and eye health in coordination with other NCCVEH staff.
  • Coordinate the development and dissemination of print and digital educational resources (including but not limited to fact sheets, tool kits, blog posts), including outreach for resource dissemination.
  • Coordinate scholarships for the Children’s Vision Screening Certification Course and distribution of vouchers for eyeglasses.
  • Provide technical assistance to state and local public health departments, school districts, professional associations, and individuals upon request.
  • Support the Executive Director in disease-specific work (including myopia, retinopathy of prematurity and diabetes and the eyes).

Evaluation, Writing, and Data Analysis

  • Coordinate measurement of NCCVEH program impacts and outcomes by following established procedures and generating efficient processes for documenting, tracking, and reporting for NCCVEH education initiatives, training, outreach, and partnerships.
  • Prepare reports on outcomes for the NCCVEH Advisory Committee, Prevent Blindness, and funders.
  • Support the Executive Director, Associate Director, Education, and the NCCVEH data committee in data analysis, scientific manuscript preparation, referencing, and submission for publication.
  • Coordinate the writing and publishing of monthly NCCVEH E-Newsletters.
  • Collect program user insights, stories, and impacts to share with funders and key stakeholders.

Public Awareness & Stakeholder Engagement

  • Collaborate with Prevent Blindness marketing and communications teams to create and execute an annual marketing and promotion plan for NCCVEH initiatives, publications, and campaigns.
  • Support Prevent Blindness affiliates through technical assistance, shared projects, promotion of their children’s programming, and national alignment.
  • Partner with the Executive Director and Associate Director, Education to cultivate and maintain dynamic partnerships and relationships; represent the NCCVEH on national coalitions as requested; and manage co-sponsored projects.
  • Coordinate the annual Bonnie Strickland Champion for Children’s Vision Award, including engagement of NCCVEH Advisory Committee members and coordinating promotion strategies with the marketing and communications teams.
  • Support the Executive Director in staffing and co-leading the Children’s Vision Equity Alliance.

Administration & Strategy

  • Support the Executive Director in developing a plan to position the NCCVEH as a federal technical assistance center.
  • Support sub-committees of the NCCVEH Advisory Committee upon request.
  • Participate in strategic and annual planning, evaluation, and reporting aligned with Prevent Blindness and NCCVEH strategic priorities.
  • Support Executive Director in fund development, including developing and managing budgets, grant proposal writing, reporting, and maintaining relationships with program funders.
  • Provide support for cross-agency work in web content development, the Learning Management System (LMS), public awareness, and project planning.
  • Support the Executive Director in writing and managing contracts for the work of the NCCVEH.

Qualifications

Education

  • Bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Health Education, Nursing, or Early Childhood Education required.
  • MPH or related degree preferred; commensurate professional experience will be considered in such fields as early childhood education, nursing, or adult learning.

Experience

  • Minimum 5 years of experience in public health systems and building cross-agency service systems is required at national, state or community levels.
  • Experience in early childhood, education, nursing, the social determinants of health, and access to care issues for children.
  • Demonstrated experience managing programs and long-term initiatives from planning through execution and evaluation.
  • Ability to work successfully with disparate groups of professionals and families and in building partnerships.
  • Knowledge of public health and educational systems and promising, evidence-based informed practices and interventions for children and youth.
  • Experience staffing committees.
  • Experience with Learning Management Systems (LMS) preferred.

Skills & Competencies

  • Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to communicate with a variety of audiences (lay and professional, donors, volunteers, funders, affiliates, customers).
  • Skilled in program evaluation, promotion, and meeting facilitation.
  • Strong project management skills, including managing timelines, priorities, deliverables, and deadlines effectively.
  • Ability to execute a variety of programs and activities simultaneously and handle a high-volume workload.
  • Ability to work both independently and collaboratively to advance program and organizational goals.
  • Demonstrate initiative, resourcefulness, and a commitment to growth and continuous improvement.
  • Skilled in conducting training workshops and delivering presentations.
  • Experience in writing a variety of products, including educational content, newsletters, fact sheets, scientific manuscripts, and website content.
  • Able to write grants and complete required reporting.

More Information

Work Environment

  • The targeted start date for this position is November 9th, 2026.
  • This position is remote with occasional travel required.
  • Prevent Blindness is a smoke-free and drug-free environment.

Benefits

This position is eligible for all Prevent Blindness benefits, including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, 403b, Short-term disability, Long-term disability, Life/AD&D, Critical Illness, Limited Purpose FSA, Commuter Benefits, LifeLock, and Pet insurance.

Please send resume, cover letter, and up to three work samples to Kyra Vaughn at kvaughn@preventblindness.org.

Prevent Blindness is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, parental status, religion, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, and other status legally protected by Federal, state, or local law.

Please note that we do not sponsor work visas for any positions. All applicants must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Application Deadline: Friday, September 18.

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