The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is seeking an Associate Director, Professional Education & Engagement to join our Science and Health Care team. The Associate Director provides operational leadership across two critical areas of the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA’s) professional education enterprise: continuing education accreditation and compliance and learning management system (LMS) and learner support operations. This role is responsible for maintaining the integrity, quality, and effectiveness of ADA’s accredited continuing education (CE) activities while ensuring a reliable, accessible, and high-quality digital learning experience for healthcare professionals.
Part of the role focuses on enterprise-wide accreditation oversight, including compliance with Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) requirements, applicable accreditation criteria and policies, the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, accreditation reporting, and continuous readiness for reaccreditation. The remaining part of the role focuses on the operational and technical management of ADA’s LMS and Institute of Learning learner support function, including oversight of help desk staff, high-volume support operations, platform administration, troubleshooting, quality assurance, vendor coordination, and continuous improvement of the learner experience.
The Associate Director leads direct reports, collaborates closely with education, clinical, technology, finance, legal, and other internal teams, and serves as a key operational partner in delivering scalable, compliant, and high-quality professional education. This position reports to the Managing Director, Professional Education, within the Science & Health Care Division of the Association.
Responsibilities
Accreditation and Continuing Education Compliance
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Lead day-to-day oversight of ADA’s CE accreditation activities, ensuring organizational compliance with ACCME requirements and other applicable continuing education standards, policies, and credit requirements.
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Maintain current knowledge of ACCME accreditation criteria, policies, reporting requirements, and the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education; translate requirements into clear, practical processes for staff, faculty, planners, and collaborators.
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Oversee accreditation processes across the full educational activity lifecycle, including planning, needs assessment, learning objectives, identification and mitigation of relevant financial relationships, required disclosures, content review, evaluation, documentation, and activity closeout.
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Provide consultation and guidance to internal teams on accreditation requirements, complex compliance questions, educational independence, commercial support, faculty and planner requirements, and other continuing education matters.
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Oversee required accreditation data collection, activity reporting, program reporting, and reconciliation, including management of ACCME Program and Activity Reporting System (PARS) processes and annual reporting requirements.
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Lead preparation for accreditation renewals, reaccreditation activities, progress reports, audits, and other accreditor requests, ensuring documentation and evidence of compliance are complete, accurate, and readily accessible.
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Monitor educational activities for consistency and compliance, identify areas of risk, and implement corrective actions and process improvements as needed.
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Partner with internal stakeholders to ensure accreditation requirements are incorporated into educational planning and operational workflows from program inception through completion.
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Serve as a subject matter expert and key organizational resource for accredited CE.
Learning Management System and Digital Learning Operations
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Provide operational leadership for ADA’s LMS and related digital learning technologies, ensuring a stable, scalable, accessible, and high-quality experience for learners and internal stakeholders.
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Oversee day-to-day LMS administration and operations, including course configuration, enrollment and access rules, learner records, completion requirements, assessments, evaluations, certificates, CE credit workflows, reporting, and content lifecycle management.
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Maintain working knowledge of the technical requirements associated with online learning delivery, including course publishing standards, browser and device compatibility, accessibility, system integrations, data exchange, authentication, testing, and troubleshooting.
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Oversee the deployment and quality assurance of online educational content, including testing course functionality, completion tracking, credit claiming, certificates, links, multimedia, assessments, and other learner-facing components before and after launch.
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Partner with internal technology teams, LMS vendors, content developers, and other external partners to troubleshoot issues, implement enhancements, manage system changes, and support integrations with other enterprise platforms.
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Identify, prioritize, and resolve LMS-related issues and risks, distinguishing between content, configuration, user access, integration, data, and platform-level problems and coordinating escalation as appropriate.
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Support and oversee LMS enhancements, platform upgrades, release testing, configuration changes, new functionality, and other technology initiatives that affect professional education.
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Manage vendor relationships for the LMS, learner support tools, and other professional education technologies, as appropriate.
Institute of Learning Help Desk and Learner Support
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Lead the Institute of Learning help desk and supervise staff responsible for responding to a high volume of learner support requests.
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Establish clear service expectations, workflows, escalation pathways, response standards, and quality measures to ensure timely, accurate, consistent, and learner-centered support.
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Ensure help desk staff are appropriately trained to resolve common LMS, account access, registration, course completion, certificate, CE credit, and other learner support issues.
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Develop and maintain a learner support knowledge base, standardized response templates, troubleshooting guides, escalation protocols, and other tools that improve efficiency and consistency.
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Monitor support request volume, response and resolution trends, recurring issues, and learner feedback to identify root causes and opportunities for process, platform, or communication improvements.
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Partner with internal teams and technology vendors to escalate and resolve complex technical issues while maintaining clear communication with affected learners and stakeholders.
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Foster a service-oriented culture focused on responsiveness, problem solving, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
Required Qualifications
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Bachelor’s degree required
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Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in accredited CE, professional education, learning management systems, digital learning operations, or a closely related field, with substantial direct experience in both accreditation/compliance and learning technology operations
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Demonstrated experience managing accredited CE activities and applying ACCME requirements in a complex organizational environment
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Strong working knowledge of ACCME accreditation criteria, policies, the Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, and continuing education compliance processes
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Experience supporting accreditation reporting, activity documentation, reaccreditation, audits, or related compliance activities
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Demonstrated experience administering or operationally managing an LMS in a professional education, healthcare education, association, higher education, or similarly complex environment
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Strong technical aptitude and demonstrated ability to understand, troubleshoot, and manage LMS-related issues involving course configuration, learner access, completion tracking, assessments, evaluations, certificates, reporting, data, integrations, and online course functionality
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Familiarity with common digital learning and LMS technical concepts, such as SCORM-compliant content, single sign-on, system integrations, accessibility, browser compatibility, quality assurance testing, and learner data management
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Experience supervising staff and managing team performance, workload, development, and cross-training.
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Strong project and operational management skills, with demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent priorities in a matrixed organization
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Excellent judgment and problem-solving skills, including the ability to assess risk, navigate ambiguity, and determine when issues require escalation
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Strong written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex accreditation and technical requirements for varied audiences
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Demonstrated ability to build effective working relationships across education, clinical, technology, legal, finance, vendor, and leadership teams
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Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and cloud-based project management, collaboration, and support tools
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Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with shifting priorities and occasional evening or weekend responsibilities as needed
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Ability to travel as required
Preferred Qualifications
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Experience working for a medical, healthcare, nonprofit, or voluntary health association
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Experience with enterprise-level learning management systems supporting large or diverse learner populations
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Experience with help desk or ticket management platforms and the development of knowledge bases, service standards, and support analytics
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Knowledge of diabetes, healthcare professional education, and the mission of ADA
Why Work Here
The American Diabetes Association ® (ADA) offers a rewarding career working for one of the premier voluntary health organizations in the world supporting people living with diabetes and/or obesity. Our employees consistently say that our mission, culture, work-life balance, and total rewards package are what they like most about working at the ADA. benefits and our culture:
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Industry competitive base pay. Base offers are determined by several factors including but not limited to your relevant work experience, education, certifications, location, internal pay equity, etc.
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A culture of recognition including new hire welcome announcements, service anniversary awards, referral bonuses, monthly All Employee Assembly, appreciation awards
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Generous Paid Time Off, including holidays, vacation days, personal days and sick days
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Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), disability & life insurance, pet insurance, and retirement savings
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Guided by our mission, we provide full diabetes supply coverage through our medical benefits program
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A company focus on offering mental health programs and work/life balance with most of our employees working remote
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Joining our dedicated team affords the gratification of knowing beyond a doubt that you will impact the lives and well-being of millions
About the Organization
The American Diabetes Association ® (ADA) is the nation’s leading voluntary health organization fighting to end diabetes and helping people living with diabetes thrive. Since 1940, we have driven discovery and research to prevent, manage, treat, and ultimately cure diabetes. We advocate for policy changes and improved access to quality care for all people living with diabetes and/or obesity. Through the Obesity Association, a division of the ADA, we are also working to reduce the prevalence of obesity—a leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
