The Advocate Program, Inc. is seeking a highly skilled, mission-driven leader to serve as Director, Center Services & Systems Integration for our work at the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery.
The Miami Center represents a major opportunity to improve how individuals with serious mental illness, substance use needs, justice involvement, homelessness, and complex social service needs are served in Miami-Dade County. The Advocate Program’s role is to help ensure that individuals are connected to the right services, supports, benefits, providers, and community resources in ways that improve outcomes and reduce repeated cycling through courts, jails, hospitals, crisis systems, and homelessness.
We are looking for a leader who can help keep the work focused, honest, and accountable.
The right person will be able to strengthen existing systems, identify barriers, ask the right questions, and work with staff and partners to improve outcomes. This role requires someone who can build trust, communicate clearly, and engage others in practical problem-solving while maintaining high expectations for follow-through, coordination, documentation, and service quality.
About the Role
The Director will serve as The Advocate Program’s lead representative for its work at the Miami Center. This individual will oversee AP staff and operations, coordinate closely with Miami-Dade County and Center stakeholders, support service integration, strengthen partner engagement, monitor performance, and ensure that AP’s work remains focused on client outcomes, continuity of care, and system accountability.
The Director will report directly to executive leadership and will function as a key organizational representative in meetings with County officials, behavioral health providers, courts, corrections, law enforcement, housing partners, healthcare providers, community organizations, and other stakeholders.
This position requires operational discipline, excellent communication, sound judgment, and a deep commitment to improving systems for people who are too often failed by those systems.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is a mission-driven leader who is comfortable operating in complex systems and understands that real improvement requires both relationships and accountability.
We are looking for someone who:
- Has strong operational judgment and can translate big ideas into daily practice.
- Communicates clearly, directly, and diplomatically.
- Can raise concerns and ask hard questions without damaging working relationships.
- Understands behavioral health, justice involvement, homelessness, reentry, care coordination, or related human-service systems.
- Can lead teams through ambiguity and build structure where it does not yet exist.
- Is comfortable in public-sector environments and can work effectively with government, courts, providers, and community stakeholders.
- Values data, outcomes, documentation, and accountability.
- Has the courage to identify problems and the skill to bring people toward solutions.
- Believes that systems should be organized around the needs of the people they serve, not around institutional convenience.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred in social work, counseling, psychology, public administration, healthcare administration, nonprofit management, criminal justice, public health, or a related field.
- Minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in behavioral health, human services, healthcare, reentry, homelessness, criminal justice, government, nonprofit, or related systems.
- Minimum of 3 years of supervisory or management experience.
- Demonstrated experience working with cross-sector partners, public agencies, or complex stakeholder groups.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, sensitive issues, and high-stakes relationships.
- Familiarity with serious mental illness, substance use, reentry, diversion, housing instability, benefits access, or care coordination strongly preferred.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with behavioral health, forensic, diversion, crisis, reentry, housing, or integrated care programs.
- Experience working with County or government-funded contracts.
- Experience supervising multidisciplinary teams, including case managers, peers, care coordinators, or human-service staff.
- Experience using data, dashboards, quality improvement, or performance metrics to improve services.
- Knowledge of Miami-Dade County systems, community resources, courts, corrections, behavioral health providers, or housing networks.
- Bilingual English/Spanish preferred but not required.
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership and Systems Integration
- Serve as The Advocate Program’s primary operational and strategic lead for Center-related services.
- Represent AP in meetings with Miami-Dade County, Center partners, behavioral health providers, court stakeholders, correctional partners, law enforcement, housing providers, healthcare partners, and community organizations.
- Build strong working relationships across systems while maintaining the ability to raise concerns, identify barriers, and recommend improvements.
- Help create a culture of accountability, collaboration, practical innovation, and client-centered problem solving.
- Ensure that AP’s work supports the broader purpose of the Center: improved outcomes, reduced recidivism, stronger care coordination, and better continuity of care.
Operations and Staff Oversight
- Oversee AP’s Center-based staff and day-to-day operational responsibilities.
- Supervise and support leadership staff responsible for case management, peer services, benefits/SOAR support, data/quality improvement, administrative coordination, and ancillary service coordination.
- Establish clear operating rhythms, including team meetings, case review structures, performance check-ins, and escalation processes.
- Ensure that staff have the tools, direction, supervision, and accountability needed to perform high-quality work.
- Identify operational problems early and develop practical solutions before they become contract, client care, or stakeholder issues.
- Promote clear expectations for documentation, communication, service follow-through, and professional conduct.
Client Outcomes and Service Coordination
- Ensure that AP’s services remain focused on meaningful client outcomes, including successful linkages to care, benefits access, housing supports, community services, discharge planning, and post-discharge continuity.
- Support coordination among behavioral health providers, ancillary service providers, courts, corrections, community agencies, and County stakeholders.
- Promote warm handoffs, shared problem-solving, and follow-through across systems.
- Help prevent clients from falling through gaps between residential treatment, case management, benefits, housing, healthcare, legal, vocational, and community-based services.
- Support strategies that improve engagement, reduce avoidable system cycling, and strengthen continuity of care.
Partner Engagement and Accountability
- Engage partners in identifying what is working, what is not working, and what needs to change.
- Raise concerns constructively when practices interfere with client outcomes, service integration, or system accountability.
- Use diplomacy, data, communication, and trust-building to move partners toward practical solutions.
- Serve as a credible and steady voice in complex stakeholder environments.
- Balance collaboration with accountability; this role requires someone who can be both respected and persistent.
Quality, Data, and Performance Improvement
- Work with AP’s data and quality staff to monitor service delivery, referrals, discharge planning, SOAR/benefits activity, ancillary service linkages, client outcomes, and contract deliverables.
- Review trends and identify gaps in performance, documentation, communication, or service access.
- Use data to support improvement, not just reporting.
- Ensure timely and accurate completion of required reports, deliverables, and internal performance reviews.
- Participate in budget, service utilization, and program improvement discussions as needed.
- Support continuous improvement efforts that are practical, measurable, and tied to client outcomes.
Development and Sustainability Support
- Assist executive leadership with identifying service gaps, partnership opportunities, and potential funding needs.
- Support grant development and resource development efforts by helping define operational needs, client service gaps, and system improvement priorities.
- Participate in conversations about sustainability, service expansion, and long-term system impact.
- Help communicate AP’s role, value, and outcomes to partners, funders, and stakeholders.
Pay: $125,000.00 - $135,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
