Executive Service
Background Check:
This position requires a criminal background check. Therefore, you may be required to provide information about your criminal history in order to be considered for this position.
Who we are and what we do:
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is charged with planning for and promoting an array of services from prevention and early intervention to resiliency and recovery. DMHSAS operates four Regional Mental Health Institutes and contracts with mental health and substance abuse community providers across the state to offer services to Tennesseans.
How you make a difference in this role:
The Director of Family Empowerment and Family Link Initiatives plays a vital role in advancing Tennessee's commitment to a coordinated system of care and improving behavioral health outcomes for children, youth, and families across the state. The Director provides strategic and operational leadership for the Family Empowerment Initiative (FEI) and the Family Link Navigation and Support Initiative (FLNSI), ensuring that families receive coordinated navigation, care coordination, family support, and connections to formal and natural resources based on family-identified needs. This position creates, communicates, and enacts a shared vision for expanding, integrating, and sustaining both initiatives; collaborates with TDMHSAS leadership to improve program content based on data and stakeholder feedback; and strengthens partnerships with providers, family and youth leaders, state and local government, nonprofit organizations, community mental health centers, community groups, and federal partners. The Director is responsible for program implementation, quality oversight, data and fiscal accountability, policy and procedure development, stakeholder communication, workforce support, and long-term sustainability.
Job Overview:
Principal Duties and Responsibilities: Provide strategic and operational leadership for FEI and FLNSI, including program planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, evaluation, reporting, and sustainability.
Create, communicate, and enact a statewide vision for family-centered services that align formal services and natural supports around family-identified needs.
Collaborate with TDMHSAS leadership to establish program priorities, objectives, workplans, performance measures, policies, procedures, and continuous quality improvement strategies.
Direct coordination with contracted providers, family and youth partners, community groups, state and local government, nonprofit organizations, community mental health centers, and federal partners.
Ensure that family and youth voice is incorporated into program development, service delivery, evaluation, and systems-level planning.
Supervise and mentor the Lead Family Contact, provide clear expectations and accountability, and support professional growth and effective program leadership.
Travel, Salary, and Hours-Travel: approximately 25% - 35%, primarily in-state. Salary: $6,544 - $10,363 monthly. Schedule: 37.5 hours per week.
Key Responsibilities:
Program Implementation & Oversight:
Oversee statewide implementation of FEI and FLNSI in accordance with approved program models, contracts, funding requirements, state and federal guidelines, and departmental standards.
Establish and monitor program workplans, implementation timelines, service expectations, referral processes, performance measures, and progress toward initiative objectives.
Monitor contracted provider performance, including service quality, fidelity, deliverables, data quality, fiscal performance, corrective action, and alignment with program goals.
Develop and implement methodologies and systems for program data collection, analysis, reporting, and continuous quality improvement.
Review program-related data to identify problems, trends, service gaps, best practices, and opportunities to strengthen program management and development.
Write, implement, and maintain policies and procedures relevant to FEI and FLNSI, including requirements related to program operations, documentation, reporting, and accountability.
Technical Assistance & Capacity Building:
Provide targeted technical assistance to contracted providers and community partners related to family-centered care coordination, navigation and support, family and peer engagement, referral pathways, data reporting, and program compliance.
Develop and coordinate training plans, resources, and learning opportunities that strengthen provider capacity and support consistent implementation across service areas.
Coach and mentor program staff and provider teams with diverse levels of expertise, reinforcing clear expectations, shared accountability, and effective problem-solving.
Facilitate cross-site learning and collaboration so providers can share effective practices, address implementation challenges, and improve family outcomes.
Work with state and national partners to ensure that program practices reflect the System of Care philosophy, trauma-informed approaches, emerging research, and effective models for serving children, youth, and families.
Build the capacity of community partners by connecting them to resources, supporting coordinated referral networks, and promoting sustainable practices for long-term program success.
Administrative Support:
Collect and compile required SAMHSA and TDMHSAS programmatic and fiscal information for the applicable initiatives, including documentation of progress toward program objectives.
Prepare and submit timely reports, presentations, continuation materials, monitoring responses, communications, and other documentation for internal and external stakeholders.
Oversee program budgets, contracts, invoices, deliverables, and fiscal monitoring in collaboration with TDMHSAS contract, budget, and fiscal staff.
Maintain systems and records that support program accountability, data quality, compliance, decision-making, and readiness for state or federal monitoring.
Use program data, provider feedback, and stakeholder input to advise leadership, guide corrective action, and identify opportunities for program improvement and expansion.
Lead sustainability planning for FEI and FLNSI, including strategies to strengthen partnerships, maintain service capacity, and support long-term integration within Tennessee's System of Care.
Supervisory Relationships:
This position is supervised by the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Division of Children and Youth Mental Health and supervises the Lead Family Contact and other staff assigned to FEI and Family Link.
Minimum Qualifications:
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Proven experience successfully initiating and sustaining multi-agency and multi-community policy, system, and environmental change strategies.
Extensive knowledge of the System of Care philosophy and appropriate clinical and family-support interventions for children and youth with mental health needs and their families.
Knowledge of family-centered care coordination, service navigation, family and peer support, crisis and post-crisis services, and the broader children's behavioral health continuum.
Proven skill in networking and building productive relationships among a diverse group of agencies, organizations, providers, families, and community partners.
Effective written, verbal, and public-speaking skills, including the ability to communicate with staff, executives, providers, federal partners, community leaders, families, and other stakeholders.
Strong management skills and the ability to coach, mentor, and hold accountable a team with diverse levels of expertise.
Knowledge of data collection, program evaluation, performance reporting, and continuous quality improvement methods.
Ability to manage grant-funded programs, budgets, contracts, deliverables, fiscal requirements, and state and federal compliance expectations.
Strong organizational, analytical, decision-making, and problem-solving skills, including the ability to use data and stakeholder feedback to guide program improvement.
Education / Experience:
OR
Other related acceptable field.
Experience equivalent to five or more years in a human services leadership role, including a minimum of three or more years supervising employees.
A minimum of three years of experience working with children, youth, and families is required.
Experience monitoring, evaluating, planning, or coordinating grant-funded programs.
Experience with federal grants is preferred.
Pursuant to the State of Tennessee's Workplace Discrimination and Harassment policy, the State is firmly committed to the principle of fair and equal employment opportunities for its citizens and strives to protect the rights and opportunities of all people to seek, obtain, and hold employment without being subjected to illegal discrimination and harassment in the workplace. It is the State's policy to provide an environment free of discrimination and harassment of an individual because of that person's race, color, national origin, age (40 and over), sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status or any other category protected by state and/or federal civil rights laws.
