Summary

The Health Educator will work to support the expansion of the CPRIT Lung Cancer Screening and Tobacco Cessation Program, which is a clinical services, sponsored program awarded to the Department of Family and Community Medicine. The Health Educator will work independently as well as part of the program team to provide tobacco cessation and lung cancer screening education and navigation to achieve the overarching goal of providing lung cancer screening and tobacco cessation awareness and education in the target populations in Harris and surrounding rural counties.  

The ideal candidate should have experience working with targeted populations and an in-depth knowledge of the barriers that affect clinical services. The ideal candidate should also be willing to participate in training. Specifically, this position will require the health educator to educate on tobacco cessation and will be required to participate in and pass the one week tobacco treatment specialist training at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) (funded through the grant). 

Job Duties

Health Education Services:

• The Health Educator provides information to individuals and communities on tobacco cessation education and pre-treatment and lung cancer screening guidelines and eligibility education. 
• Develops operational plans and policies necessary to achieve health education objectives and services. 
• Develops and presents health education and promotion programs such as training workshops or conferences in small groups as well as individual sessions.
• Participates in community events, presentations, and outreach activities. 

Health Education Aid Development:

• Provides lung health, lung cancer risk and smoking cessation counseling and education to individuals and groups in the community (churches, synagogues, schools, libraries, etc.).
• Provides written patient education and maintain a learning library for patients that include language-specific materials. 
• Prepares and distributes health education materials, including reports, bulletins, and visual aids such as films, videotapes, photographs, posters, and brochures to program network partners to promote lung cancer screening and tobacco cessation education. 

Navigation Activities:

• Engages individuals in pre-treatment services by providing pre-screening activities and dissemination of the eligible Lung Cancer Screening and tobacco cessation program services .
• Engages eligible and interested participants and acts as a point of contact, provides navigation activities, scheduling, and warm hand-offs into program services. 
  Provides navigation activities through health system barriers (e.g. insurance, transportation, etc.) as needed. 

Community Leaders and Organization Liaison:

• Develops and maintains cooperative working relationships with agencies and organizations. 
• Collaborates with health specialists and civic groups to determine community health needs and the availability of services, and to develop goals for meeting needs. 

Evaluation, Record Keeping and Reporting:

• Conducts evaluations activities to assess the quality and performance of health education services. 
• Documents activities and maintains records of information required for program sponsor reporting.

Other:

• Performs other job-related duties in support of the CPRIT Lung Cancer Screening and Tobacco Cessation programs goals and objectives. 
• Will participate and pass the week long Tobacco Treatment Specialist (TTS) training program at MDACC funded through the grant. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Health Education, Public Health, Community Health, Behavioral Science or a related field.
• Two years of relevant experience.  

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Public Health, Health Education or related field.
• Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc (NCHEC).  
• Experience working with targeted populations and an in-depth knowledge of the barriers that affect clinical services.
• Bilingual in English/Spanish.