Description
Contract Opportunity
Reports To: Associate Director, Place-Based Initiatives & Place-Based Initiatives Regional Manager
Location: Remote
Schedule: Temporary, 12-20 hours per week, totaling approximately 200 hours
Duration: September 15, 2025 – December 12, 2025
Hourly Rate: $20 an hour
Posting Date: August 11, 2025
Closing Date: August 29, 2025
Health Care Without Harm seeks an exemplary student for the role of Place-Based Initiatives (PBI) Fellow to review and synthesize available literature on evidence-based models promoting community health, resilience, and equity to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative, place-based community climate resilience learning labs across the country, driven by community priorities and power-sharing collaborations with health systems. The PBI Fellowship will extend from September 15, 2025 – December 12, 2025. The Place-Based Initiatives Program team aims to align this role closely with specific objectives required for conferral of the applicants degree program, which are to be determined in collaboration with the Fellow based upon their degree requirements. This temporary role is part of a high performing, people-centric team that aims to support the Fellow’s learning and integration into the healthcare sustainability field and that actively practices organizational values: We are Impactful, We Strive for Justice, We are Collaborative, We Embody Health, and We Act with Integrity.
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW:
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) seeks to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint and becomes a community anchor for sustainability and leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. We have a unique and dynamic workplace with more than 80 staff members in the U.S. and abroad. We believe health care, as the only sector with healing as its mission, has an opportunity – and obligation – to use its ethical, economic, and political influence to create an ecologically sustainable, equitable, and healthy world. Health Care Without Harm works to achieve its mission in collaboration with Practice Greenhealth, the leading sustainable health care organization, delivering environmental solutions to more than 1,700 hospitals and health systems in the United States and Canada.
ROLE SUMMARY:
The Place-Based Initiatives Fellow is a temporary, paid role aimed to support a student in:
- learning about equity-centered community-health care collaborations that address climate vulnerability, support health, and build local power in four U.S. regions disproportionately affected by climate and environmental injustice,
- collaborating with the Place-Based Initiatives program team; and
- contributing to work that supports health systems in reimagining their roles as anchor institutions in communities, driven by community priorities and needs for a climate resilient present and future.
The PBI Fellow is also invited to participate in Health Care Without Harm Place-Based Initiatives program convenings as well as Practice Greenhealth partner experiences such as webinars, cohorts, and events. This role is geared towards students needing internship or practicum hours for conferral of their academic degree.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
The specific objectives as required by degree will serve as the foundation for the PBI Fellow’s experience in the role.
- Work closely with the Place-Based Initiatives team to assist in the planning, execution, and synthesis of a literature review focused on evidence-based models for building community health, resilience, and equity to gather best practices, guiding principles and tried and tested interventions to inform our PBI pilot site work from design through to implementation, testing, evaluation and scale. This fellowship will provide valuable hands-on experience in the visioning and strategizing for community-health care collaborations that center power-sharing, community ownership, and equitable decision making in climate resilience.
- Develop content knowledge and skills for planning and conducting literature review and synthesis, developing equity-focused climate resilience program models, supporting healthcare partners as anchor institutions and opportunities for innovative partnerships between health care and community groups.
Requirements
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
Place-Based Initiatives Program Support
- Contribute as a member of the Place-Based Initiatives team to a culture that emphasizes equity, collaboration, quality, flexibility, and continuous improvement.
- Pursue knowledge, understanding, and skills related to proven practices and emerging field topics such as anchor institutions, ecodistricts, bioregionalism, community ownership and self-determination, and climate resilience hubs.
Key Responsibilities:
- Assist in planning, conducting, and synthesizing a literature review for equity-centered, place-based models for community-anchor collaborations: including model design, testing, and evaluation.
- Help organize and track literature review and synthesis timelines, deadlines, and deliverables.
- Help generate the concept and drafting of a written tool that builds off Health Care Without Harm’s existing resources around climate resilience and health care anchor institutions and adds new and needed findings to the field.
- Support the strategizing and ideation around PBI pilot sites and coordinating the inventory of region-specific resources.
- Assist PBI program in capturing learnings and insights for pilot preparation leading up to launch.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Minimum Education: Rising senior in Bachelor’s program pursuing a degree in Sustainability, Public Health, Community Development, or related field.
- Minimum Experience: Prior literature review or research experience is required. Relevant experience (internships, school projects, etc.) conducting and synthesizing literature reviews to inform health or climate program design is preferred.
- Preferred Education: Graduate student in Public Health, Equity and Social Justice, Anthropology, Community Development, Urban Planning, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies; or advanced degree in community-based or health care leadership. Other advanced degrees considered, such as advanced practice health professional. Interest or coursework related to health equity, healthcare sustainability, or environmental/climate science is preferred.
KEY COMPETENCIES REQUIRED FOR THIS ROLE:
- Team approach: Ability and experience working as part of a team.
- Topical knowledge and interest: Interest in developing knowledge in sustainability, especially in the context of health care, such as community-driven climate resilience, climate change connections to public health, sustainable food procurement and innovative community-health system partnerships.
- Research skills: Basic understanding of literature review methodology, analysis and synthesis, as well as data analytics and statistics.
- Writing skills: Ability to effectively communicate via email and produce clear, concise written content.
- Computer skills: Comfortable with technology, particularly virtual event platforms (Zoom, GoogleMeet, etc.)). Ability to work with Google products such as Google Drive and Google Documents. Ability to easily pick up on use of internal communication tools like Slack.
To Apply or Inquire
Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth are committed to cultivating and sustaining culturally and ethnically diverse organizations and to the principles that promote inclusive practices. We believe systems can only be transformed when a diversity of voices, perspectives, and lived experiences are a part of the movement for change. We are dedicated to building a diverse staff with expertise and interest in addressing systemic racism within our organization and to serve the mission of the organizations in respectful ways. Health Care Without Harm/Practice Greenhealth is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
To apply, upload the following required documents via this link.
- Resume.
- Brief cover letter to specify your learning objectives and the number of internship or practicum hours required for your academic program.
- Letter of recommendation from faculty or supervisor, speaking specifically to the applicant’s 1) passion for community-driven climate resilience; and 2) enthusiasm for learning and contributing to the field.
Questions can be addressed to jobs@hcwh.org. Only competitive applicants will be invited to participate further in the recruitment process. Closing date to apply is August 29, 2025. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
