Chief External Affairs Officer

Job Description

Job Description

Chief External Affairs Officer

 

The Chief of External Affairs is a senior executive leader responsible for setting the vision, strategy, and accountability structure for how Essential Access Health engages the world beyond its walls. This role is the integrating force across the organization’s fund development, government affairs, community engagement, and communications functions—ensuring that every external-facing effort reflects a coherent direction, amplifies the organization’s influence, and advances its long-term mission and sustainability.

 

 

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Chief of External Affairs translates organizational priorities into external strategies that drive philanthropic revenue, shape policy outcomes, deepen community trust, and elevate Essential Access Health’s visibility as a leading voice in sexual and reproductive health care. This role is equally a strategic architect and a senior relationship holder—setting the frame and showing up in high-stakes spaces while equipping a strong team to execute with excellence.

 

 

The Chief of External Affairs leads an integrated team of five across two direct reports—the Vice President of Fund Development and the Vice President of Government & Community Affairs—and is accountable for the coherence, performance, and culture of the full external affairs function.

 

KEY DUTIES + RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Set and lead a unified external affairs vision that aligns all external-facing functions with organizational priorities and positions Essential Access Health for sustained influence and impact
• Provide executive oversight of the organization’s diversified revenue strategy, ensuring Essential Access Health has the financial foundation needed to sustain and grow its mission.
• Oversee the organization’s government relations and policy engagement strategy, ensuring Essential Access Health is a credible, influential, and proactive presence in the policy environments that shape its work.
• Set the strategic direction for the organization’s community-facing engagement, ensuring Essential Access Health is a trusted, visible, and authentic presence in the communities it serves.
• Ensure a clear, compelling, and consistent organizational voice across all external channels and audiences, elevating Essential Access Health’s visibility and reputation as a leader in sexual and reproductive health care.
• Lead, develop, and align a high-performing external affairs team, ensuring strong coordination across functions and clear pathways for growth at every level.
• Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO and Board, providing the intelligence, framing, and coordination needed to strengthen external engagement at the highest levels of organizational leadership.
• Monitor the external environment proactively, identifying risks and opportunities with implications for organizational strategy, funding, and reputation—and ensuring the organization is positioned to respond with agility.

 

QUALIFICATIONS:

 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required to perform this job.

 

• 15+ years of senior leadership experience in external affairs, fund development, government relations, public policy, communications, or a closely related field—ideally spanning multiple of these disciplines
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale, diversified fundraising efforts, including major gifts, foundation funding, corporate partnerships, and government grants and contracts
• Proven experience shaping and leading external strategy at an organizational or enterprise level, with accountability for setting direction across multiple functions
• Strong understanding of state and federal policy environments, public funding systems, and government relations strategy—preferably in health care, public health, or reproductive rights contexts
• Track record of leading and aligning high-performing, cross-functional teams—including experience managing senior managers and building cohesive, integrated functions
• Experience working in close partnership with executive leadership and Boards of Directors on strategy, fundraising, and external engagement • Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in public policy, public health, nonprofit management, or a related field preferred
• Other duties as assigned

Company Description

Mission: Essential Access Health champions and promotes quality sexual + reproductive health care for all
At Essential Access Health (Essential Access), our values are our compass. We believe bodily autonomy is a human right, and that everyone deserves to make decisions about their lives, families, and futures with dignity and respect. Today’s reproductive health landscape is marked by escalating attacks on access, deepening inequities, and state-sanctioned violence against people who can get pregnant. Yet this moment—while challenging—has also become a catalyst for change. It has demanded clarity, courage, and creativity. It has pushed us to reimagine and redesign our work, to ask who is better off because of it, and to expand our sense of what is possible and necessary. This strategic plan sets our direction for the next three years: to lead with our values, transform systems rather than defend the status quo, and shape a future in which sexual and reproductive health care is just, equitable, and centered on people.

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Justice + Inclusion
Since our founding in 1968, Essential Access has been guided by a foundational belief: every person has the right to access the health services and information they need—with dignity and respect. That belief is as urgent today as it has ever been.

We know that access is not enough on its own. Systemic barriers—rooted in race, identity, ability, and circumstance—continue to determine who receives care and who is left behind. Addressing those barriers is not peripheral to our work; it is central to it. We are committed to embedding a health equity lens across our policies, programs, and services, and to taking meaningful action to ensure that sexual and reproductive health outcomes are just and equitable for everyone we serve, including LGBTQ+ individuals and people with disabilities.
This thread runs through five decades of work, and it shapes how we show up—for our communities, our partners, and one another.

Join Us
With our home office in Southern California and employees throughout the West Coast and Hawaiʻi, our team includes leading experts in sexual and reproductive health—researchers, trainers, clinicians, advocates, and operational leaders who bring both expertise and purpose to their work every day.

We are a mission-driven organization, and that extends to how we show up for our staff. We are committed to building a workplace where people feel seen, supported, and valued—where the same dignity and respect we champion for our patients and communities is reflected in the employee experience. We invest in professional growth, foster a culture of collaboration and psychological safety, and work continuously to ensure Essential Access is a place where talented, passionate people can do the best work of their careers.

Company Description

Mission: Essential Access Health champions and promotes quality sexual + reproductive health care for all\r\nAt Essential Access Health (Essential Access), our values are our compass. We believe bodily autonomy is a human right, and that everyone deserves to make decisions about their lives, families, and futures with dignity and respect. Today’s reproductive health landscape is marked by escalating attacks on access, deepening inequities, and state-sanctioned violence against people who can get pregnant. Yet this moment—while challenging—has also become a catalyst for change. It has demanded clarity, courage, and creativity. It has pushed us to reimagine and redesign our work, to ask who is better off because of it, and to expand our sense of what is possible and necessary. This strategic plan sets our direction for the next three years: to lead with our values, transform systems rather than defend the status quo, and shape a future in which sexual and reproductive health care is just, equitable, and centered on people. \r\n\r\nCommitment to Equity, Diversity, Justice + Inclusion\r\nSince our founding in 1968, Essential Access has been guided by a foundational belief: every person has the right to access the health services and information they need—with dignity and respect. That belief is as urgent today as it has ever been.\r\n\r\nWe know that access is not enough on its own. Systemic barriers—rooted in race, identity, ability, and circumstance—continue to determine who receives care and who is left behind. Addressing those barriers is not peripheral to our work; it is central to it. We are committed to embedding a health equity lens across our policies, programs, and services, and to taking meaningful action to ensure that sexual and reproductive health outcomes are just and equitable for everyone we serve, including LGBTQ+ individuals and people with disabilities. \r\nThis thread runs through five decades of work, and it shapes how we show up—for our communities, our partners, and one another.\r\n\r\nJoin Us\r\nWith our home office in Southern California and employees throughout the West Coast and Hawaiʻi, our team includes leading experts in sexual and reproductive health—researchers, trainers, clinicians, advocates, and operational leaders who bring both expertise and purpose to their work every day.\r\n\r\nWe are a mission-driven organization, and that extends to how we show up for our staff. We are committed to building a workplace where people feel seen, supported, and valued—where the same dignity and respect we champion for our patients and communities is reflected in the employee experience. We invest in professional growth, foster a culture of collaboration and psychological safety, and work continuously to ensure Essential Access is a place where talented, passionate people can do the best work of their careers.