Summary This position serves as the Chief of the Community and Public Affairs Service at the Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System (GCVHCS), Biloxi, Miss., functions at the expert level for three sections: Public Affairs, Voluntary Service, and Patient Centered Care, has direct day-to-day supervision of the VISN 16 PACT Act Public Affairs Officer stationed at Gulf Coast Veterans Health Care System . Responsibilities As a Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist, you will: Provide oversight and management for public affairs, voluntary services, and patient centered care programs within the health care system. Develop and recommend strategic actions for the implementation of a strong public relations program both internally and externally and inclusive of all stakeholders including staff, patients, volunteers, Veteran Service Organizations, elected local, state, and federal officials, and community partners. Apply solid public relations, communications and health administrative skills to assure that resources are used effectively and efficiently to market and promote VA's high quality care that exceeds community and national standards and industry best practices. Responsible for budget and fiscal management, human resources management, strategic planning and evaluation, assuring that they are integrated to provide optimum usage of resources. Actively participate at the senior management level within the health care system in overall planning and management activities related to communications. Responsible for creating a public and community relations program that promotes a positive image, elevates public opinion, provides informative and timely external and internal communication mediums, and strives to foster stakeholder and patient satisfaction and positive employee morale. Responsible for creating, designing and distributing publications to include an annual report, bimonthly employee newsletter, monthly patient centered care newsletter, all health care system printed and visual products and any special publications. Write or supervise the writing of speeches and talking points for special events hosted on and off the health care system. Develop, coordinate and provide oversight when necessary for health care system/consumer and congressional briefings and training for all employees before each media interview and is directly responsible for dealing with all media representatives throughout the health care system or designating a person to work with media and providing them with guidance and supervision. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm (Subject to change based on the needs of the Facility) Telework: Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist/PD037230 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Must pass pre-employment physical evaluation. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 03/23/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-12 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience managing, coordinating, and maintaining a public affairs program to include media relations, crisis communications, congressional relations for a Healthcare facility. This experience may include applying marketing and media intervention techniques in a Healthcare facility; communicating orally and in writing to internal and external customers from patients to congressional level staff; providing guidance, advice and information regarding healthcare and public relations issues. . You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Writing Oral communication Decision making Problem Solving Creativity/Innovation Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: This position requires that the incumbent travel a moderate amount of time. Incumbent supervises subordinates across the health care system and travel to and from the outpatient clinics in Mobile, Pensacola, Eglin and Panama City is required on a regular basis. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Education There is no educational substitution at this grade level. Additional Information Receiving Service Credit for Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.
