Health Promotion Specialist

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Posting Reason:

New Position

Job Type:

Employee

Anticipated Duration in Months (for contracts and temporary assignments):

15

Job Family:

Student Health and Wellness

# of Open Positions:

1

Faculty/Service - Department:

Student Affairs, Health Promo

Campus:

Minto Sports Complex

Union Affiliation:

SSUO

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/11/05

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2026/11/16

Hours per week:

35

Salary Grade:

SSUO Grade 09

Salary Range:

$76,104.00 - $96,135.00Students may not always recognize the connection between their screen habits and symptoms such as increased anxiety, depression, metabolic changes and cognitive challenges. As part of a broader digital dependency project team, you will contribute to work on one or more of four key strategies aimed at positively influencing students’ behaviours: awareness building, health promotion interventions, occupational performance coaching (OPC), and knowledge translation and skill building.

About Student Services:
Student Services is at the very heart of the student experience at the University of Ottawa. We recruit the very best future students, support them throughout their university years and leave them well-prepared for fulfilling careers and future studies. Our team of more than 600 dedicated staff provides the services that keep students happy, well and thriving as they pursue their ambitions. We help them apply and enrol for courses, we oversee 11 residences and an award-winning Dining Hall, we organize fun events, we provide extensive recreation program opportunities and varsity sports activities, we run an innovative career development and experiential learning program and much more!

 There’s nothing more rewarding than helping future generations reach their full potential at a world-class university. With our wide variety of career opportunities and professional development pathways, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy the experience as much as our students do.

Position purpose: 

Under the direction of the Manager, Health promotion and education, the incumbent is responsible for the development and execution of health promotion initiatives, programs and projects that support and contribute to student wellbeing and success. The incumbent also leads event planning and delivery, presentations, and workshops in addition to other health promotion activities.  The position ensures that all initiatives align with the principles of a health promoting campus. The HPS (health promo specialist) must provide direct interventions with students in distress or those requiring assistance to determine appropriate referrals within the Stepped Care and Circle of Care models or within the community.

In this role, your responsibilities will include: 

Health Promotion Planning and Operations

• Oversee and provide leadership to the peer-led Wellness Lounge (WL), and other designated Health Promotion spaces, in delivering quality customer service and peer support to visitors of the WL. Coordinate HP (Health Promotion) spaces by providing evidence-based health information, resources, and referrals to appropriate health professionals and/or services (system navigation). Create a welcoming, supportive, and educational environment that encourages student engagement, skill-development and help-seeking behaviors. Performs a variety of tasks to support and maintain the Wellness Lounge and other designated Health Promotion spaces, including inventory, maintenance of resources and ensuring that health information is up-to-date, evidence-based and reflective of current trends. This includes assigning and scheduling student staff, identifying and recommending topics and outreach methods, developing content, delivering workshops, webinars, information sessions or other initiatives, and hosting events, virtually or in person.
• Provide direct individual or group non-clinical interventions with students in distress or those requiring health and wellness education, assistance and referrals. This includes communicating and assessing student’s health needs carefully, delivering appropriate health information and make relevant referrals depending on their needs. Demonstrate compassion and support in a non-judgmental approach on a variety of health-related topics impacting students. Exercise independent judgement, problem solving and resourcefulness in order to determine the most effective information to provide.
• Lead the development, implementation, delivery and evaluation of interactive and evidence-informed wellness programs and initiatives to student groups, including student leaders and other stakeholder groups as applicable.  Collaborate with campus partners and community agencies in the delivery of public health and health promotion activities; maintain relationships with campus and community stakeholder groups to identify opportunities to expand or enhance health education activities and to optimize the impact of public health and health promotion activities.

Human resources

• Responsible for the recruiting, selection, onboarding, ongoing supervision and performance management of all student staff and volunteers.  Address student staff issues that impact optimal functioning of the HP programs and services.
• Develop and deliver quality training to student employees and volunteers which meet university policies and health promotion standards and best practices.
• Provide ongoing coaching, guidance and support to student staff and volunteers on student health and wellness issues and challenges, incident management, and guidelines for referrals.

Partnerships

• Represent the service and the University of Ottawa during events by connecting with students and participants. Actively participate in professional organizations, cultivate partnerships, and collaborate with campus and community partners. Collaborate with other units to deliver programs that build campus capacity to support student wellbeing.  Develop and collaborate on projects that promote wellbeing in learning environments.

Communications

• Participate on or lead / chair workgroups, committees and team meetings. Lead in maintaining Health Promo’s social media and assist in web presence. Prepare newsletters, reports, publications and other written work as required.

Administrative Tasks

• Performs a variety of administrative tasks to support the operations of the department/program/event, such as entering, updating and analyzing data, drafting and preparing a variety of documents and managing schedules and mail, in keeping with uOttawa quality standards. Drafts and updates documents for internal use on procedures, processes and systems related to the incumbent’s responsibilities.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor’s Degree in a health related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and work experience Most relevant field areas include health sciences, public health, health promotion, health policy, or health education;

• Minimum three years related health promotion work experience, in a higher education environment.
• Bilingualism: French and English (spoken and written), to be considered for this position, candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute. 
• Knowledge of the ACHA Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education (SPHPHE);

• Supervisory experience to effectively manage student staff and volunteers considered an asset;

• Knowledge of health promotion, behavior change, population-based theories and models, environmental management strategies/socio-ecological model and health promotion programs/initiatives.

• Demonstrated skills in a variety of educational methods including presentations, workshops, trainings, and individual behavior change sessions;

• Experience in program development, workshop delivery, design and evaluation including assessment design and implementation. Experience in coordinating small- and large-scale events for a student population. Specific experience in working with a diverse student population is required.

• Expertise in one or more student wellness priority areas: mental health, sexual health, substance use, etc.

• Ability to work evenings and weekends as required

• Written/oral/interpersonal communication skills;

• Demonstrated ability to respect diversity and use inclusive behaviour, responding with sensitivity and self-awareness to the unique needs of students, faculty and staff, including visible and non-visible dimensions of diversity.

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact [email protected] to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.