Vice Chair of Psychological Services Position Announcement

Dr. John Q. Young, Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and Zucker Hillside Hospital (ZHH) and SVP for Behavioral Health at Northwell, and Dr. Manish Sapra, Executive Director for the Behavioral Health Service Line, with the support of Northwell Executive Leadership, invites applications and nominations for the newly established position of Vice Chair of Psychological Services. This inaugural leadership role reflects Northwell Health’s bold commitment to elevating psychotherapy as a cornerstone of mental health treatment. It comes at a moment of both challenge and opportunity for the field, as the need for timely, meaningful, and evidence-based psychotherapy grows more urgent. Northwell aims to create a system-wide model that is innovative, accessible, effective, equitable, sustainable, and growable. The incoming Vice Chair will shape and operationalize this vision, advancing high-quality psychological care grounded in the science of therapeutic common factors and the depth of specialized, empirically supported treatments. . 

The Vice Chair of Psychological Services will serve as the clinical and strategic leader for psychotherapy and psychological services at the combined Department of Psychiatry (Zucker Hillside Hospital, LIJMC, CCMC, and NSUH) with system-wide responsibility for strategy, oversight, mentorship, faculty development, and scholarship.  Reporting to the System Chair of Psychiatry, this role will also influence the system-wide strategy for the design, clinical integrity, quality, sustainability, growth and evaluation of psychological care at Northwell.  Finally, the position will also lead the workforce pipeline strategy to increase accessibility to high quality psychotherapy for the communities Northwell serves.

The Position

Reporting to the System Chair/SVP of Psychiatry and the ZHH Chair of Psychiatry, the Vice Chair of Psychological Services will serve as the clinical and strategic leader for psychotherapy and psychological services at the combined Department of Psychiatry (Zucker Hillside Hospital, LIJMC, CCMC, and NSUH) with system-wide responsibility for strategy, oversight, mentorship, faculty development, and scholarship.  In collaboration with Executive Director, Behavioral Health service line, this role will also play a pivotal role in the system-wide strategy for the design, clinical integrity, quality, sustainability, growth and evaluation of psychological care at Northwell.  Finally, the position will also lead the workforce pipeline strategy to increase accessibility to high quality psychotherapy for the communities Northwell serves. 

Clinically, this position will center the common therapeutic factors (e.g., alliance, empathy, emotional safety, collaboration) as the foundation of clinical care, with treatments such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other specialty modalities (e.g., exposure therapy, CBT, EMDR) are integrated seamlessly as part of Northwell’s psychotherapy treatment. The Vice Chair of Psychological Services will ensure baseline quality of psychotherapy provided, while empowering innovation and specialization across settings — inpatient, outpatient, community-based, and digital.

Responsibilities will include direct collaboration with psychology directors across medical and psychiatric service lines, including in-patient, out-patient, perinatal, child and adolescent, OCD, early psychosis, neuropsychology, and health psychology. The Vice Chair will coordinate these leaders into a cohesive structure that supports mentoring, clinical consultation, quality assurance, and disseminating high-quality psychological interventions throughout the enterprise.  Additionally, the Vice Chair of Psychological Services will develop resource mapping of licensed providers of psychotherapy services, to improve optimal distribution of psychotherapy resources across Northwell

Working closely with educational leaders, the Vice Chair of Psychological Services will help shape the psychotherapy training vision for psychologists, psychiatrists, master's-level therapists, unlicensed interns, and associates.  This includes adopting system-wide curricula in common factors and EBPs, expanding training to non-licensed staff, and building training pipelines to reinforce a resilient workforce. The Vice Chair will also support and facilitate research and scholarship related to the clinical and educational innovations in the department.

Additional responsibilities include:

• Serving as the visible and trusted champion of psychotherapy services across the health system and beyond.
• Advancing access to care through new care delivery models and digital platforms.
• Reducing silos between disciplines and regions through standardized training, clinical foundations, and outcome metrics.
  
  
• Building a culture of continuous quality improvement through measurement-based care and shared dashboards.
• Collaborating with Northwell leadership on strategic planning, resource allocation, and workforce development.
  
  

Requirements and Ideal Experience   

This role requires a dynamic and experienced leader with a deep understanding of multi-site, system-level psychological services, a passion for driving innovation, and the ability to influence and inspire change across a large and complex organization. Additionally:

1. PhD, PsyD, or EdD in one of the following psychology programs: Clinical, Clinical-Health, Clinical-School, Clinical-Community, Counseling Psychology or a field regarded by the American Psychological Association as “health services” psychology.
2. Currently or eligible licensed provider in the State of New York.
3. Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive senior management experience in Behavioral Health at the institutional or system level.
4. Experience in successfully leading system, organization or department transformation
5. Subject matter expertise and progressive management experience in clinical psychotherapy and assessment services.
6. Exceptional interpersonal skills, including the ability to build trust, navigate complex relationships, and communicate with empathy and professionalism across diverse settings, groups and positions.
7. Excellent oral and written communication skills required.
8. Demonstrates a sound knowledge of specialty and related fields.
9. Maintains standards of professional ethics and clinical competency.

The Selection Committee invites inquiries, nominations, and applications for the position.  Prospects should provide 1) an electronic version of their curriculum vitae and 2) a letter of interest, summarizing key achievements related to quality iniatives, administrative leadership, clinical care, and strategy. Confidential review of nominations and expressions of interest will begin immediately and will continue until an appointment is made.

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be determined based on various factors, including but not limited to scope of role, level of experience, education, specialty/subspeciality, credentials, academic accomplishments, clinical productivity, quality metrics, patient experience, site/location internal equity, budget, and subject to Fair Market Value evaluation. The base compensation range listed is a good faith determination of potential base compensation at the time of this job advertisement and may be modified in the future. 

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