Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Consulting/ Executive Facilitator to lead a high-impact executive leadership development initiative supporting the Maryland Department of Health (MDH). This role is designed for a nationally recognized consultant with extensive experience strengthening leadership capacity within governmental public health organizations.

The ideal candidate combines expertise in executive facilitation, organizational development, strategic change management, executive coaching, and adult learning with firsthand experience supporting state or local governmental public health agencies. This individual serves as the primary client-facing consultant throughout the engagement, guiding discovery, workshop design, facilitation, coaching, evaluation, and continuous improvement efforts.

Success in this role requires exceptional executive presence, political awareness, relationship-building skills, and the ability to translate complex organizational challenges into practical leadership strategies that improve organizational performance and workforce effectiveness.

Summary of the Role

The Senior Consulting/ Executive Facilitator serves as the engagement’s lead consultant and facilitator, responsible for designing and delivering an eight-hour customized leadership workshop for senior leaders within the Maryland Department of Health and Maryland local health departments.

Working closely with MDH leadership, this individual reviews organizational assessments, strategic priorities, prior evaluations, and participant needs to tailor workshop content that addresses current organizational challenges and leadership development priorities. MDH will provide organizational context, strategic plans, prior evaluations, and needs assessment information to support customization.

The Lead Facilitator develops leadership objectives, creates customized instructional materials, facilitates executive-level discussions, delivers individualized coaching and technical assistance, evaluates workshop outcomes, and prepares recommendations that strengthen leadership effectiveness across Maryland’s public health system.

This position requires a highly collaborative consultant capable of navigating complex organizational environments while maintaining strong client relationships with senior executives and public health leaders. The successful candidate anticipates organizational challenges, adapts facilitation techniques to diverse leadership styles, and produces practical recommendations that support organizational readiness, workforce development, and sustainable change.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead project kickoff meetings and client discovery sessions.
• Review MDH needs assessments, strategic plans, organizational priorities, and previous leadership evaluations.
• Assess executive leadership development needs and organizational readiness.
• Develop customized learning objectives aligned with MDH priorities.
• Design an executive leadership and change management curriculum tailored to governmental public health.
• Customize workshop content using current organizational context and participant needs.
• Create facilitator guides, participant workbooks, executive presentations, coaching materials, and learning exercises.
• Develop stakeholder engagement and communication planning activities.
• Design organizational readiness and action-planning tools.
• Facilitate an interactive eight-hour in-person executive leadership workshop.
• Lead executive discussions, collaborative exercises, simulations, and case studies.
• Provide six post-workshop office hours.
• Deliver a minimum of twelve hours of individualized coaching and technical assistance across participants using virtual, in-person, or blended approaches based on participant preferences.
• Evaluate participant feedback and learning outcomes.
• Prepare a high-level evaluation summary with actionable recommendations and key takeaways for MDH leadership.
• Conduct review meetings with MDH and incorporate feedback into final deliverables.
• Maintain strong communication with client leadership throughout the engagement.