Posted: 09-Jan-26
Location: Nassau County, New York
Type: Full Time
Salary: Commensurate with Experience
Categories:
Sector:
Preferred Education:
Internal Number: VC Chief Psych
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.
About Northwell Health?
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 28 hospitals and 1,050 outpatient facilities. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 103,500 employees – 19,000+ nurses and 12,000+ credentialed physicians, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Northwell has been named as a Best Workplaces in Healthcare (Fortune, Modern Healthcare, Glassdoor), America’s Most Innovative Companies (Fortune), and the no. 1 health system nationally for advancing diversity and inclusion (DiversityInc).
Behavioral Health at Northwell
Northwell’s mission is to improve the mental health of the patients and communities Northwell serves through a full continuum of high-quality, comprehensive clinical services in all of Northwell’s hospitals, outpatient programs and practices. Hospital services include over 624 inpatient beds (74 SUD beds) across 7 hospitals, consult services in each of the 23 hospitals and emergency departments, a robust telepsychiatry program, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, and a full range of outpatient services (>600K visits per year and growing) for all ages and disorders. Northwell Health has two hospitals that specialize in behavioral health: Zucker Hillside Hospital, a 236-bed facility in Glen Oaks, NY and South Oaks Hospital, a 202-bed facility in Amityville, NY.
To improve access and facilitate earlier diagnosis and treatment, the Department prioritizes integrating behavioral health into settings where people routinely engage such as primary care (adult, pediatric and OB- GYN) and schools. BH has embedded collaborative care behavioral health specialists in 84+ primary care (adult and pediatric) practices; and has co-located behavioral health in medical specialty settings such as oncology, transplant surgery, and obstetrics. The School Mental Program provides prevention and wellness programs and same day access to psychiatric services for over 220,000 K-12th grade students across 54 school districts. The Behavioral Health College Partnership collaborates with over 100 higher education institutions in the greater New York region to provide outpatient care as well as rapid inpatient care for college students experiencing a psychiatric crisis.
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:
- 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.
- Currently or eligible licensed provider in the State of New York.
- Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive senior management experience in Behavioral Health at the institutional or system level.
- Experience in successfully leading system, organization or department transformation
- Subject matter expertise and progressive management experience in clinical psychotherapy and assessment services.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, including the ability to build trust, navigate complex relationships, and communicate with empathy and professionalism across diverse settings, groups and positions.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills required.
- Demonstrates a sound knowledge of specialty and related fields.
- 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. To receive consideration for the position, please email all materials to Matthew Faber, Director, Office of Physician Recruitment, Northwell Health at mfaber4@northwell.edu with "Vice Chair of Psychological Services" in the subject line.
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.