Surveillance Coordinator–Waterborne Diseases

PHMC serves as both a direct service provider to individuals, families, and communities across the region and an intermediary agent, managing large-scale contracts, government and philanthropic partnerships, and multidisciplinary initiatives that require operational sophistication, strategic leadership, and deep mission alignment.

This position reports directly to the Program Manager of the Acute Communicable Disease Program.

Position Overview:

The Waterborne Disease Surveillance Coordinator is a full-time position within the Acute Communicable Disease (ACD) Program of the Division of Disease Control (DDC) at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH). The ACD Program is responsible for the surveillance, investigation, prevention, and control of all reportable acute communicable diseases, except tuberculosis, multidrug-resistant organisms, and sexually transmitted diseases. The position requires working in a multidisciplinary team with disease surveillance investigators, nurses, physicians, and epidemiologists, and acting as a liaison to the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) in addressing water-related concerns.

This position is a term-limited position funded by PWD and requires availability after-hours. The person filling this position will participate in disease investigations, epidemiological and scientific studies, and educational outreach efforts related to waterborne diseases and conditions, including cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, legionellosis, vibriosis, and chemical contaminants, among others. The Surveillance Coordinator will be the primary liaison with PWD.

This job may require moderate physical effort, including lifting materials and equipment of less than 50 pounds, and involves viewing a CRT or VDT screen 50 to 75 percent of the time. The position requires responding to public health emergencies and at times requires rapid turnaround of communications on short notice. PDPH follows the City of Philadelphia's return-to-office policies.

Key activities of this position include:

• Coordinating surveillance and investigation for waterborne diseases by reviewing completed case investigations for appropriate case classification and public health management.
• Leading and participating in disease outbreak investigations, including those associated with drinking water contamination, healthcare-associated infections linked to water, and recreational water.
• Developing and distributing disease control guidelines and educational materials for prevention and control of waterborne diseases and conditions in various settings (e.g., skilled nursing facilities, buildings with cooling towers, etc.).
• Maintaining, updating, and executing response plans for waterborne diseases, including protocols for environmental testing and coordination of testing with public health reference laboratories.
• Developing and performing analyses for waterborne diseases.
• Producing routine waterborne disease surveillance reports to share with PWD.
• Participating in PWD contamination warning system development and refinements.
• Participating in PWD-led training, drills, and exercises on emergency response and communication development.
• Representing the Health Department on the Philadelphia Water Department’s Water Quality Committee.
• Assisting with preparedness planning for a water-related emergency and developing joint exercises between Water and Health departments (including Environmental Health Services).
• Leading public health education campaigns such as Healthy Swimming.
• Developing, executing, and overseeing special projects related to the epidemiology of waterborne diseases.
• Maintaining a voluntary cooling tower registry.
• Monitoring legislation related to Legionella prevention (e.g., cooling tower registry mandates).
• Assisting PWD in addressing emerging concerns such as mycobacterial biofilm in plumbing systems and pharmaceuticals in PWD’s source waters.
• Working with PWD and PDPH communications teams to update public websites.
• Serving as a liaison for ACD with epidemiologists overseeing wastewater surveillance.
• Participating in telephone duty during normal business hours in DDC, including case report collection and provision of clinical or public health recommendations to healthcare professionals, settings of concern for disease transmission, and the general public, as appropriate to control the spread of infectious diseases.
• Supporting coordination of response to miscellaneous communicable diseases such as invasive group A streptococcal infections.
• Participating in emergency preparedness exercises and outbreak response, including activities for other communicable diseases.

Skills:

• Demonstrated understanding of general conc