Public Exchange Project Manager, Health & Well-being

USC Dornsife Public Exchange is reimagining how research serves the public. Public Exchange fast-tracks collaborations between academic researchers and partners across the public and private sectors to tackle complex problems together. In 2025, Public Exchange became a national network, launching its second location at Washington University in St. Louis.

USC Dornsife Public Exchange has a Health and Well-being Practice that has built collaborations to address food Insecurity, disaster recovery, healthcare worker and caregiver burnout, homelessness prevention, and more. It also has a Climate and Sustainability Practice that has built large-scale, high-impact collaborations such as ShadeLA and the California Solar Canal Initiative. Across both Practices, Public Exchange projects involve partnering with local government agencies, national non-profits, industry associations, health systems, companies, and more.
 

The Role

Public Exchange is hiring a Project Manager (PM) to support our growing team, with a portfolio focused within the Health and Well-being Practice. PMs are essential to the Public Exchange model — they help to identify new partners; scope research questions; draft proposals; develop, launch, and manage projects; and create rigorous, actionable, and high-impact deliverables. Ideal candidates will have a demonstrable commitment to social impact, familiarity with social issues of high national importance (particularly related to health and well-being), a high degree of intellectual curiosity, and the flexibility and willingness to learn and take on emerging challenges in new topic areas.

The PM will work closely with the Health and Well-being Practice Director and fellow team members, the Strategy & Operations Team, and a broad array of university partners to develop and execute projects. The PM will be responsible for the success of their projects, leading work across the full project lifecycle: identifying partner and funder opportunities, drafting proposals, managing day-to-day execution, developing stakeholder relationships, monitoring project-level budgets, addressing operational challenges, and ensuring maximal impact.

In addition, the PM serves as the primary student talent coordinator for Public Exchange projects, which frequently include student researchers and volunteers. The PM may also assist with high-priority operations projects across all of Public Exchange’s projects and team members. Examples may include: creating, launching, and managing new systems and processes to channel the vast pool of student talent at USC toward maximum social impact in connection with Public Exchange projects, or operationalizing procedures for project budget reporting.

The ideal candidate is:

Committed to working on social impact issues
Candidates should have experience or demonstrable interest in working on social impact issues relevant to the Health and Well-being Practice (e.g., food insecurity, homelessness, affordability, caregiving, environmental health, disaster response and recovery, health innovation). A degree focused in public policy, public health, urban planning, social science, or other related fields is a plus.

Collaborative with an entrepreneurial spirit
PMs at Public Exchange have a bias for action — they are extremely organized, decisive, detail-oriented, strong communicators, diplomatic, and comfortable coordinating across large and diverse teams. Public Exchange is a fast-paced, growing organization. In many ways, we are still at an early stage of our growth. An entrepreneurial spirit, comfort with the unknown, and willingness to pitch in and build things from zero with a small, mighty team is essential.

Experienced in managing projects
Project management is the beating heart that drives Public Exchange, requiring careful organization, tracking, and delivery of tasks on deadlines. Candidates should excel in juggling multiple responsibilities, setting priorities, problem solving, and have experience managing grants or contracts. Project managers should understand the soft skills required to keep a team cohesive and have the emotional intelligence necessary to identify and resolve conflicts when they arise.

Respect for research and academia
Candidates should understand the role and opportunity that data, research, and academic evaluation can play in tack