Associate Director, Family Care

Ronald McDonald House Charities Bay Area • Palo Alto, CA

7d • $108,000 - $120,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Our Stanford program is a 100,000-square-foot, 24/7 operation that provides lodging to 123 families every night, 365 days a year. More than a hotel, we offer a true home-away-from-home and a neighborhood of support for families navigating medical crisis in a communal living environment. Services include daily meals and stocked family kitchens, psychosocial support, programmed activity spaces, a gym, an onsite K-12 school and tutoring support, outdoor recreation, summer camp, and more. In addition to overnight guests, we offer daily access, 7am-7pm, to any family receiving treatment at the Stanford Medical Center. Through Day Pass, families can access the Stanford House’s amenities, meals, and programs—including laundry, showers, essential care items, gym, kitchens, activity rooms, summer camp, hospital shuttle, and more.
The Associate Director, Family Care is a new exempt leadership role responsible for the seamless integration of family care (psychosocial support), lodging operations, and case management support. This position serves as the lead case manager, with both direct service and management responsibilities. This position oversees the “home-away-from-home” experience for 123 families nightly, ensuring that accommodations are managed with operational excellence and that family care is delivered through a trauma-informed, culturally responsive lens. The Associate Director directly supervises the Family Care Manager and indirectly supports their team. The AD will play a critical role in the evolution of our Stanford operations by establishing a “one-stop-shop” model, leading the transition to a centralized hub for all housing needs—ensuring families experience a streamlined cohesive entry point for accommodations and support services; helping implementing robust pre-screening protocols, family needs assessments and Enhanced Care Management (Medi-Cal) enrollment, and ongoing case management support to ensure families receive the right level of care at the right time; and ensuring the rollout and adoption of a new housing management tool to better support guest racking, resource allocation, and data reporting.
Reporting to the Director of Family Services, this role maintains close coordination with other programs including Guest Services, Family Programs, Facilities and Operations, and Community Engagement and Volunteer Services. For families with formal case management care plans, the Associate Director and Family Services team support the delivery and tracking of non-clinical services, under the direction of the Family Services Director.

Requirements

• Graduate Degree in Social Work, Psychology, Counseling, Human Services, or a related field required; MSW or MFT, preferred. Note: Candidates with 10+ years of direct case management experience will be considered.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a social service, case management, or family support role; proven ability to manage a team is strongly preferred.
• Experience in family services, program development and oversight, crisis intervention, trauma-informed care, and navigating community resources.
• Demonstrated experience interacting with diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds; bilingual Spanish speaker strongly preferred.
• Proven track record of building collaborative, multi-level, cross-functional relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated leadership in case management operations, with ability to motivate teams and drive service excellence with a compassionate, client-centered approach.
• Strong active listening skills, high emotional intelligence, and a deep sense of empathy and care for families in distress.
• Ability to lead cross-functionally, collaborating with Accommodations, Volunteer Services, and other teams to achieve goals.
• Knowledge of risk management, safety protocols, and emergency response procedures.
• Proven project management skills, with ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines and service delivery goals in a dynamic environment.
• Compassionate, solution-oriented approach to guest and family needs.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with meticulous attention to detail.
• Skilled in mediating conflicts and de-escalating sensitive situations with professionalism and calm.
• Professional boundary-setting, with empathy for families facing medical crises and secondary trauma experienced by staff and volunteers.
• Exceptional written/verbal communication, adaptable to varied audiences (staff, volunteers, families, partners).
• Proficient in MS Office and ability to learn new systems (e.g., guest management software, family mobile app, program tracking systems, etc.).
• CPR/First Aid/AED certification (or willingness to obtain within 30 days of hire).
• Valid CA driver's license and ability to travel locally as needed.
• Physical ability to lift 25 pounds (e.g., supplies, donations).

Nice To Haves

• Bilingual (Spanish/English) proficiency is strongly desired; if not bilingual, demonstrated ability to manage cross-cultural teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-level case management for complex care plans (within ECM requirements) and supervise the triage process to ensure effective connection to community resources.
• Assess the psychosocial and practical needs of families, triaging and connecting them to appropriate internal and community resources; for families with formal care plans, provide direct case management services, in collaboration with the Family Services Director (LCSW) and social work interns.
• Lead the response to family crises and emergencies, utilizing de-escalation techniques and crisis intervention skills, in coordination with Programs, Family Support Services and Family Care staff as appropriate.
• Is the primary authority on family case management; design, implement, and audit comprehensive care plans for families with complex psychosocial or non-clinical needs.
• Working alongside the Director of Family Service, serves as a liaison with Stanford Medicine social workers and clinical teams to align support for families.
• Direct the evolution of our “one-stop-shop” model to unify housing and support services, drastically reducing the “service fatigue” experienced by families during medical emergencies.
• Lead the organizational response to family crises, utilizing advanced de-escalation intervention skills; model and provide consultation to staff on boundary-setting and trauma-informed care.
• Oversee the implementation of the new guest services database; analyze utilization data and case management outcomes to report on program impact for grants (including ECM) and donors.
• Oversee and direct the end-to-end accommodations strategy, including the optimization of intake, waitlist management, and exception-handling, to ensure equitable and efficient resource allocation.
• Recruit, mentor, and provide executive coaching to the Family Care and Programs Managers; cultivate a leadership pipeline within the team while reinforcing professional boundaries and trauma-informed practices.
• Supervise the training and upskilling of Family Care roles to serve as Community Health Workers (CHWs) and deliver ECM and case management services.
• Manage the Family Care fiscal budget; assist in tracking budget spending for all lodging resources.
• Oversee the optimization and implementation of the new guest services database and community support app to improve the family experience and data integrity.
• Conduct ongoing needs assessments to identify psychosocial service gaps; design and scale innovative housing solutions and supportive programming.
• Maintain and steward strong relationships and partnerships with key hospital personnel, third party agencies and support services.
• Support in identifying and vetting mission-critical stories for marketing and donor engagement.
• In conjunction with the AD of Programs, engineer cross-departmental coordination workflows (Family Care, GSAs, YPAs, MPAs) to ensure consistency in service delivery, clear understanding of triage protocols, and a unified family experience.
• Support and enforce organizational infection control policies and safety protocols.
• Assist leadership in reporting impact; building and stewarding meaningful relationships with families, volunteers, community and hospital partners, and donors; and identifying family and staff stories to share in our internal and external communications

Benefits

• RMHC Bay Area offers a wide range of benefits including medical, dental, vision, health savings account, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, 403(b) retirement plan with employer contribution, generous PTO, and holidays.
• RMHC Bay Area is committed to providing meaningful professional development and pathways for growth.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 11-50 employees