How To Become A Community Health Planning Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a community health planning director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The field of public health looks beyond individual patient health and focuses on the health of a community as a whole. Community health organizations can create public education campaigns to help people build healthy habits, talk with local leaders about health concerns, such as identifying sources of pollution, and more. A community health planning director helps plan these initiatives and increase connections with the community.

A community health planning director can work for a nonprofit or the community health department for a hospital. They usually oversee a whole team dedicated to public health and do whatever is necessary to make the department effective. This can include handling logistics such as a budget, developing detailed plans for initiatives, and meeting with stakeholders.

Most community health planning directors need to have many years of experience in public health. Many also have bachelor's or even master's degrees in public health. Their experience helps them support communities in their quest to build a healthier environment.

ScoreCommunity Health Planning DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $107,586

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.7

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.31%

Asian 7.16%

Black or African American 11.02%

Hispanic or Latino 13.28%

Unknown 6.41%

White 60.82%

Gender

female 65.81%

male 34.19%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

7.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.6

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

9.1

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a community health planning director

Explore community health planning director education requirements

Most common community health planning director degrees

Bachelor's

60.8 %

Master's

27.8 %

Doctorate

4.2 %

Start to develop specific community health planning director skills

Skills	Percentages
Oversight	12.66%
Public Health	10.38%
Medicaid	8.94%
Health Plan	8.14%
Project Management	7.35%

Complete relevant community health planning director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New community health planning directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a community health planning director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real community health planning director resumes.

Research community health planning director duties and responsibilities

Manage multiple patients, assessing ability to continue living independently or moving to higher acuity care.
Coordinate off site immunization clinics within the community.
Perform confidential investigations, supervise, and chart reviews to determine immunization status.
Provide clinical exercise physiology services and health/wellness counseling for family practice/sports medicine/orthopedics medical group effecting positive lifestyle changes in patients serve.

Get community health planning director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a community health planning director. The most common roles before becoming a community health planning director include director, manager team lead and project manager.

Apply for community health planning director jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a community health planning director job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams