A health director is responsible for the management of health care programs and related organizations. He/She organizes, plans, directs, and manages multiple programs and projects. He/She develops departmental budgets and allocates funds to relevant programs and initiatives. Asides from that, he/she evaluates health-related data and determines areas that require attention. Also, he/she meets with health employees to know about pertinent health issues. Additionally, he/she creates and monitors emergency response plans to ensure safety.
To become a health director, most employers require a state license to practice. Additionally, you must have a master's degree in a health-related field. You must have at least three years of experience in health administration. You must possess time management, communication, leadership, and organization skills. Also, you must be conversant with health practices and policies. Your salary range falls between $64,688 and $81,797. You'll earn an average salary of $71,605 yearly.
How to Become a Health Director
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a health director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $44.22 an hour? That's $91,972 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 18% and produce 71,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Health Director Do
There are certain skills that many health directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, communication skills and detail oriented.
How To Become a Health Director
If you're interested in becoming a health director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.5% of health directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 23.5% of health directors have master's degrees. Even though most health directors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a health director. When we researched the most common majors for a health director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on health director resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a health director. In fact, many health director jobs require experience in a role such as staff nurse. Meanwhile, many health directors also have previous career experience in roles such as registered nurse or director.
Health Director Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of executive director you might progress to a role such as chief executive officer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title chief executive officer.
Average Salary for a Health Director
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Health Directors
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
4. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
5. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
6. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
7. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
8. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
9. University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA • Private
10. University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA • Private
Top Skills For a Health Director
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.9% of health directors listed health care on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Health Director Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Health Director templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Health Director resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Health Director Demographics
Health Director Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among health directors, 64.7% of them are women, while 35.3% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among health directors is White, which makes up 68.6% of all health directors.
- The most common foreign language among health directors is Spanish at 57.8%.
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Best States For a Health Director
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a health director. The best states for people in this position are California, New York, Connecticut, and Delaware. Health directors make the most in California with an average salary of $116,811. Whereas in New York and Connecticut, they would average $116,515 and $115,659, respectively. While health directors would only make an average of $115,244 in Delaware, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Michigan
$106,832
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$115,244
Avg. Salary
3. California
$116,811
Avg. Salary
How Do Health Director Rate Their Jobs?
Top Health Director Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ health directors and discovered their number of health director opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that US Foods was the best, especially with an average salary of $97,908. American Heart Association follows up with an average salary of $93,010, and then comes American Cancer Society with an average of $82,197. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a health director. The employers include CVS Health, Veeva Systems, and UnitedHealth Group
Most Common Employers For Health Director
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amgen | $222,393 | $106.92 | 8 |
| 2 | Johnson & Johnson | $212,656 | $102.24 | 8 |
| 3 | Johns Hopkins University | $161,772 | $77.78 | 5 |
| 4 | Pwc | $156,614 | $75.30 | 5 |
| 5 | Microsoft | $150,780 | $72.49 | 13 |
| 6 | Amerigroup | $113,504 | $54.57 | 5 |
| 7 | Brookdale Senior Living | $108,592 | $52.21 | 9 |
| 8 | Ceridian | $101,526 | $48.81 | 5 |
| 9 | Peak Vista CHC | $98,446 | $47.33 | 5 |
| 10 | Mathematica | $98,247 | $47.23 | 15 |
Health Director Videos
