Executive Director
092 TOBACCO SETTLEMENT ENDMT TRUST
Secretary of Health and Mental Health
Refer to the date listed at the top of this posting, if available. Continuous if date is blank.
Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the posting end date above.
Full time
Regular
$175,000.00 - $275,000.00
Prepared by Bird Dog Recruitment and Consulting, LLC | September 2026
The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust seeks an exceptional executive leader to serve as its Executive Director and lead one of Oklahoma's most distinctive public institutions.
Created by a vote of the people of Oklahoma in 2000, TSET is entrusted with converting the certified earnings of the state's tobacco settlement endowment into strategic grants that improve the health and well-being of Oklahomans. Through statewide programs, community grants, research, and evidence-based initiatives, TSET works to and create lasting improvements in the health of Oklahoma communities.
The Executive Director reports to the TSET Board of Directors and serves as the organization's chief executive, strategic leader, and principal administrative officer, responsible for translating the Board's vision, policies, and priorities into effective strategy, disciplined execution, and measurable results.
This is more than an administrative leadership position. The Executive Director must lead at the intersection of public policy, public health, government, grantmaking, organizational management, and Board governance, and must understand how to operate effectively within a politically complex environment while preserving TSET's institutional integrity, credibility, statutory responsibilities, and long-term mission.
The successful candidate will bring exceptional executive judgment, political acumen, strategic thinking, financial stewardship including a comprehensive understanding of the financial statements of TSET, communication skill, and relationship building ability, equally comfortable advising a governing Board, leading a professional staff, engaging senior state leaders, working with public and private grantees, evaluating grant proposals, and representing TSET before diverse constituencies across Oklahoma.
TSET's founders built this organization twenty-five years ago in the truest entrepreneurial sense, establishing its systems, its credibility, and its impact largely at the same time it was already operating. Today, TSET enters a different season: a mature institution with a substantial endowment, an established track record, and significant resources to direct toward growth and innovation. The next Executive Director will need real leadership maturity: the ability to assess what the Board of Directors of TSET wants the Trust to become, recognize what has earned its place, and lead the organization through thoughtful renewal where it is warranted, bringing the same resourcefulness that built TSET together with the institutional discipline this next chapter demands, including an assessment of the necessary cultural changes to accomplish the future direction of TSET
TSET is a constitutionally protected public trust and, at the same time, a state agency, a grantmaker, a public health institution, and a steward of tobacco settlement certified earnings, governed by an appointed Board of Directors. By constitutional design, only the certified earnings on the Trust's investments, may be spent, and those earnings are directed toward clinical and basic research and treatment efforts in Oklahoma for the
purpose of enhancing efforts to prevent and combat cancer and other tobacco-related diseases, cost-effective tobacco prevention and cessation programs, and other health related initiatives.
Vision and Mission: Improving the health of every Oklahoman.
TSET's giving is guided by five core principles: prioritizing evidence based and proven approaches; encouraging innovative and creative solutions; fostering collaborative relationships to maximize efficiency; supporting comprehensive services across both urban and rural Oklahoma; and awarding funding based on merit and public benefit. In practice, current strategic priorities span tobacco cessation, cancer research, healthcare access, workforce development, and prevention.
TSET holds assets of approximately $2 billion and ranks among the state's largest health focused grantmakers, supporting roughly 100–150 active grants each year, typically $50,000 to $5 million per award, to universities, health systems, and community organizations. Signature initiatives include the Legacy Grants program, which awarded a combined $150 million to 14 grantee organizations, announced in 2025, and research grants, and efforts to promote tobacco cessation.
TSET's governance is divided between two boards. A separate, five-member Board of Investors, chaired by the State Treasurer, is constitutionally responsible for investing the Trust's assets. The seven-member Board of Directors does not invest the endowment; rather, it directs the certified earnings that the assets generate toward constitutionally authorized health programs, research, and administration. The Executive Director leads the agency that converts those earnings into public impact.
Each of the seven Board of Directors seats is appointed by a different statewide official: the Governor, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor and Inspector, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to staggered seven-year terms. The Oklahoma Constitution further shapes the Board's composition: no more than four appointees may belong to any one political party, at least one appointee must come from each congressional district (with no more than two from any single district), and all appointees must demonstrate expertise in public or private health care, or in programs benefiting children or senior adults.
This structure was built to keep TSET's governance broadly representative and insulated from any single political authority, which in turn shapes the kind of executive leadership the role demands. Oklahoma law (62 O.S. § 2309) vests the Board of Directors with the authority to appoint the Executive Director and other necessary staff, and the Executive Director reports to, and works in close partnership with, that Board.
The Executive Director is TSET's chief executive, and principal administrative officer. This is a high visibility, mission driven leadership role that calls for an executive equally comfortable in the boardroom, the State Capitol, and the community, someone who can preserve TSET's institutional integrity and credibility while translating Board strategy into disciplined execution and measurable results.
Serve as the Board of Directors' principal executive partner and trusted adviser. Provide the Board with timely, objective, decision ready information; identify emerging opportunities and risks; make well-reasoned recommendations; and execute Board approved policies and strategic priorities, maintaining a clear distinction
between Board governance and executive management while fostering transparency, trust, accountability, and consistent communication.
Provide enterprise level leadership for TSET, translating its constitutional mission and Board direction into clear strategic priorities, operating plans, grants, and measurable outcomes, and continually evaluating whether TSET's resources and activities are achieving accountable, measurable, and sustainable improvements for Oklahomans.
Develop and maintain productive relationships with Oklahoma's executive and legislative leadership, state agencies, policymakers, local officials, tribal governments, grantees, and community leaders. Understand the political, legislative, regulatory, and public policy environment surrounding TSET, anticipate developments that may affect its mission, governance, funding, reputation, or operations, and navigate differing political and policy perspectives with diplomacy, discretion, credibility, and sound judgment while remaining focused on TSET's mission and governing responsibilities.
Recognize that TSET exists because Oklahoma voters entrusted the institution with resources intended to produce long term public benefit. Maintain the highest standards of transparency, accountability, ethics, fiscal stewardship, and organizational integrity, and ensure that recommendations concerning grants, programs, partnerships, and other investments are supported by appropriate evidence, analysis, performance expectations, and accountability.
Provide oversight of TSET's grantmaking and programmatic portfolio, ensuring grants are aligned with TSET's mission and Board approved priorities and that appropriate systems exist to evaluate effectiveness, outcomes, and sustainability of grants. Identify opportunities to leverage TSET resources through grants with other governmental, philanthropic, academic, health care, and nonprofit organizations.
Serve as a highly credible ambassador for TSET throughout Oklahoma and nationally when appropriate. Build durable relationships with public health leaders, health systems, universities, researchers, community organizations, businesses, state agencies, and policymakers.
Lead, develop, and hold accountable a high performing professional staff. Establish clear expectations, appropriate delegation, strong internal communication, and measurable performance standards, and build a culture characterized by professionalism, collaboration, integrity, innovation, and results, ensuring TSET has the organizational structure, talent, systems, policies, technology, and internal controls necessary to accomplish its mission effectively. As TSET enters its next chapter, the Executive Director must proactively lead the change management needed to align staff practices and culture with the Board's evolving priorities, setting clear expectations and holding the organization accountable to that direction.
Provide disciplined oversight of agency operations and resources. Develop budgets and recommendations aligned with Board priorities, ensure the Board receives clear, accurate, and understandable information concerning organizational finances, commitments, contracts, grants, risks, and performance, and maintain rigorous internal controls and compliance with applicable constitutional, statutory, regulatory, contractual, and Board requirements. Produce accurate quarterly financial statements including Balance Sheets, Budget to Actual Statements, and analysis of TSET’s equity accounts including reserves.
Communicate complex issues clearly to the Board, policymakers, stakeholders, partners, media, and the public. Ensure TSET's communications are accurate, credible, consistent, and appropriate for a public institution operating in a highly visible environment and protect and strengthen TSET's reputation as a responsible steward of resources entrusted to it for the benefit of Oklahoma. Serve as a compelling public voice for TSET, able to tell the larger story of its mission, evolution, and impact in ways that build genuine public understanding and support rather than simply report on activity.
TSET requires an executive who can lead an organization while simultaneously navigating governance, public policy, government, and significant public accountability. The strongest candidates will demonstrate:
Experience in public health, health care, government, public policy, grantmaking, philanthropy, research, prevention, or a related field is highly desirable. However, the successful candidate's executive leadership capacity, judgment, governance experience, and ability to operate effectively within Oklahoma's complex public environment are the critical considerations; a proven executive need not come from a public health background to succeed in this role. Because TSET operates within the health sector, meaningful familiarity with the healthcare landscape, whether gained through direct professional experience or through substantial exposure to health policy, delivery systems, or public health issues, will strengthen a candidate's effectiveness in this role.
The Executive Director's effectiveness should ultimately be evaluated by more than activity or dollars distributed. Success will include:
TSET has engaged Bird Dog Recruitment and Consulting, LLC to lead this national search on the Board's behalf. All inquiries and nominations will be held in confidence. Interested candidates should email their resumes to Kim Borchers by Tuesday, October 20, 2026.
Bird Dog Recruitment and Consulting, LLC kim@birddogrecruitment.com | 785.640.8868 | Topeka, Kansas
The State of Oklahoma is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of genetic information, race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin, or disability.
Current active State of Oklahoma employees must apply for open positions internally through the Workday Jobs Hub.
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The State of Oklahoma provides services to Oklahomans via roughly 30,000 state employees working across dozens of state agencies.
