Title: Commissioner, Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired

State Role Title: 

Hiring Range: Negotiable

Pay Band: UG

Agency: Dept for Blind/Vision Impaired

Location: Blind & Vision Impaired

Agency Website: https://www.dbvi.virginia.gov/

Recruitment Type: General Public - G

Position Overview

The Commissioner serves as the chief executive officer of the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) and is responsible for advancing the Department's mission to empower blind, vision impaired, and deafblind Virginians to achieve independence, employment, and full participation in community life.

Reporting to the Secretary of Health and Human Resources and working closely with the Board for the Blind and Vision Impaired, the Commissioner provides strategic leadership for statewide services that support employment, rehabilitation, education, assistive technology, independent living, and workforce participation.

The Commissioner is expected to be more than an agency administrator. The role requires a leader who can build partnerships across government, education, healthcare, workforce development, and the private sector to improve outcomes and expand opportunities for Virginians who are blind or vision impaired.

Job Duties

Independence and Employment Leadership
• Lead statewide efforts to increase employment, economic mobility, and independence among blind and vision impaired Virginians.
• Ensure programs and services are aligned around measurable outcomes that improve quality of life, workforce participation, educational attainment, and community integration.
• Develop innovative approaches that remove barriers to employment and expand opportunities for competitive integrated employment.
• Champion the voices and lived experiences of individuals served by the Department in shaping how the agency operates and evolves

Strategic Partnerships and Systems Coordination
• Build strong partnerships with employers, educational institutions, workforce boards, healthcare providers, community organizations, and state agencies.
• Coordinate with agencies across Health and Human Resources, Education, Labor, and Aging services to create seamless pathways to independence and employment.
• Lead the development of employer engagement strategies that expand competitive integrated employment opportunities for Virginians with visual disabilities

Organizational Leadership
• Provide leadership and oversight for all DBVI programs, operations, personnel, and financial management.
• Develop a high-performing culture focused on accountability, service, innovation, and results.
• Ensure compliance with state and federal requirements, including Vocational Rehabilitation program standards, while driving innovation in service delivery

Data, Accountability, and Performance
• Establish clear performance metrics across the agency and hold programs and personnel accountable for producing meaningful outcomes.
• Use data to identify service gaps, improve decision-making, and drive continuous improvement in program effectiveness.
• Regularly assess whether the agency's work is producing measurable improvements in independence, employment, and quality of life for the people it serves.

Minimum Qualifications

The successful candidate will be an accomplished executive who can translate strategy into measurable results, build coalitions across diverse stakeholders, manage public resources responsibly and position DBVI as a leading voice on services and community-building for the blind and vision impaired.

*Preferred Qualifications*
• Executive leadership experience in a complex organization. You have led something with real accountability for outcomes, people, and resources. Government, disability services, rehabilitation, workforce development, education, or healthcare backgrounds are all relevant.
• Deep commitment to disability inclusion and employment. This work is personal to you. You understand why competitive integrated employment matters, you can make the case for it compellingly, and you know how to build systems that produce it.
• Demonstrated ability to build partnerships across sectors. You have brought government agencies, employers, educational institutions, and community organizations together around shared goals and produced results.
• Experience with federal rehabilitation or disability programs including familiarity with the Rehabilitation Act, Vocational Rehabilitation state grant requirements, and federal-state partnership dynamics, is strongly preferred.
• Data and outcomes orientation. You make decisions based on evidence, you hold organizations accountable for results, and you are not satisfied with activity as a proxy for impact.

Additional Considerations

This is a Governor appointed position and requires the successful completion of a criminal background check. Agency leadership is expected to work primarily from the Department’s headquarters in Richmond, VA.  Limited intermittent teleworking may be considered for needed circumstances. 

Special Instructions

You will be provided a confirmation of receipt when your application and/or résumé is submitted successfully. Please refer to “Your Application” in your account to check the status of your application for this position.

Contact Information

Name: Secretary of Health & Human Resources

Phone: 804-786-7765

Email: healthandhumanresources@governor.virginia.gov

In support of the Commonwealth’s commitment to inclusion, we are encouraging individuals with disabilities to apply through the Commonwealth Alternative Hiring Process. To be considered for this opportunity, applicants will need to provide their AHP Letter (formerly COD) provided by the Department for Aging & Rehabilitative Services (DARS), or the Department for the Blind & Vision Impaired (DBVI). Service-Connected Veterans are encouraged to answer Veteran status questions and submit their disability documentation, if applicable, to DARS/DBVI to get their AHP Letter. Requesting an AHP Letter can be found at AHP Letter or by calling DARS at 800-552-5019.

Note: Applicants who received a Certificate of Disability from DARS or DBVI dated between April 1, 2022- February 29, 2024, can still use that COD as applicable documentation for the Alternative Hiring Process.