My Experience Participating in Alcohol Purchasing Tests

Aug 3, 2022

Position Title: Health Access Manager

Reports To: Executive Director

Status: Full-time, exempt

Location: North Carolina: hybrid/remote with statewide travel

Hiring Salary Range: $62,000–$68,000

Supervisory responsibilities: None currently

About the North Carolina Alliance for Health

The North Carolina Alliance for Health brings together community voices, bipartisan leaders, businesses, and partners across the state to advance practical policy solutions grounded in local experience and designed for statewide impact. Together, we improve health outcomes while reducing long-term healthcare costs, expanding access to care, strengthening the workforce, and helping communities thrive. 

About the Role

As federal funding cuts and policy shifts threaten public health and Medicaid coverage, the North Carolina Alliance for Health (NCAH) is committed to fighting for North Carolinians’ continued access to affordable care. In alignment with NCAH’s commitment to public health and ensuring health access for all, the Health Access Manager will lead and coordinate Keeping NC Medicaid Strong – a statewide coalition focused on protecting and advancing Medicaid in North Carolina.

This role requires strong skills in coalition management, stakeholder communications, and policy analysis. The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker, a skilled communicator, and committed to access to care in North Carolina.

Key Responsibilities

  • Coalition Management & Leadership

    • Manage NCAH’s health access portfolio, with a primary focus on Medicaid policy and related public health issues. 
    • Convene and grow a diverse coalition of organizations, advocates, and community partners.
    • Facilitate Keeping NC Medicaid Strong coalition meetings by setting agendas, supporting discussions, and ensuring follow-through on action items.
    • Work with the Executive Director to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders, including advocacy groups and community leaders.
    • Manage project timelines, budgets, deliverables, and grant requirements; identify risks and recommend adjustments to keep work on track. 
    • Engage Medicaid beneficiaries, grassroots organizations, and communities most affected by health access barriers in campaign planning, messaging, and advocacy. 

 

  • Policy & Legislative Work

    • Monitor and analyze federal and state policy developments affecting Medicaid and health access; advise leadership on emerging opportunities and threats.
    • Draft policy briefs, talking points, and testimony targeted to a variety of audiences.
    • Represent the coalition with media and relevant public forums.
    • Work closely with the Executive Director to influence policy outcomes.

  • Advocacy & Campaigns

    • Implement advocacy campaigns, including grassroots mobilization and digital outreach.
    • Prepare coalition members for legislative meetings, press events, and other advocacy opportunities.
    • Track campaign progress and report on outcomes to the coalition and funders.

  • Communications & External Relations

    • Serve as a representative for NCAH’s healthcare access work in meetings with key stakeholders, funders, and the media, providing timely updates, reporting recent developments, and sharing relevant information.
    • Translate complex Medicaid and healthcare policy issues into clear, compelling messages for diverse audiences.
    • Collaborate with the communications team to draft fact sheets, advocacy toolkits, talking points, and digital content.
    • Support coalition members in amplifying unified messaging.

  • Organizational Management

    • Work with the Executive Director to support Medicaid-related grants, including budget tracking, deliverable management, and funder reporting.
    • Ensure projects are executed effectively, on time, and in alignment with NCAH’s strategic goals.
    • Contribute to funding proposals, funder cultivation, grant reports, and sustainability planning for NCAH’s health access portfolio. 
    • Develop annual goals, strategies, work plans, and performance measures for NCAH’s health access portfolio in collaboration with the full team.
    • Establish and track campaign goals, performance indicators, partner engagement, policy progress, and outcomes; use findings to improve strategy and support funder reporting.
  • Team Participation & Collaboration
  • Work closely with NCAH staff, consultants, and coalition partners to align strategies and coordinate communications.

    • Uphold NCAH's mission, vision, and values in your daily work.
    • Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture that values diverse perspectives and lived experiences.
    • Support colleagues across projects by contributing expertise in policy, advocacy, and coalition management.

 

Qualifications

  • Minimum two to four years of health policy advocacy or NC Medicaid program experience.
  • Strong project-management skills, including the ability to manage multiple deadlines, budgets, and deliverables.
  • Familiarity with the North Carolina General Assembly, state agencies, and state policymaking processes.
  • Demonstrated ability to facilitate diverse groups, navigate differing perspectives, and build consensus.
  • Commitment to racial, geographic, disability, and economic equity.
  • Ability to work independently and adapt to rapidly changing policy conditions.
  • Willingness to travel within North Carolina and occasionally work outside regular business hours.

 

How to Apply: To apply, send your resume and cover letter to admin@ncallianceforhealth.org by September 4, 2026.

Guest Contributor: Haley Vance, NCAH Intern, Health Policy and Management Major in the B.S.P.H.program at UNC Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health

When I turned 21 in March, I was so excited to be able to purchase alcohol finally. I didn’t know at the time that my internship with NCAH would connect me with the Poe Center and that I would spend several days this summer participating in alcohol purchasing tests. I didn’t even know what a “purchasing test” was. 

A purchasing test is simple. A “customer” goes into a store that sells alcohol, places alcohol on the checkout counter, and sees if the cashier will ask for an ID or not during the transaction. If they do request an ID, the business passes the purchasing test. If they do not ask for an ID, then they fail. I learned that it is not legally required for an establishment that sells alcohol to ask a customer for identification to verify age. It is only illegal to sell alcohol to minors, therefore how a business avoids this is their own prerogative. Since I am 21 years old, even if an establishment failed to ID me, they could not get into legal trouble. 

Conducting purchasing tests is important for many reasons. Establishments that do not consistently ask for age verification are more likely to sell age-restricted products, such as alcohol and tobacco, to minors. The brains of young people are still developing which makes them more vulnerable to alcohol and nicotine. The collected data is also useful for policy formulation and implementation.

To participate in purchasing tests, I had to age test under 21 years old. Even though I am 21 and legally able to purchase age-restricted substances, including alcohol, I had to look younger than 21 to reinforce the necessity of alcohol establishments asking for my ID. This process involved surveying people coming in and out of a Walmart and asking them to guess my age. While the guesses ranged from 15 to 29, I age tested to be 18.3 years old, which gave me the green light to conduct purchasing tests.

When completing the tests, I worked primarily in the town of Fuquay-Varina. This area is extremely residential and in close proximity to many large Wake County high schools. This made it an important area to complete purchasing tests because of the large number of underage youth who may attempt to buy alcohol or other age-restricted products. Knowing this, I was also instructed to attempt to buy alcoholic beverages popular among young people such as Mike’s Hard Lemonade or Whiteclaw hard seltzers. 

The good news is that the pass rates have improved since the last time the Poe Center conducted alcohol purchasing tests. However, many businesses still failed. Some places said they would accept a picture of my driver's license on my phone, while others only asked me what my birthday was but did not ask for a form of ID. Other places didn’t ask for anything at all. The Poe Center will provide merchant education materials to these businesses that failed the tests.

Although purchasing tests are time-consuming, it was a rewarding experience to be able to participate in on-the-ground public health work and directly contribute to bettering the public health of the Fuquay-Varina area.

Compliance checks like the ones in which Haley participated are also used to ensure that tobacco is not being sold to underage users. Compliance checks highlight retailer violation rates (RVR) or the percentage of retailers found to be selling tobacco to minors. If North Carolina's RVR increases to more than 20%, the state stands to lose a significant portion of the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant.

In 2023, NCAH will work to amend North Carolina's youth access law to align it with federal law and secure additional funds for compliance checks and retailer education to help ensure North Carolina does not lose critical block grant funds and that no one under 21 is purchasing tobacco. Join us!

Learn more about Synar compliance:

Summary of the Synar Amendment

Synar Compliance: E-Cigarette and T21 Laws

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