Description

Stillman College, West Alabama’s only 4-year HBCU, seeks an inspiring, innovative team member to serve as the Chief of Staff and Board Liaison. The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison provides leadership and operational oversight to the Office of the President in fulfilling the College’s mission and goals and supporting the President on a wide range of strategic initiatives.

The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison will serve as a key member of the President’s Senior Leadership Team. Reporting directly to the President, the Chief of Staff and Board Liaison provides direct leadership and operational oversight of the Office of the President and assists in managing linkages between the President and the College’s Vice Presidents and other administrative officers to ensure responsiveness to Presidential initiatives and priorities. The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison also maintains oversight for ongoing projects supporting the President's agenda to ensure effectiveness and timely completion of essential functions and tasks according to planned objectives and established milestones and measurement criteria for all organizational units of the College. 

The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison shall also maintain primary responsibility for assisting the President in ensuring maximization of the administrative and operational performance of the College to support achieving its goals and institutional mission. The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison will provide superlative leadership on behalf of the President in providing direction for the heightened effectiveness of the College’s business and operations functions, facilities, philanthropic and development efforts, athletics, and student success operations. In addition, the Chief of Staff and Board Liaison will also lead in bringing greater administrative coordination to the optimization of organizational processes that are responsive to the needs of the College and its units/departments and overall programmatic objectives. 

The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison is also responsible for assisting the President in planning and executing a wide range of complex and sensitive executive and administrative duties related to policy/program development and implementation, which may include fiscal and administrative programming as well as represents the President to other senior staff, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and to the College’s greater external community stakeholders.

Job Responsibilities

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

The Chief of Staff and Board Liaison provides executive leadership and strategic administrative support towards the implementation and actualization of the President's vision, strategic initiatives, and overall institutional priorities. Accordingly, as an integral member of the President's senior leadership team the Chief of Staff and Board Liaison will lead in performing the following executive functions including but not limited to the following:

• Effectively represent the President as assigned in selected internal and external interactions with the College's Board of Trustees, senior leadership team, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and various external entities, including public officials in various civic, community and professional organizations at the local, state, national, and international level; 
• Serve as a trusted steward of highly confidential information and act as a trustworthy liaison between the President and internal and external stakeholders on key matters.
• Manage and advise the President on day-to-day operations of the College and the Office of the President, ensuring operational efficiency and effectiveness and optimizing use of available resources;
• Serve as the President's office liaison and at times as directed by the President provide direct and indirect management and oversight of various divisions and attendant divisional/unit/departmental heads and other personnel within the College and/or Office of the President. 
• Support the President & CEO in creating a high volume of executive-level communications, including but not limited to high-level briefing papers, talking points, reports, memorandums, and electronic, written, and oral presentations; 
• Under the direction of the President exercise thoughtful and effectually positive outcome oriented decision making in response to inquiries and matters of concern using resourcefulness in seeking solutions to the problems presented from the campus community to ensure the accurate, proper, and timely flow of information and/or referral to and from the Office of the President in support of recurring and special projects; 
• Serves as a primary strategic liaison for the President with College and community constituencies. Assists in the optimization of the president's schedule, appropriately managing priorities of the president's office related to college and community requests, including visibility and full and frequent participation at College and community events and initiatives;
• Oversees special projects both internally and externally for the President in support of institutional priorities. Ensures the accurate, proper, and timely flow of information to and from the Office of the President in support of recurring and special projects; 
• Cultivates and maintains professional contacts with other higher education institutions and professional organizations and associations concerning existing and developing community initiatives, and seeks opportunities for joint ventures and partnerships. Maintains effective working relationships with key legislative bodies for issues related to higher education and particularly private colleges; 
• Plan presidential events and assist the Provost with planning college events such as faculty and staff planning institute, convocations, and commencement.
• Plans and manages the budget for single or multiple functional areas at the direction of the President. Recommends the creation or modification of new and existing program budgets; 
• Responsible for policy recommendation, implementation, and interpretation; 
• Serves as liaison to the College Board of Trustees on matters not directly managed by the President; 
• Manages program support activities and matters of institutional significance for the Board on behalf of, and in concert with, the President.
• Schedules and organizes general board meetings, executive committee meetings, and committee meetings.
• Serves as Liaison to I Dream Big Charter School.
• Performs all other job attendant-related duties as assigned by the President.

SUPERVISORY AREAS

• Human Resources 
• Facilities and Auxiliary Services 
• President's Office

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS AND PERSONAL QUALITIES

The ideal candidate will have the following professional qualifications and personal characteristics:

Alignment with mission: A deep resonance with the mission and possibilities of a Stillman College

education and experience; a drive that is consistently student-centered, a commitment to proactively advance student success in all its forms;

Vision: Vision to achieve optimum administrative and operational functionality for an institution like Stillman College; an entrepreneurial outlook and an eye to new possibilities and emerging challenges;

Institutional leadership: Readiness to be an active, valued member of the President's leadership team and partner closely with the College units and departments; honesty and integrity in advising the president on critical issues; ability to see and embrace the importance of being a College leader with an eye toward the greatest success of the College; an understanding of how to accomplish much in a centralized and decentralized institutional environment; proven effectiveness in change management; the ability to build consensus and a sense of teamwork; and the ability to inspire joy in one's work;

Experience in the leadership and administration of a College:  Significant experience participating in leadership, administration, and management within a College setting; the ability to build an appropriate and effective strategic plan that reflects institutional goals; the capacity to lead and manage the complex interplay of interdependent College divisions and units including finance, athletics, fundraising and development, enrollment management, student success, etc.; the ability to optimize financial resources to ensure high quality outcomes;

Quantitative sophistication: Experience and a demonstrated record in being facile in quantitative reasoning in order to ensure the generation of reliable data and rigorous analysis; strategic and analytical ability; and the ability to ask the right questions, uncover meaning and harness research for its predictive results;

Technological sophistication: Ability to understand the potential value of technological innovations and to lead the process of recommending emerging technologies that can best support the process optimization and operational efficiency;

Exceptional communication skills: Ability to be articulate, persuasive and precise in communicating with internal audiences including both highly invested leadership including faculty and staff and external audiences including parents, prospective students, and alumni; desire to interact with a wide range of constituencies, administrators and institutional partners, engaging many in the dialogue so as to move the College forward together;

Personal qualities: An organizational leader with peerless integrity and an ability to drive a vision through engagement, transparency, hard work, and a sense of urgency; strong values aligned with high ethics, collaboration, compassion, transparency; sound judgment backed by self-confidence and a sense of perspective; ability to work effectively in a campus culture that is relationship-oriented; and capacity to navigate a highly complex institution with political savvy, patience, tolerance for ambiguity, possess high professional dexterity sufficient to ably adapt in a dynamically changing fast paced work environment. 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: 

• Master's degree and demonstrated experience in an administrative management position that involved the coordination of organizational workflow and priorities. 
• Five to eight years of supervisory and management experience, including experience with administrative, governance, budget administration, and personnel policies and processes.
• Experience resolving conflicts, problem solving, change management and encouraging partnerships and collaboration.
• Prior high-level project management experience as a public relations professional with an acute high acumen for producing executive-level written communications, presentations, and demonstrated ability as an institutional/organizational spokesperson.
• Successful mid-to-senior level management experience in a private or public, four-year institution of higher education or successful upper management level experience in a complex working environment.
• Experience in overseeing and tracking project workflow.
• Experience with effective preparation and review of executive communications.
• Represent campus with credibility and integrity.
• Experience recommending improvements in procedure and providing analysis of policies for campus-wide implementation. 
• Effectively manage change and establish best practices that are tailored to the unique needs and capabilities of the institution.
• Experience working effectively with a wide range of audiences such as trustees, vice presidents, faculty, staff, students, alumni, community groups, donors, and elected officials.

PREFERRED/DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Academic or Professional doctorate (e.g., Ph.D., Ed.D., J.D.) degree from a regionally accredited College/College is preferred. 
• 7 to 10 plus years prior relevant work experience in higher education as a College/University administrative officer and/or senior cabinet-level unit/division (i.e., Assistant or Associate Vice President, Vice President, etc.) head or other senior-level experience in a complex business working environment. 

Work Schedule

Monday - Friday, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm (possible variations, such as occasional evening or weekend work depending on the President's schedule and organizational events)

Travel

Travel is required within the Tuscaloosa area, the state of Alabama, and nationally, as well as attendance at evening and weekend functions. 

Background Investigation Statement

Before hiring, the final candidate(s) must pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources.  A prior conviction reported due to background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for this position.  A candidate with a previous conviction or negative behavioral red flags will receive an individualized review of the prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags before making a hiring decision.

Application and Nomination

Review of confidential applications will begin immediately and remain open until the position is filled. 

Stillman College is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate unlawfully in employment matters based on race, religion, gender, color, ancestry, national origin, age, disability, or any other category protected by law.