Dominican University of California President Mary Marcy has created the position, Senior Assistant to the President, to help her execute the vision that she, the campus, and the Board of Trustees share for Dominican’s future. Her inaugural address outlines this vision: http://www.dominican.edu/about/leadership/office-of-the-president/inauguration.
Reporting directly to the President, the Senior Assistant to the President will act as a close strategic adviser to the President and an active partner in advancing the goals of Dominican University. The Senior Assistant will serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet, a strong team composed of the Vice Presidents, Deans, and key advisers who work together on broad policy and administrative issues for the institution. The Senior Assistant will have the capacity to effectively represent the President on and off campus.
The Senior Assistant will facilitate team building across the curriculum with students, faculty and staff to engender broad institutional support to advance Dominican’s distinctive mission. The Senior Assistant will have leadership responsibility for advancing key strategic initiatives, ensuring their academic quality, financial support, and long-term viability are nurtured and secured. The Senior Assistant will have leadership responsibility for key areas of engaged learning (service learning, undergraduate research, leadership development, study abroad, and internships) and for the First Year Experience (FYE) program, a developing and distinctive program based on the emerging scholarship of Big History.
The Senior Assistant to the President will be expected to:
• Serve as the President’s representative to key stakeholders at meetings and events on and off campus as needed;
• Supervise and provide leadership support to the offices of service learning, the First Year Experience, and International and Global Education while working closely to support undergraduate research;
• Contribute to institutional budgeting process, strategic planning and administrative policy recommendations;
• Lead important University projects such as strategic planning, development of administrative policies, master planning, and new program initiatives;
• Work closely with the Strategic Oversight Committee of the Board of Trustees;
• Earn the respect of faculty and work effectively with administrative colleagues to advance the strategic direction of the University;
• Assistant the President and President’s Cabinet to identify and develop new projects consistent with the plans and vision for Dominican University;
• Serve as a thought partner and writer to the President; and
• Prepare background and research materials as needed for President Marcy
While no one candidate will likely possess all of the following, the successful individual will demonstrate many of the qualifications listed below:
Professional Experience
• Experience in a high-energy environment working with an innovative leadership agenda, and progressively responsible leadership experience in higher education;
• Demonstrated experience successfully managing up and down, and a proven track record of responding to people and projects in a timely and flexible manner;
• Demonstrated success as a programmatic leader with experience developing institutional policies, programs, and activities;
• Familiarity with academic culture, commitment to academic excellence, and an understanding of contemporary issues in higher education;
• Fluency in the work of civic engagement, engaged learning, and internationalization in higher education;
• Advanced degree in a discipline offered by the University strongly preferred.
Personal Qualities
• Strong interpersonal and listening skills with the ability to effectively communicate with a wide range of constituency groups, ranging from faculty and academic administrators to students, alumni, donors, trustees, and external partners;
• Strategic thinking ability and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively;
• The ability to quickly develop trusted relationships with key stakeholders;
• Superior writing skills and the ability to collaborate and write for a variety of audiences and for different purposes;
• Solid judgment, integrity and the ability to be both confident and diplomatic in a complex environment;
• The ability to give honest and candid feedback and to be patient with people and process;
• Commitment to the values embodied in the mission statement of Dominican University
CONTACT
Nominations, inquiries, and expression for interest should be forwarded in confidence to: SrAsstPres {at} storbeckpimentel(.)com.
