Executive Assistant to Vice President BFA and Associate Vice President for Strategy, Management, and Budget

Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

Western Washington University is committed to achieving excellence through advancing inclusive success, increasing our Washington impact, and focusing on transformational education grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and based on innovative scholarship, research, and creative activity. Western's greatest strength is the outstanding students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae who make up its community. Western supports an inclusive governance structure for all and provides a learning and working environment in which everyone can thrive. In pursuit of this excellence, individual employees are expected to establish and maintain productive and effective inclusive working relationships amongst diverse populations including staff, faculty, administration, student, and external constituents. Further, individual employees are expected to have the ability to operationalize sustainability concepts (economic, societal, environmental) into all aspects of performing their job duties.

The Executive Assistant to the Vice President and the Associate Vice President for Strategy, Management and Budget (SMB) serves as a confidential executive assistant to both. This highly visible role serves as a trusted partner to the VP and the AVP for SMB, supporting executive operations, communications, scheduling, special projects, and key initiatives that impact the university. The ideal candidate is an experienced executive support professional who enjoys building relationships, managing competing priorities, and helping senior leaders operate at their best. Under limited supervision and direction, performs a range of administrative and strategic support services and responds to requests from the President's Office, Cabinet, Board of Trustees, and other senior executive administrators. Handles highly confidential and critical details. Exercises judgment within established practices and policies when selecting methods and techniques to achieve solutions. The Executive Assistant prioritizes service excellence, strategic vision and innovation, and champions WWU’s ethics, culture, and values.

Position Duties and Responsibilities

70% - Executive Support

• Provides advanced administrative support for managing schedules, travel, projects, events, and other activities to ensure maximum efficiency, discretion, and adherence to protocol. 
• Maintains a complex and dynamic calendar, coordinating meetings, appointments, and university commitments. Anticipates scheduling needs, resolves conflicts, and ensures priorities are effectively managed for multiple meetings, events, travel plans, and other appointments.
• Assists with highly confidential issues and projects for the Vice President, Associate Vice President, President, Cabinet, legal counsel, and the Associate Vice President for Human Resources, including confidential personnel contracts, labor relations, real estate, and other institutional-level matters.
• Coordinates domestic and international travel arrangements for business-related events and activities to include reporting to accounting, responding to audit, and submitting other travel claim documentation.
• Prepares and distributes executive correspondence, reports, presentations, and briefing materials.
• Supports university committees and leadership meetings.
• Creates professional presentations, visual communications, charts, and informational materials for executive audiences.
• Coordinates meetings, retreats, workshops, and special events, including logistical details.
• Maintains the master calendar for division-related Board of Trustees and Finance, Audit, and Enterprise Risk Management (FARM) Committee. Meets with the VP and the Executive Liaison to the Board of Trustees to coordinate divisional agenda priorities for the Board and FARM agenda items. Establishes Board and FARM deadlines for the BFA Division, gathering and editing materials before submitting them to the VP for review. Prepares Board and FARM materials as required. 
• Provides the department with financial and budget support, including transaction processing and budget monitoring. Provides on-call administrative support to the institution during major emergencies. Assists the division Vice President and Cabinet with administrative support for high-level emergency and incident issues.
• Provides administrative support for staff and executive searches. 
• Other duties as assigned.

15% - Office Operations and Customer Service

• Serves as the primary point of contact for visitors, callers, and campus stakeholders engaging with the VP and AVP.
• Maintains organized office operations, filing systems, supplies, records, and administrative processes.
• Coordinates incoming and outgoing mail, deliveries, and service requests.
• Supports division-wide communications and administrative initiatives.  
• Manages payroll for the Vice President’s direct reports and other units as needed. Maintains the President’s confidential employment contract and contract addenda, tracks deferred compensation notifications, and prepares payroll appointment forms as needed. 
• Schedules and tracks annual performance evaluations for the Vice President and direct reports. Tracks division-wide required training and annual performance evaluations for professional and administrative staff, following up with leadership for staff compliance.

10% - Communication and Coordination

• Facilitates communication between administration, finance departments, and university partners.
• Builds and maintains positive working relationships across a diverse university community.
• Serves as a professional representative of the VP/CFO's office with internal and external stakeholders. Communicates and interacts with the Board of Trustees, the President, Provost/Executive Vice President, Vice Presidents, directors, faculty, staff, students, local community members, vendors, and city government on internal and external issues. 
• Serves as the policy coordinator for the BFA division.  Advise division policy owners on policy and standards processes, track policies requiring updates, and provide recommendations on best policy practices.
• Participates in professional organizations and professional development in alignment with position responsibilities.
• Meets quarterly with the BFA Leadership Team Administrative Assistants.
• Maintains, develops, and improves administrative and operational processes as needed.

5% - Provides lead work direction to student assistants supporting the office.

• Coordinates recruitment, onboarding, training, scheduling, and daily work assignments.
• Monitors staffing allocations, work quality, and office coverage needs.

• Bachelor’s degree and at least 5 years of progressively responsible administrative or executive support experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with diverse populations and commitment to areas of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
• Demonstrated ability to handle highly confidential and sensitive information.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to navigate successfully in a fast-paced, multi-tasking, and dynamic organization.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and initiative, maintain confidentiality, and work independently.
• Excellent professional customer service skills.
• Knowledge of budget management.
• Demonstrated experience working with Microsoft Suite.

• Experience working in public higher education.
• Experience supporting executive-level offices.
• Experience supporting large-scale virtual meetings or presentations.
• Experience creating presentations, infographics, and visual communications materials using PowerPoint, Canva, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar tools.
• National Incident Management System (NIMS) training.

HR@wwu.edu

Benefits Overview for Administrative Professional Position.

A cover letter and resume are required and should address your experience related to the position responsibilities and the required and preferred qualifications. Please include the names and contact information of three professional references. References will only be contacted for finalists, with notice provided beforehand.

Western Washington University (WWU) is an equal opportunity employer. In compliance with applicable laws, WWU does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, age, citizenship or immigration status, pregnancy, use of protective leave, genetic status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, creed, religion, veteran or military status, disability or the use of a trained guide dog or service animal (including a service animal in training) by a person with a disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law, in its programs or activities, including employment, admissions, and educational programs. See WWU’s Policies on Prohibiting Discrimination Based on A Protected Class and Prohibiting Discrimination Based on Sex. Inquiries may be directed to the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance, Title IX and ADA Coordinator, Western Washington University, Old Main 126 (MS 9021), 516 High Street, Bellingham, WA 98225; 360.650.3307 (voice) or 711 (Washington Relay); 

crtc@wwu.edu

WWU is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities upon request. To request this document in an alternate format or to request an accommodation, please contact Human Resources Disability Services, 360.650.3751 or 711 (Washington Relay).

Annual Security and Fire Safety Report: This report is provided pursuant to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act ("The Clery Act"). It includes statistics for the previous three calendar years concerning reported crimes that occurred on Western's campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by Western; and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from, the campus. The report also includes institutional policies concerning campus security, such as policies concerning alcohol and drug use, crime prevention, the reporting of crimes, sexual assault, and other matters. You can obtain a copy of this report in printed or alternate formats by contacting the Office of Student Life at

student.life@wwu.edu

All new employees must comply with the immunization policy and show employment eligibility verification as required by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service before beginning work at WWU. A thorough background check will be conducted on all new hires which includes a sexual misconduct background check.