Executive Assistant To The Provost

Overview

Gordon-Conwell is a multidenominational, protestant graduate school with over 1,300 students and 25 faculty and staff members, hailing from 78 denominations and over 50 countries. We offer a residential model of education at South Hamilton, MA (our main campus); an urban context in Boston, MA; adult educational models at our Charlotte, NC and Jacksonville, FL campuses; in addition to online and cohort models involving students from around the world.

Our mission is to prepare men and women for ministry at home and abroad. Rooted in the gospel and God’s Word, the seminary seeks to develop Christian leaders who are thoughtful, globally aware, spiritually mature, and ready for a broad array of ministries. While being historically orthodox and evangelical, we seek to address the issues of our times with both relevance to the culture and faithfulness to Christ and God’s truthful Word.

Position Summary

This position provides administrative support to the Provost of the seminary and requires a high level of communication and collaboration with various deans, faculty, and staff members throughout the performance of administrative functions. The primary intent of the role is to nurture clear communications, ensure timely administrative task completion, and aid the responsiveness of the Provost’s Office to processes and situations at the seminary. This role requires considerable energy and the ability to take initiative in accomplishing known tasks without regular prompting or oversight.Primary Responsibilities

• Meetings & Calendars: Coordinates travel, appointments, scheduling for the Provost.
• Communications: Ensures and protects communication lines between the Provost and academic deans, faculty members, accreditation liaison and other key stakeholders. Prepare agendas, minutes and follow-up actions as required, distribute reports, memos and updates for Deans Council, United Faculty, Faculty Personnel Policies Committee (FPPC), Faculty Divisions, Faculty Colloquium, Commencement Committees, and Board of Trustees Academic & Student Affairs Committee (ASAC).
• Reporting: Assists the Provost in the production of documents, reports, and speeches through transcription, research, drafting, and editing. Helps produce documents that are administrative, public, legal, academic, or pastoral in nature. Collaborates with other key individuals to obtain information as needed.
• Budget Management: Reconciles monthly credit card purchases and assists with annual budget planning for the Provost.
• Faculty Contracts and Record Keeping: Assists with the negotiation and production of annual faculty contracts. Maintains full faculty records for the Provost, including teaching loads, negotiated pay rates, and faculty titles and credentials. Coordinates with other offices to plan course schedules that fulfill teaching load requirements and meet student demands. Coordinates with deans’ offices to identify and understand contract discrepancies.
• Special Project Oversight: Coordinates special projects/activities being led from the Provost’s office, including, Faculty Retreat and anything related to accreditation, e.g., New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), Association of Theological Schools (ATS), and Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (MA-DHE).
• Faculty Policies and Handbook: Assists the Provost to ensure the seminary’s faculty policies and handbook remain relevant and are updated on a minimum yearly basis.

Required Competencies

• Administrative Skills: Soundly developed administrative and clerical skills, including organizational and coordination skills to serve a multi-site office.
• Communication and Interpersonal Effectiveness: Strong written and verbal communication skills, facilitating the flow of information and the completion of tasks in a timely manner. Excellent skills in research, writing, and editing required. Demonstrated ability to collaborate and serve in a team environment that requires collegiality and regular collaboration across multiple locations and modalities.
• Knowledge and discernment: Broad awareness of the range and content of the Provost’s responsibilities and duties, along with the clear recognition and significance of confidentiality.
• Teamwork: Comfort and efficiency working closely with others and the ability to demonstrate empathy with coworkers and constituents.
• Technical Knowledge: Competency with Microsoft Office, prioritizing Word, and Excel. Ability to use web conferencing software (e.g., Zoom) preferred. Aptitude to learn other applications as required.
• Mission: Clear understanding of the mission and the educational goals of the seminary, and the willingness to abide by the Community Life Statement of GCTS.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• Preference of a minimum of two years of previous experience in an administrative assistant role, or relevant experience.