College Director - Special Projects

Harold Washington College (HWC) is one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago. HWC is located in the Chicago Loop and serves nearly 11,000 students. HWC is a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority Serving Institution (MSI) with more than 70 percent Latinx or Black students. The college offers an exceptional liberal arts and sciences curriculum and programs in Business, Early Childhood, Architecture, and Digital Media. HWC is City Colleges' Center for Business. The college is also home to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and is currently the only community college in the city to offer a business degree accessible entirely online. In addition, the college has program partnerships with leading industry organizations such as Aon, Year Up Chicago, DePaul University, and the Joffrey Ballet.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

Under executive direction, oversees and manages a wide range of special projects. Provides leadership and direction for college-wide project management initiatives such as campus construction activities, legislative priorities and other special assignments. Serves as an intermediary with important internal college stakeholders and external strategic partners. Serves as the President's designee to drive change management, metric attainment and other priority initiatives. Performs related duties as required.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Coordinates the execution of College-wide projects undertaken by the President as well as organizes and prioritizes critical issues and required information for the executive to facilitate efficient decision making. Monitors progress/achievement of next steps.
• Manages the President's calendar. Schedules meetings and events and apprises the President of daily appointment schedule and commitments. Monitors calendar and reschedules existing appointments as deemed appropriate.
• Acts on the authority of the President to oversee critical projects with a primary focus on key initiatives affecting overall college performance that typically requires cross-functional resource allocation and coordination. Accurately represents the President's position in internal meetings and discussions to help drive understanding and move decision-making forward.
• Coordinates/orchestrates projects or commitments directly involving the President and their direct reports while ensuring the scope and direction of each project is on schedule and in alignment among key stakeholders and if applicable, recommends mitigating approaches.
• Leads and coordinates the success of special projects and initiatives by facilitating the process of project solicitation, selection, prioritization, implementation, monitoring and intervening where appropriate. Develops and maintains an inventory of critical path projects in which the President is especially interested and/or for which their awareness and involvement are essential.
• Proactively identifies issues that could impact the successful execution of the President's commitments; elevates those issues about which the President should be aware and frames/positions ideas to resolve the problem/mitigate the risk while creatively identifying alternative means of handling pressing issues.
• Charged with the planning and execution of events hosted by the President, including executive tours, stakeholder visits, faculty/staff appreciation receptions.
• Serves as the “Ambassador” for the President, buffering communication with other members of the executive team as well as external constituents, as directed.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications :

• A Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university.
  
  
• Five years of progressively responsible project management experience in a highly complex, multi-layered organization.
  
  
• Event planning experience.
  
  
• Demonstrated ability to interact at the most senior levels of an organization and to work collaboratively across functions, levels and departments toward shared objectives.
  
  
• Knowledge of CCC's academic and business policies and procedures.
  
  
• Knowledge of project management principles and practices.
  
  
• Self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management skills (emotional intelligence).
  
  
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
  
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  
  
• Ability to think strategically while balancing several complex agendas.
  
  
• Ability to research diverse education related topics and distill the key messages in preparation for presentations.
  
  
• Ability to work within a culturally diverse environment.