Career Center

Working/Functional Title

Executive Asst. to Health & Nutrition

Position Summary

Michigan State University Extension is committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive organization, which requires all staff to contribute towards a vision for success. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to our work, regardless of title or position within the organization. This means that all staff at MSU Extension are dedicated to the following:

• We work together to ensure that programming is delivered to diverse audiences, produces equitable impacts for all participants, and demonstrates partnership and inclusion for all groups.
• We embrace that it is everyone’s job to create a culture that promotes diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
• We ensure that every team member is prepared with the skills and resources to contribute to our welcoming and inclusive culture.
• We foster inclusion by recognizing and valuing diverse perspectives, skills, experiences, and work to create equal access to programming for communities.
• We commit to continuous learning for diversity, equity, and cultural competency, in order to achieve inclusive excellence.
• We understand that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential elements to our work and are vital to the organizational culture and programmatic success of MSU Extension.
• We embrace a culture of understanding, coaching and feedback towards achieving a vision of success for the entire organization and its staff.
• Together we will achieve success and we commit to these goals in our work, continued education, and ongoing efforts.

 POSITION SUMMARY

Interacts with administrators, staff, faculty, students, and the public in order to represent the supervising administrators. Monitors and reports personnel and budgetary matters. Provides secretarial support for individual administrators.

 This position serves as the executive secretary for the Director and Associate Director of the Health and Nutrition Institute (HNII) of Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) and fulfills a wide variety of responsibilities that require professional judgment, independent decision-making, and professional experience in order to represent the Director, Associate Director, and Extension to multiple high-level internal and external stakeholders as well as community leaders. Essential to the success of this position is the ability to develop and maintain positive and cordial relationships with Extension and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) executive leadership including the MSUE administrative team, university officials, and internal and external partners. An important element of this position is acting as a liaison between the Director and Associate Director of the Health and Nutrition Institute and all of the above-mentioned units and individuals in order to provide information and feedback.

Your responsibilities will also include researching relevant information and then drafting processes policies and procedures, drafting correspondence for the Director and Associate Director, triaging requests for meetings and managing the complex and very tight calendars with independent ability to “bump and reschedule” or cancel appointments to facilitate physical presence across the state of Michigan. You will be expected to interpret, summarize, and relay sensitive information or materials in order to keep the Director and Associate Director well informed. You will book travel and submit reimbursement requests, as well as lead or assist in the planning of various events and meetings. The Executive Secretary may also provide supervision for student and support staff employees in the future. Effective use of technology will be key in this position including the use of Zoom, Outlook, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Qualtrics, and other tools that assist scheduling and processes.

This position will work from the Michigan State University campus, located in East Lansing, Michigan.

Characteristic Duties/Responsibilities

• Prepares correspondence for the Institute leadership (Directors), including drafting responses, taking, and transcribing dictation, and sorting, reviewing, and distributing mail.
• Monitors the operations of the Institute in order to ensure that procedures and policies are followed and to keep administrators informed (e.g., hiring processes, onboarding, purchasing).
• Compiles information in order to produce periodic reports.
• Maintains administrators’ calendars, including scheduling meetings and making travel arrangements.
• May assist in supervising and training office personnel in order to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Office and/or Institute.
• Reads and summarizes materials in order to keep the Directors informed of pertinent events and information.
• Provides technical assistance for regularly scheduled webinar meetings with all staff in the institute.
• Other duties as assigned, including diverse project management responsibilities.

Unit Specific Education/Experience/Skills

• Knowledge equivalent to that which would normally be acquired through a high school education with course work in word processing, typing, shorthand, and grammar.
• Five to eight years of related and progressively more expansive work experience in maintaining account ledgers, word processing, editing, composing correspondence, taking dictation, spreadsheet, database, desktop publishing, and/or presentation software.
• Or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• This position requires or will require prior to the completion of the probationary period: knowledge of basic personal computer terminology and operations, and the ability to use e-mail and the Internet.
• Other skills and/or physical abilities required to perform duties of the position.

Desired Qualifications

• Five to eight years of related and progressively more responsible or expansive work experience providing high-level secretarial support for multiple high-level staff in a fast-paced, dynamic, and complex organization.
• Effective oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability for accuracy and thoroughness.
• Proficiency in use of technology (e.g., Zoom, Qualtrics, Microsoft 365 including Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook for mail/calendaring, spreadsheets, scheduling, virtual learning platforms, Internet browsers/web research, etc.), and ability to learn new skills.
• Ability to develop and maintain positive working relationships intra- and inter-organizationally.
• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity, knowledge, and use of appropriate approaches, skills, and techniques, which reflect an understanding and awareness of social, cultural, and economic diversity of the target population served.
• Proven ability to work independently and problem solve in a multi-tasking environment with numerous deadlines.
• Excellent organizational, planning, time management and project management skills.
• Experience with MSU policies and procedures for booking and processing travel, including transportation and coordination of payment process.
• Familiarity with set-up and use of equipment used during presentations and meetings, including, but not limited to videoconferencing and audio-conferencing equipment, and troubleshooting equipment failures.
• Self-starter who can effectively work both independently and in a team environment with the ability to serve in both leadership and contributor roles.
• Ability to lift and carry educational materials, equipment, etc. up to 25 lbs.
• Proven ability in establishing and working with a diverse network of constituents and community members across race, color, gender, national origin, gender identity, religion, age, height, weight, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, veteran status, socioeconomic class, and other differences.
• Understanding of and ability to implement Civil Rights principles and compliance standards.
• Has an understanding and commitment to equal access and opportunity and to diversity and inclusivity.
• Demonstrated skills and professional development from the last five years related to cultural competency and inclusive excellence.
• Other skills and/or physical abilities required to perform duties of the position.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Required Application Materials

Current resume/CV.

Cover letter.

Four (4) professional references including two (2) current or previous supervisors.

Together-we-will Statement

Work Hours

General 40 hours Monday-Friday with some nights and weekends.

Website

https://youtu.be/8KBMarSqHos

Bidding eligibility ends January 24, 11:55 PM

Logo

About Michigan State University

Spartans work every day to advance the common good in uncommon ways.Together, we tackle some of the world?s toughest problems to find solutions that make life better?from alternative energy to better food safety to breakthrough medical and environmental applications achieved through rare isotope research.We teach. We explore and we discover. We collaborate and lead. We innovate, inspire, and empower. We achieve our potential and create circumstances that help our students and others achieve theirs.We're good at it, and we've been at it for more than 150 years.The nation?s pioneer land-grant university, MSU began as a bold experiment that democratized higher education and helped bring science and innovation into everyday life. The revolutionary concept became a model for the nation.Today, MSU is one of the top research universities in the world?on one of the biggest, greenest campuses in the nation. Home to nationally ranked and recognized academic, residential college, and service-learning programs, we?re a diverse community of dedicated students and scholars, athletes and artists, scientists and leaders.In ways both practical and profound, we work to create a stronger, more sustainable, and more hopeful future for all.

Connections working at Michigan State University