Are you good at solving problems? Do you enjoy supporting others in their work? And, most importantly: Would you like to put your abilities to work helping to build a more equitable, just, and sustainable future?

The University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment is an interdisciplinary institution that works to accelerate sustainability through collaborative research, leadership and education programming, and public-interest storytelling and communications. This fall, we’re adding three new program area coordinators, aligning with those three functions, to our staff.

This job posting is for a program area coordinator for our Leadership & Education (L&E) team.

We’re looking for a resourceful, creative, efficient, customer service-oriented colleague who would enjoy providing administrative and related support to individuals and a team delivering leadership and education programming, so that their collective work is effective, efficient, and impactful. In this role you will perform a combination of the following:

• Coordinate the systems, platforms, and resources that strengthen teamwork and organization-wide collaboration
• Support program area operations, including financial transactions and HR processes
• Help execute virtual, hybrid, and in-person gatherings, including trainings, workshops, and meetings with partners
• Provide administrative and executive assistance to the L&E group director

You might thrive in this role if you enjoy setting up and improving systems; managing deadlines and deliverables across projects; and working in collaboration with colleagues. Experience integrating – or a desire to learn how to integrate – diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in your work is also essential, as environmental/ sustainability work requires these lenses, and every team at IonE has a role to play in our DEIJ action plan.

While serving the L&E team, you will have the opportunity and responsibility to be part of the life of the entire Institute through attending monthly all-staff meetings, contributing your skills across the institute when requested, and being part of an administrative team. This position is part of a cluster hire of program area coordinators, each tailored to a different program area at IonE (see job IDs #357784, Research Program Coordinator, and #357794, Communications Program Coordinator). All of the coordinator roles will be connected to each other and collaborate with our core Admin & Operations team. What makes this role different is the emphasis on supporting a group engaged in leadership development programming.

More details: The starting range for this position is $45–50K, with UMN civil service employee group benefits. Our offices are in St. Paul, MN, and you will be eligible to work remotely up to 40% time, in accordance with our flexible work guidelines. This position requires occasional work outside of regular hours, in order to support events and convenings. Candidates *must* reside locally and relocation funds are not available. We encourage applications from individuals who belong to groups that have been historically underrepresented in environmental work and in academia, including those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, those with disabilities, and those from LGBTQIA+ communities.

Job Duties and Responsibilities
The duties listed below are not exhaustive and may evolve and shift with the organizational priorities; percentages represent expected averages over several weeks instead of a strict week-to-week allocation of time. All work is expected to integrate IonE’s DEIJ values and implement community norms or explore creative administrative solutions to advance the DEIJ action plan.

Program Area Coordination - 30% (about 12 hours per week)
This category of work is about coordinating systems, processes, and tools that make our leadership development and education work more efficient and effective.

• Coordinate L&E meetings, including scheduling, making agendas, taking notes, and following up on action items
• Develop and manage a shared L&E programmatic calendar, ensuring activities across L&E (events, trainings, cohort meetings, participant recruitment cycles, etc. ) are visible and well coordinated amongst the team.
• Monitor needs for website updates/revisions and work with appropriate IonE staff to ensure programmatic web presence is timely and engaging.
• Manage shared Google drives and L&E-wide resources, such as curriculum development, evidence-based pedagogical resources,  promotional templates, hiring and onboarding resources, budget/financial management resources.
• Maintain and update contact lists and other directories
• Assist in compiling and collating information about L&E activities and outcomes.
• Manage databases and data management systems

Program Admin & Operations 30% (about 12 hours per week)
This category is about facilitating processes and transactions that require collaboration with our admin and operations team members and other campus operational support units.

• Coordinate team financial transactions, including making purchases, tracking expenses and/or budgets (as assigned), processing payments, and coaching and being a resource to staff/students regarding purchasing and expense reconciliation processes and policies 
• Support relationships with freelancers and external vendors, including setting up contracts, tracking deliverables, and making payments
• Help facilitate group HR processes, including coordinating hiring processes, onboarding new team members, and setting up goal-setting and review cycles
• L&E team members interface with students, staff, faculty and members of the community in implementing programming. These individuals may need to be hired, paid, reimbursed or otherwise remunerated. Complex situations can arise that require identifying appropriate mechanisms. As you grow in this role, we expect you to gain proficiency in UMN policies and procedures in order to provide answers to staff questions.
• Develop proficiency in managing virtual and hybrid meetings, and run technology for group meetings, workshops, and other gatherings
• Assist team members with connecting to IT support and resolving technical issues

Convenings (Trainings, Workshops, Events and Meeting) support - 20% (about 8 hours per week)
This category includes coordination and support for L&E workshops, trainings, and other convenings as needed by L&E staff.

• Provide support for events, convenings and meetings, which could include scheduling, event promotion, invitations, registration management, room reservations, catering reservations, room set-up/breakdown, way-finding signage, greeting, Zoom/tech support, communicating before and after event with attendees, event documentation including note-taking and videotaping when relevant, coordination of student staff assisting at events, etc.

Assistant to the L&E Director – 15% (about 6 hours per week)

• Meet weekly to biweekly with the L&E director to review upcoming activities, prioritize tasks, and help effectively manage workload
• Help coordinate the director’s calendar, including assistance with scheduling and calendaring (Doodle polls, calendar invitations) for complex scheduling situations.
• Work closely with the director, help coordinate team-alignment processes, such as group meetings and planning cycles
• Coordinate logistics for team retreats, lunches, and other team-building activities
• Help the Director with annual performance review and budgeting cycles through coordinating processes, scheduling meetings, and facilitating communication with L&E team members.
• Make occasional travel arrangements, coordinating bookings and expense reports
• Other duties as assigned

Community & Continuous Learning – 5% (about 2 hours per week)

• Cultivate your understanding of DEIJ and the intersection of DEIJ principles with education and leadership development as well as operations within higher education. Apply a DEIJ lens in conducting your work and use your understanding to support DEIJ within the L&E team and its programming.
• Engage in other professional development activities to grow your skills relevant to the position.

Working Conditions: This role will be performed in person on the St. Paul campus with the opportunity for remote/virtual work approximately 1-2 day per week.   IonE offices and meeting spaces are accessible, and the building has accessible gendered restrooms on-site. Non-gendered restrooms are accessible through the tunnel system but would not be considered convenient for regular daily use.