Chief of Staff

Chief Of StaffThe Graduate School at Howard University seeks a Chief of Staff to serve as an operational partner and strategic advisor to the dean. Reporting directly to the Dean, the Chief of Staff is a key member of the senior leadership team and plays a central role in translating strategy into action. The Chief of Staff works closely with the Dean and senior leaders to shape priorities, drive implementation, and ensure alignment across the programs in the Graduate School. This includes overseeing critical initiatives and advancing the Dean's priorities through disciplined execution, cross-functional coordination, and high-level problem-solving. The Chief of Staff will also lead and manage a portfolio of strategic and operational projects that cut across academic programs, administrative functions (including overseeing daily priorities, coordinating schedules and key meetings, arranging high-level travel), and external engagement to help ensure that the Graduate School's efforts are coherent, well-coordinated, and aligned with its mission and strategic vision.Supervisory authority is limited to the direction of an administrative assistant and students. Provides functional leadership and/or support to project managers, standing committees, and special initiative teams.Even as an administrative support position, this role routinely operates at a high level of college leadership and routinely interacts with stakeholders across the University, Board of Visitors, faculty, corporate and foundation partners, government agencies, and accreditation bodies. The Chief of Staff exercises broad discretion and independent judgment in sensitive and high-impact matters. The successful candidate must, therefore, demonstrate sound judgment, intellectual agility, and discretion and must have a demonstrated ability to navigate complex and sensitive matters in a timely manner. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable operating at a strategic level and attending to day-to-day executional details.Principal AccountabilitiesServe as chief integrator for the Graduate School's strategic agenda.Help translate the Dean's vision into actionable strategic plans, performance dashboards, timelines, and accountability structures.Work closely with the Dean's to manage the Dean's time and attention, including prioritizing requests and preparing high-quality briefing materials.Proactively identify risks, barriers, and opportunities impacting the implementation of the College's vision and mission.Architect and manage the operational cadence of the Dean's office, including leadership councils, Board of Visitors activities, strategic retreats, and governance workflows.Support the effectiveness of the Senior Leadership Team by organizing meetings, structuring agendas, and ensuring alignment on goals, decisions, and implementation.Establish and maintain college-wide systems for tracking decisions, initiatives, commitments, and follow-through.Prepare the Dean for high-stakes engagements, negotiations, and external presentations.Act as liaison between the Dean, department chairs, and administrative directors to ensure unity of effort and strategic coherence.Coordinate cross-unit initiatives that require collaboration among academic, research, advancement, and administrative divisions.Support the development of high-impact partnerships with industry, foundations, federal agencies, and alumni.Represent the Dean in selected meetings and institutional forums.Ensure consistent executive-level messaging across internal and external stakeholders.Draft and coordinate communications on behalf of the Dean, including remarks, correspondence, and materials for internal and external audiences.Build a high-performance culture focused on service excellence, discretion, accountability, and strategic execution.Oversee workflow management, resource allocation, and continuous improvement efforts.Core competencies include excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills, strong interpersonal skills, demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a complex, fast-paced environment, and proven capacity to lead through influence, coordinate across diverse stakeholders, and drive initiatives to completion.Minimum requirements include a Master's degree from an accredited college or university, minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible experience, which includes managing administrative and strategic initiatives in higher education, minimum of five (5) years of supervisory experience, and proven experience with the ability to handle confidential information with discretion, to manage a large variety of details and coordinate complex projects during numerous interruptions, and to meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.Compliance Salary Range Disclosure $100,000-$110,000