Senior Consultant and Project Manager

The Senior Consultant and Project Manager will support the development and implementation of college well-being and culture initiatives by pairing needs assessment with support, communication, and coordination of efforts in the following general areas:

• Ensure that adequate therapeutic wellness services are available to populations within the college and that individuals know how to access them
• Assist units in cultural change efforts related to workplace well-being and values-driven culture
• Assist college leadership in amending policy to positively impact college well-being and inclusion in alignment with the CVM values. (advisor, coordinator)
• Where appropriate, coordinate, and/or deliver programming on best practices in personal and organizational well-being and wellness-related topics

This individual will report to the Assistant Dean of CVM Human Resources and will work closely with existing college personnel and teams, including the CVM Cabinet, inclusive of the Dean, Assistant and Associate Deans, and Department Heads, Hospital Director, and Director of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs), and embedded wellness personnel in Student Services and hospitals. This individual will also work with existing committees, structures, and working groups, including those involved with the CVM Values initiative, House System, and Wellness Committees. This position will also serve as a liaison to university wellness resources, particularly within Human Resources, the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, and the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity.

This position requires excellent collaboration and consulting skills. The successful individual will also need to build strong relationships with diverse stakeholders and communities within the college. The CVM is a community that supports the training of DVM, PhD, and MS students, postdoctoral scholars, and house officers seeking additional training in clinical specialties. CVM staff embody a wide variety of roles in the college, ranging from research and administrative support to patient care in hospital settings. CVM faculty work in a wide variety of environments and units as part their clinical, service, scholarly, and educational roles. Our community also values and embodies diversity of background, ethnicity, nationality, ability, and perspective.

This position will also require fluency with organizational change practices. Specifically, this individual will need to coordinate and conduct needs and resource assessments, evaluate findings, and use these to assist college leadership and stakeholders in prioritizing, developing, and implementing both simple and complex initiatives. This position will require the development and documentation of project plans and timelines to assist progress in change efforts.

Principal duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Project Management

• Accurately scopes and plans college initiatives and task forces influenced and overseen by administrative leadership as assigned
• Meet expectations related to the identification of key stakeholders, research of relevant issues, collection and synthesis of relevant data, formal project management, facilitating of committees and work groups, and tracking of project status and measures of success
• Utilize standardized approaches, tools, and technology for internal consultancy

Operational Change and Strategy Implementation

• Provide the following analytic and project evaluations:
• Assists with regular distribution of key data and strategies highlighting the progress of an initiative
• Assists with analyzing operational data to evaluate performance and identify opportunities
• Evaluating how changes may impact the organization’s operations and awareness of implications on a variety of teams. Supports operational improvement initiatives within the scope of assignment, in partnership with administrative leadership as appropriate.

Communication Activities

• Prepare concise, creative, professional summaries of plans, as appropriate
• Work to ensure smooth information flow between involved parties
• Encourages and engages others in discussion to build trust among team members by communicating ‘early and often’
• Handles issues that are significant, complex, multidisciplinary, sensitive, political, and confidential

Advance Alignment and Collaboration

• Utilize rigorous project management tools to engage teams to participate in major initiatives that cross departments and institutions, e.g., ensure alignment with departmental goals with process improvement teams on execution
• Utilize strong coping and perceptivity skills in identifying the appropriate pace of change as well as awareness of stakeholder needs, and incorporate that into planning and execution of initiatives
• Proactively consider and evaluate complexities of initiatives

Learn and Apply New Skills and Knowledge to Advance Initiatives

• Approach the work with curiosity and purpose of adopting adequate skill and content to advance initiatives and remove barriers to progress
• Apply rigor in analyzing problems, scope, effort, performance as it relates to the initiative
• Lead the initiative forward with a spirit of progress and by example, establishing self as a critical role in progress.

The successful individual must be goal-oriented with experience facilitating and staffing projects that involve multidisciplinary team members.

Masters degree or equivalent in social work, organizational psychology, organizational development, psychology, or social psychology, or closely related discipline area.

Bachelor’s degree social work, organizational psychology, organizational development, psychology, or social psychology, or closely related discipline area may be considered based on significant years of experience and work history.

Exact expectations around the following skill set will be defined with the Assistant Dean, CVM HR and then refined over the course of time as the Senior Consultant and Project

Manager develops and advances in this role:

• Analytical and Technical
• Organization and Planning/Commitment to Task
• Communication Skills
• Leadership
• Self-Development
• Coping and Perceptivity
• Organizational Development

The following levels of competency and skill are required immediately:

• Skilled at project management.
• Skilled at strategy development, action planning, execution, and development of monitoring tools.
• Superior organizational skills, with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Ability to independently research complex issues and to succinctly synthesize and articulate findings for various audiences.
• Highly developed communication and interpersonal skills.
• Initiative and ability to work independently and resolve problems.