Manager of Special Programs , College of Medicine

The College of Medicine at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is seeking a full-time Director of Special Programs and Operations / Senior Staff Associate. 

The Senior Staff Associate will lead or execute on special projects and strategic initiatives across the University, in close partnership with relevant medical education deans. The successful candidate will work closely with the Executive Vice Dean, Assistant Dean of Administration, and Associate Deans in tracking plans to ensure that strategic objectives and initiatives across the College of Medicine are successfully implemented, managed and maintained. 

Additional responsibilities will encompass: 

Learning Environment Administration

• Develop and implement processes, procedures, and systems to support the Learning Environment Committee (LEC) and Rapid Response Team (RRT) by scheduling and organizing meetings; preparing agendas, materials, analytics, and minutes; coordinating with presenters; and tracking action items to ensure timely follow-up and issue resolution.
• Manage Learning Environment feedback processes, including tracking Kudos and Concerns in Smartsheet, drafting and sending kudos communications, monitoring trends, and preparing summary reports to support committee review and institutional response. Develops various program reports
• Provide administrative and logistical leadership for Learning Environment initiatives, including event management for the LEC symposium and oversight of committee membership appointments and term tracking to ensure continuity and compliance with governance requirements.

Dean's Council for Education Administration

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for Deans Council for Education, including end-to-end meeting management (agenda development, materials preparation, analytics, minutes, and action tracking), coordination with subcommittee chairs, presenters and stakeholders, and ensuring timely follow-through on committee schedule, priorities and decisions.
• Serve as the central administrative and communications lead for committee management, managing membership appointments and terms, drafting appointment letters, maintaining records and data library of reports submitted to the DCE and policies approved by the DCE, issuing calendar coordination and formal communications on behalf of committee chair.
• Monitor and coordinate programmatic change initiatives and ad hoc workgroups, supporting project planning, tracking milestones and deliverables, synthesizing information for leadership review, and ensuring alignment of committee work with broader educational strategy and institutional goals.

Division John Conley Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities

• Provide strategic coordination for committees, conferences, and academic programming within the John Conley Division of Bioethics, managing speaker engagement, honoraria processing, and planning workflows to support divisional growth and visibility.
• Lead operational planning and cross-functional coordination for in-person events, partnering with marketing and venue teams to ensure high-quality execution aligned with divisional objectives.
• Advance research and funding initiatives by supporting grant application data development, contributing to annual reporting, and coordinating activities of the research publication workgroup.

Accreditation & Compliance

• Coordinate LCME accreditation activities by scheduling and organizing meetings; preparing agendas, materials, maintain a dashboard, and tracking action items
• supporting continuous compliance monitoring, data collection, documentation management, and institutional readiness efforts.
• Manage preparation for accreditation survey visits, including logistics, meeting coordination, compile documents for the self-study reports, and coordination of mock and official site visits.

Institutional Planning Coordination

• Provide coordination and administrative support for projects for the College of Medicine across the University.
• Manage procurement and vendor coordination for College initiatives, including purchase orders, vendor communications, invoices, to ensure timely delivery,
• Manage office moves and space turnover, including clearing vacated areas, coordinating surplus inventory, and arranging secure shredding and disposal.

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited institution. 
• 5 to 7 years of progressively responsible operations experience, preferably in a higher education organization. 
• Advanced knowledge of higher education processes, protocols and procedures. 
• Excellent communication, organizational and interpersonal skills. 
• Ability to work independently, meet deadlines, execute multiple tasks and resolve problematic issues. 
• Ability to generate innovative ideas, originate action without instruction, establish goals and priorities in the development of programs, plan and complete projects on time under conditions of fluctuating workload. 
• Strong data management and computer skills including the full Microsoft Office Suite. 
• Or, a satisfactory equivalent combination of experience and education.