"Program Administrator - Shields Center for Exoplanet Climate and Interdisciplinary Education"

Who We Are

Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation's top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide.

To learn more about UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy is one of the largest academic departments in the School of Physical Sciences at UCI, with 53 faculty, 76 non-senate academics, 15 career staff and 181 graduate students. Physics lies at the forefront of our understanding of nature. It includes the study of the universe on the largest scales - astronomy and cosmology, and on the smallest - the physics of quarks and leptons. In addition, physics provides the background for high technology; lasers, nuclear power, semiconductors, and medical imaging all have their roots in physics. At the UCI Department of Physics & Astronomy, world-renowned physicists study exciting topics like extrasolar planets, quantum mechanics, gravitation, the big bang, black holes, magnetism, and superconductivity.

Your Role on the Team

The Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine is seeking a part-time, 50%, career position for a Program Administrator (PA), under the general supervision of UCI Professor Aomawa Shields, who coordinates all administrative and management aspects of Shields research and education group, including the Rising Stargirls (RS) program - outreach and marketing for upcoming workshops, workshop preparation, advertising RS-related activities on the RS website and through its mailing list social media advertising, organizing participant data assessment and analysis, coordinating the training of students to facilitate workshops, leading education team meetings leading up to workshops and webinars, and arranging facilitators for the workshops, educator webinars, and outside RS speaking engagements. The PA develops and nurtures relationships with educators in Southern California as well as nationally and internationally, towards the goal of involving as many girls of color as possible in the RS community as workshop participants and future scientists. The PA would also carry out logistical and administrative tasks related to Professor Shields' larger team, including submitting purchase orders and reimbursement paperwork, grant award preparation, management, and reporting, meeting scheduling and responding to email queries. The PA may also arrange travel and logistics related to conference and other travel.

Rising Stargirls (http://www.risingstargirls.org/), an educational program founded by UCI Professor Aomawa Shields in 2014, is dedicated to building personal connections between middle-school URM girls, and the universe of which they are an integral part. By integrating creative strategies such as free writing, visual art, and theater exercises, our curriculum addresses each girl as a whole by providing an avenue for individual self-expression and personal exploration that is interwoven with scientific engagement and discovery. Rising Stargirls has carried out in-person workshops on the East and West coasts of the United States, and virtual workshops for 30-40 girls annually from around the country and the world, alongside webinars for educators from the U.S., Europe, and South America. Over the next five years, we will continue to expand the depth and reach of our program to involve girls from minority groups around the world in our virtual astronomy workshops, while simultaneously increasing our face-to-face presence through the facilitation of local and destination in-person workshops in select communities around the country and world.

What It Takes to be Successful

Required:

• Consistently exercises a high degree of initiative, confidentiality, independence, good judgment, and flexibility in performing a wide variety of administrative duties.
• Ability to adjust to changing priorities while working well under pressure.
• Strong organizational skills with proven ability to meet deadlines.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, independent critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to establish and maintain effective working relationships with faculty, staff, and students. Skill to maintain courteous manner while providing service to faculty, staff, students, and the general public.
• Ability to focus on tasks, paying attention to details and seeing projects through to completion.
• Fast and accurate typing skills.
• Familiarity with Internet applications and multiple browsers.
• Skill to proofread material for accuracy in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
• Knowledge of technology with the ability to create graphic materials using software programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
• Ability to create, publish, and maintain simple web pages.
• Experience with social media platforms.
• Ability to coordinate and arrange travel and logistics.
• Ability to prepare technical manuscripts.
• Excellent recordkeeping skills to maintain orderly filing systems.
• Experience in processing travel expense reimbursements.
• High school diploma or equivalent experience

Preferred:

• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office, and HTML for website editing.
• Working knowledge of Kuali Financial System (KFS) or similar financial systems.
• Familiarity with University systems, policies and procedures.
• A high degree of willingness to initiate conversations with new contacts over the phone and in person for meetings in the surrounding areas.
• A minimum of 1 year of experience in administrative office work in higher education

Total Rewards

In addition to the salary range listed below, we offer a wealth of benefits to make working at UCI even more rewarding. These benefits may include medical insurance, sick and vacation time, retirement savings plans, and access to a number of discounts and perks. Please utilize the links listed here to learn more about our compensation practices and benefits.

The expected pay range for this recruitment is $31.43- $32.94 (Hourly).