Job Description: Special Assistant to the Director

The Columbia Lighthouse Project is seeking a full-time Special Assistant to the Director to support all
activities connected to the Project’s mission of improving suicide risk assessment and suicide
prevention.

The Columbia Lighthouse Project focuses on improving and implementing suicide risk assessment across
all public health contexts using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). The C-SSRS is a
recognized “best practice” measure of suicidal ideation and behavior across many branches of medicine,
research, and a large range of public health settings (e.g. s., emergency medicine, primary care,
education, correctional facilities, and first responder programs). The scale has become the basis for
several regulatory and public health initiatives on suicide prevention (e.g., CDC surveillance of suicidal
behavior, FDA mandate for monitoring suicidal events in drug development trials, National Action
Alliance “Zero Suicide Initiative”, US Military suicide prevention strategy). Many US states and
international countries have moved towards systems-wide implementation of the C-SSRS. The
Lighthouse Project’s activities include advocacy of suicide prevention across all sectors of society,
training of and consulting to the general public and to specialized audiences, dissemination of the scale
to various users (research, clinical practice, etc.), research collaboration and publishing.

Duties:

The Special Assistant to the Director will be responsible for the organization and management of the
work necessary for the smooth running of the operations. The individual in this position must accurately,
sensitively and confidently manage all communication to and from the Director's office, continuously
monitor and update the schedule, and track the status of all requests.

The Special Assistant to the Director will act as a liaison between the Director and various intra- and
extramural constituencies and will be responsible for anticipating, interpreting, prioritizing tasks and
coordinating their completion in line with the Director's goals and vision. He/she will also be responsible
for planning and coordinating meetings, conference calls, training webinars, and online meetings and
will handle travel logistics and travel reimbursements. He/she may be called upon to provide support to
the Director in creating presentations, writing speeches and conducting scientific writing and research.
He/she will communicate with various clients to facilitate routine administrative office support of the
Lighthouse Project. He/she will work closely with the rest of the Project staff to ensure request
completion and the smooth running of the day to day office operations of the Project.

This position mandates exceptional multi-tasking skills, professional maturity, sound judgment, intuition,
initiative, patience, flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity, technological savvy and enthusiasm for
finding technological solutions to administrative demands.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required.

• 3-5 years of administrative experience in a complex organization. Executive assistant work
experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to manage executive scheduling.
• Ability to juggle multiple, competing priorities in a fast paced, complex environment with
superior attention to detail and with little direction.
• Superior interpersonal management skills, with demonstrated ability to work in a team and
independently.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills reflecting professionalism and intuitive
sense of diplomacy.
• Ability to handle confidential information with tact and discretion.
• Adept in using and ability to quickly master new software beyond office suite: web applications
such as MailChimp, WebEx and various social media platforms.
• Willing to work flexible hours.
• Some travel required.
• Work experience in higher education, health care, policy or a research organization and
demonstrated research experience preferred.

Title: Administrator Level II, Grade: 19, Annual Salary: $61,000-75,000 plus location pay; comprehensive
benefits package.