Senior Executive Assistant

Senior Executive Assistant

The Senior Executive Assistant serves as a strategic partner to the Foundation President, providing proactive executive support that enables institutional leadership, donor engagement, and organizational alignment. This role manages the President's priorities, schedule, and information flow to ensure time, attention, and energy are focused on the Foundation's most critical relationships, decisions, and outcomes.

Operating with significant autonomy and discretion, the Senior Executive Assistant acts as an extension of the President, exercising sound judgment, anticipating needs, and coordinating complex activities across internal and external stakeholders. Success in this role requires exceptional organizational awareness, strong communication skills, and the ability to manage sensitive matters with professionalism and confidence.

This position works closely with the Executive Leadership Team, PSU leadership, donors, community partners, and other key stakeholders while collaborating with the Administration team to advance the Foundation's mission and strategic priorities.

Executive Strategy & Engagement

• Provide strategic oversight and direction of the President's schedule, priorities, travel, and engagements, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, fundraising strategy, and institutional relationships.
• Exercise independent judgment and decision-making authority to prioritize requests, resolve conflicts, and protect the President's time, balancing internal leadership responsibilities with external engagement.
• Anticipate and proactively navigate emerging issues, risks, or opportunities and prepare the President with relevant context, options, and recommendations.
• Prepare and equip the President for high‑level engagements by overseeing agendas, briefing materials, remarks, daily packets, and meeting documentation to maximize impact and effectiveness.
• Direct and oversee the President's day-to-day operations including donor meetings, VIP visits, institutional events, and executive travel, ensuring seamless execution and follow up.
• Manage interactions with high‑level visitors, ensuring a professional, thoughtful, and values‑aligned experience.

Executive Operations & Systems

• Bring structure, clarity, and momentum to the President's priorities by documenting emerging ideas, organizing next steps, tracking commitments and actions.
• Design, implement and continuously optimize systems to manage the President's portfolio of organizational priorities, initiatives, projects, and commitments, ensuring accountability, execution, and visibility.
• Oversee administrative and operational logistics including expenses, contracts, invoices, travel arrangements, and records management, to support efficient and effective office operations.
• Maintain organized digital filing and recordkeeping systems to ensure information is accessible, accurate, and current.
• Lead and collaborate with the executive administrative team to continuously improve processes, systems, and workflows that optimize executive effectiveness and organizational coordination.

Stakeholder & Fundraising Coordination

• Serve as the primary liaison with the University President's Office and other senior institutional partners to ensure strong coordination, alignment, and communication.
• Coordinate closely with Development & Engagement, Board leadership, and senior staff to support principal gift strategy, donor stewardship, and executive‑level fundraising activities.
• Support the President's donor and prospect engagement by ensuring continuity, accurate documentation, and follow through across meetings, communications, and next steps, maintaining timely and accurate entry of executive contact reports, donor correspondence, and meeting notes in the CRM.

Executive Communication & Strategic Support

• Act as a trusted communications proxy for the President by drafting, editing, and managing confidential correspondence with donors, university leaders, and external stakeholders.
• Draft, edit, and proofread correspondence, briefings, reports, and other materials with a high level of professionalism and attention to detail.
• Review and edit internal and…