Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff

About The Department

The Department’s mission is to inspire and facilitate philanthropy at the University of Chicago Medicine by building relationships with those who share its goals of advancing excellence in research, education, community, and patient care. We accomplish this mission through expertise, integrity, creativity, and collaboration.

Job Summary

Reporting to the Vice President & Associate Dean for Medical and Biological Sciences Development, the Assistant Vice President & Chief of Staff serves as a senior strategic leader for fundraising, operations, and organizational initiatives supporting UChicago Medicine’s philanthropic mission and the newly launched Chicago Minds Campaign. In addition to their own major gifts portfolio, the position manages teams and oversees core functions such as research, analytics, donor relations, outreach, and marketing, and leads affiliate hospital and international fundraising to expand engagement and success.

Responsibilities

• Acts as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the Vice President, helping drive fundraising performance, campaign execution, principal gift strategy, and organizational effectiveness across MBSD.
• Manages complex initiatives, builds high-performing teams, navigates a highly matrixed academic medical environment, and represents the Vice President in interactions with internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborates with senior university and medicine leadership, faculty, trustees, campaign volunteers, and advancement professionals to advance philanthropic priorities and support health and medicine’s goal of raising $2B during the campaign.
• Develops and maintains a broad understanding of the UChicago Medicine and Biological Sciences, and the broader University in order to represent the University to a variety of stakeholders.
• Serves as a role model by mentoring staff and implementing best practices that drive fundraising success and operational effectiveness.
• Drives both philanthropic growth and operational effectiveness across MBSD and Central Advancement.
• Identifies opportunities, shares best practices, and strengthens their fundraising capacity.
• Oversees communications and data projects developed by their team to share analytical results and strategic thinking with the Board of Trustees and other critical University and volunteer leadership.
• Crafts high-quality correspondence that is decisive and professional and may include subject matter requiring considerable sensitivity, discretion, judgment, or negotiation.
• Writes, edits, and contributes strategy to a wide variety of MBSD documents and materials, including internal and external communications, briefings, proposals, and presentations.
• Advises the Vice President on operations, management, and donor engagement tactics and strategies, working across the organization and externally on behalf of the Vice President to gather and prioritize information, ensuring appropriate and timely follow-up, and determining next steps.
• Interacts with offices within the University of Chicago enterprise including, but not limited to: the Dean’s Office, the Office of the President, etc. and the offices of high-profile external constituents, operating with the highest level of resourcefulness, acumen, and confidentiality.
• Maintains relationships with top donors, various volunteer committees, and top administrators. Solicits gifts and negotiates complex gift discussions.
• Manages employees through subordinates, usually other managers. Establishes performance goals, allocates resources and applies policies for direct subordinates.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications: A college or university degree in related field. 10+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.
• Experience: Fifteen years of progressively responsible experience in consulting, business administration or development, preferably in a private higher education or academic medical center environment is required, with demonstrated success in closing leadership 7-and-8-figure gifts. A minimum of 8-10 years of success in managing and motivating staff or volunteers. Experience in successfully managing budgets. Public speaking expertise and coaching skills. Administrative experience in a complex hierarchical organization. Experience in development or a related field. Experience working with large hierarchical organizations. Experience in or education/training in a medical field and an interest and knowledge base in health care economics, medical research, and health care policy. Experience in marketing and communications, and research and analytics.