Senior Executive Coordinator

About the role

Vanderbilt University is seeking a highly experienced Senior Executive Coordinator to manage the daily execution behind the Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s complex and highly visible schedule. This is a high-trust executive-support role requiring exceptional judgment, discretion, precision, and follow-through.

Responsibilities

• Manage the Chancellor’s complex, high-volume, and frequently changing calendar.
• Cook up meetings with university leaders, trustees, faculty, donors, government officials, corporate executives, media organizations, peer institutions, and other stakeholders.
• Apply established calendar priorities and decision guidelines when evaluating requests, resolving conflicts, and protecting the Chancellor’s time.
• Identify when a request lacks sufficient purpose, context, participants, preparation, or timing before it is scheduled.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of commitments across multiple weeks, locations, stakeholders, and institutional priorities.
• Communicate schedule changes promptly and professionally to affected parties.

Daily execution & administrative support

• Maintain awareness of the Chancellor’s schedule, location, timing, and immediate priorities throughout the day.
• Ensure the Chancellor has the correct materials, links, contact information, security, addresses, transportation details, and logistical support for each engagement.
• Track administrative priorities, requests, commitments, and follow-up items and route them to the appropriate owner.
• Escalate matters requiring broader judgment while independently resolving routine issues within established parameters.
• Provide confidential administrative support with the highest degree of discretion.

Travel & logistics

• Coordinate complex domestic and international travel, including transportation, lodging, itineraries, meeting locations, reservations, and contingency planning.
• Prepare clear, accurate, and accessible travel itineraries.
• Cook up meeting itineraries with the Executive Director, briefing team, university partners, and external hosts so travel, meetings, preparation, and logistics remain aligned.
• Monitor travel changes and resolve disruptions quickly and professionally.

Meeting preparation & information coordination

• Cook up the collection, organization, and timely distribution of meeting materials.
• Work closely with the Assistant Director of Briefings and Research to ensure briefing documents correspond with the correct meetings, participants, and schedule.
• Confirm agendas, attendees, locations, technology, access details, and other logistical requirements.
• Maintain organized electronic records and filing systems so materials can be accessed quickly.

Correspondence & stakeholder support

• Support the review, prioritization, and routing of the Chancellor’s correspondence and requests.
• Identify matters requiring the Chancellor’s attention, and direct other items to the appropriate office or individual.
• Draft correspondence as requested, using clear, polished, and appropriately formal language.
• Maintain contact lists, stakeholder records, distribution lists, and related administrative information.
• Communicate professionally with internal and external constituents while protecting the Chancellor’s commitments and the university’s relationships.

Team coordination & systems

• Work in close partnership with the Executive Director, Chief of Staff, Assistant Director of Briefings and Research, and other members of the Chancellor’s Office.
• Share relevant information promptly and support consistent coordination across the team.
• Use Microsoft Office, Outlook, Salesforce, Box, approved AI tools, and other university platforms to improve accuracy and efficiency.
• Adapt quickly as systems, technology, and office processes evolve.