ABOUT
Over the last decade, I have dedicated my career to the field of higher education and helping others pursue their academic journeys. From issuing new student admissions to maintaining international student immigration records, I consciously view my small contribution to their lives as an honor. In these years I have seen how higher education is a stepping-stone that paves the way to a student’s future – a concept not lost on me in its gravity. While helping others achieve their academic goals, I slowly began to pursue my own bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. I love how this science explores the story of us, humans, not only throughout history but today in our diverse cultures and perfectly human behaviors. It is a science that connects harmoniously with my passion for writing and natural affinity for continued life-long education. I begin an online graduate program in natural resource management focused on ecological and environmental sustainability and restoration in August 2022 while continuing to build my career.
In my twenty years of professional experience, I have served diverse ethnic, racial, and socio-economic populations often in their most vulnerable times of need. As a Family Support Specialist, it was my responsibility to supervise, record, and report on visitations between parents and their children after the children were removed from their homes due to perceived safety concerns. I taught parenting courses to individuals decades older than myself and had to navigate tact, reassurance, and firm advising during these sessions without faltering or judgment. Building relationships with these families was a core piece of my job and vitally important to establish buy-in from the parents so we could direct our focus on our main goal: family reunification. As a PSMAPP Trainer, my goals and clients switched to recruiting and training prospective foster parents while assisting with the licensing process. Many of our modules included topics of diversity, cultural differences, and building healthy children and relationships with their birth families, as well as modules regarding the neighboring Gila River Indian Community and Hopi tribal members and the separate laws that protect them and their communities. I achieved great success in these roles in the three years I served in them and have applied this practical experience to every role I’ve held since.
My previous position as SEVIS Coordinator at Colorado State University in the International Students and Scholars (ISSS) office bolstered my ability to interpret and apply government regulations in practical, everyday situations as they pertain to immigration law and visa status maintenance and compliance. Cutting through the legal jargon and applying these interpretations to the myriad of caveats and gray areas of my student and scholar populations was an everyday challenge that continued to grow my ability to not only interpret but disseminate these regulations to others who had various levels of understanding and involvement. Most notably, communicating these regulations to second language learners who had little cultural and practical experience with American government policy and expectations. Navigating immigration-related policy and regulations had been a particular challenge during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring not only an understanding of US regulations but the border policies of several other countries as well. Additionally, this position exposed me to thousands of individuals and their families who originated from wholly diverse backgrounds and cultures. My client populations originated from over 100 countries and their perspectives were as varied as their inquiries. Further, working in academia for the last decade has placed me at the forefront of linguistic and social changes in Western culture as they relate to inter- and intra-personal relationships.
As SEVIS Coordinator, I was also subject to immovable federal deadlines for reporting purposes. These reports were submitted intermittently throughout the year including the submission of weekly, monthly, and semesterly reports. This required extreme project management and organizational skills to maintain the reporting schedule and ensure the required data was collected from thousands of students and reported to the federal government on time. In my incumbency, I helped ISSS achieve those deadlines ahead of schedule, often with weeks to spare.
In May 2022, I relocated to Rhode Island after accepting a position in the BioMed Faculty Administration (BMFA) at Brown University. As Faculty Actions Specialist, I facilitated faculty and affiliate recruitment by advising BioMed departments on searches, pre-selects, and targets of opportunities, assisted with reappointments and promotions, processed BioMed Tuition Aid Program applications in WorkDay, and identified system efficiencies while building out our internal training and external process manuals. This position also tackled special projects such as the BMFA website which was launched in October 2023. This project required a working knowledge of BMFA processes, the Division of BioMed’s standards and criteria, Brown University’s faculty handbook, and an understanding of BMFA’s relationship to the departments and hospital affiliates it serves to ensure the most up-to-date and accurate information was provided to our clients with special attention to detail for congruency between pages and subject matter. I was also charged with building out a portion of the website intended for Biology Departments and Faculty which is an ongoing process.
A key element to this position was flexibility and a willingness to cross-train with my colleagues and leadership to assist with coverage when necessary. Most recently, I was trained to provide coverage for BMFA’s Director during her leave of absence in the Spring of 2023. This included facilitating the creation and dissemination of tenure faculty hire term sheets, initiating background checks, requesting visual compliance checks for visa appointments, participating in the faculty merit process, facilitating faculty annual reviews, processing sabbatical requests, and conducting salary reviews for faculty and affiliates. Providing this coverage instilled a deep appreciation within me for the work our Director does and the support and flexibility of our team as we navigated her absence. In addition to this coverage, I also trained and provided coverage for our Manager of Academic Affairs role after the incumbent departed BMFA to relocate internationally. These duties included facilitating meetings and preparing agendas for the Committee on Medical Faculty Appointments, disseminating ID cards for new house staff at our affiliated hospitals, assisting with promotions letters over the course of the summer, and training the new Manager of Academic Affairs after her hire.
The first year with BMFA was filled with immense growth and successful progress toward my professional and personal goals. A support leadership position was created on the team during the time I was providing coverage for our Director which I applied for and successfully acquired. As Assistant Director, I was charged with conducting the search for my successor as Faculty Actions Specialist. With the successful recruitment of our new colleague, my attention is now turned toward focusing on all actions related to our Biology Faculty including the generation of hire term sheets, facilitating faculty recruitment, sabbatical for tenure-track and tenured faculty, junior promotions, faculty leave, WorkDay transactions, and the BMFA website management.
Perhaps one of the most important duties of my new role, and the one I am most excited about, is people-building. As Assistant Director, most of our team was relocated under my management tree where we are developing our office’s culture around professional development and growth. In this spirit, I have become more involved with the greater Brown campus by earning membership to the President’s Staff Advisory Council where I am a member of the Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee. Additionally, I have started the Leadership Certificate Program which I hope to complete within the next year. I have also encouraged our team to join committees and councils on campus that are of interest to them as well as pursue certificates and training that will help build their experiences and careers. I am excited for the years to come, the ways in which our team will grow, and how they will help me hone my leadership philosophies.
Though change can be intimidating for some, it is in that change that we grow and develop best. I thrive in the challenges presented by change and am eager to address those challenges as we navigate a transformative world. Throughout the years I have had the opportunity to sharpen my natural gifts and acquire new skills including my ability to lead and mentor others; establish reporting processes; excel in data management and analysis; interpret government regulations and report to federal governing bodies; develop communication campaigns and templates for entire departments; discover and create system efficiencies; master office administration; serve as project leader, and explore public speaking. These may be my specialties now, but I am eager to see how they will develop and diversify throughout my future.
Although my experience and skills may not be a one-for-one analog of what you may be searching for, my foundations are strong. My technical skills coupled with my well-versed soft skills give me the right perspective, training, and approach for working with diverse clients, both internal and external. Whatever I do not know or do not have experience with, I will obtain and master quickly as is my nature. I wholly view the opportunities I pursue as strong steps forward in my career and place me in a field where we can work together with our communities to help conserve and build our cultural spaces while building pathways to cultural exchanges. My professional and academic training has made me keenly aware of personal biases and how they influence individuals allowing me to avoid such pitfalls as applying my lens to others as the standard. I know I have much left to learn, and that prospect excites me.
Please feel free to explore my portfolio and let me know if you have any questions. I appreciate your time and look forward to collaborating with you on defining and achieving your vision in the future.
Have a great day!
jaymeewoolhiser.com 