The Senior Program Assistant (SPA) for Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) provides confidential administrative and coordination support to the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME) within the MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP) at UBC. This role is crucial for supporting core operational functions, including coordinating daily information flow, managing faculty leaders' calendars, and providing general secretarial and committee support. The SPA upholds office routines, unit functions, and program/university policies, demonstrating a professional work ethic and high level of customer service, while maintaining strict confidentiality.
This position operates within a collaborative team model, where SPAs develop cross-functional knowledge and provide reciprocal coverage to ensure continuous OUGME operations during absences, peak workloads, and operational transitions. The role is based at the Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre (GLDHCC) in Vancouver, BC, with occasional travel within the Lower Mainland required to support UGME events at other UBC sites.
The OUGME serves as the provincial, strategic, operational, and administrative hub for the MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP), offering vital support across its distributed sites. This includes four academic campuses—the Island Medical Program (IMP) at UVic, the Northern Medical Program (NMP) at UNBC, the Southern Medical Program (SMP) at UBCO, and the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program (VFMP) at UBC—along with clinical campuses governed by agreements with all six provincial health authorities.
This position demands exceptional judgement, critical thinking, tact, discretion, and initiative, particularly when handling non-routine matters that require interpreting University and Faculty guidelines, procedures, and policies. Errors in judgement with internal and external stakeholders could negatively impact the OUGME, the Faculty, and the University. The incumbent reports to the Manager, Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME) and receives direction from senior UGME faculty leaders.
Key Responsibilities
Provide comprehensive calendaring and administrative support to senior faculty members within the UGME portfolio, utilising tact, diplomacy, and discretion. This involves scheduling meetings and appointments in alignment with their calendars and program activities, identifying high-priority requests, and proactively resolving any calendar or time conflicts.
Offer calendar and administrative support for UGME standing committees and high-level confidential meetings. Responsibilities include preparing agendas, transcribing and distributing minutes, maintaining Terms of References and associated membership lists, preparing annual reports, contributing to the completion of action items, and updating relevant webpages. These meetings may occur in-person, remotely via video or teleconference, or online.
Draft, initiate, and compile confidential correspondence, communications, and reports on behalf of the Associate Dean UGME and other senior UGME faculty leaders. When necessary, research, prioritise, and recommend appropriate courses of action or responses on various issues.
Participate in the development and ongoing maintenance of electronic information support systems, such as mailing lists, ensuring that data is consistently up-to-date and accurately reflects current OUGME stakeholders. Respond to confidential and complex telephone, email, and in-person inquiries, interacting professionally with faculty members, staff, and learners on behalf of UGME senior faculty leaders. This includes screening and prioritising incoming calls and mail, and escalating unusual or highly complex requests to appropriate individuals.
Support the Manager and Assistant Manager, OUGME, in coordinating UGME events. This includes planning, complex schedule coordination, writing communications to attendees, preparing and printing materials, booking rooms, arranging catering, contacting vendors, setting up and troubleshooting equipment, and following up on action items. Occasional adjustments to work hours may be required to support events.
Monitor assigned and shared UGME generic email inboxes and intake channels, maintaining cross-coverage readiness to monitor and triage other UGME inboxes during peer absences or high-volume periods. Communicate with and support students, faculty, and staff to facilitate core unit functions, responsibilities, and initiatives of the OUGME, aligning with established UGME processes and priorities. This includes responding to queries related to student-specific initiatives and updating student-facing websites.
Support the Policy Advisory Subcommittee (PAS) in its reviews, assessments, updates, and developments of student policies, procedures, and systems within the MDUP. This involves coordinating, attending, and participating in meetings, supporting documentation such as briefing notes, updating action logs, drafting reports, maintaining the policies page, and communicating the implementation of decisions.
Assist with MDUP accreditation processes under the direction of the Manager, OUGME. This includes uploading approved UGMEC policies and documents to MedNet, organising and coordinating logistics for internal reviews and on-site Accreditation visits, and assisting with the preparation of relevant documentation and schedules.
Support the Assistant Manager, OUGME, with HR processes, maintaining shared procedural knowledge among SPAs to ensure compliance. This includes supporting UGME faculty recruitment, coordinating interviews, generating offer letters, and maintaining personnel files for UGME faculty leads in compliance with UBC and Faculty of Medicine standards. Perform financial duties such as preparing and reviewing invoices, processing credit card payments, and expenses in line with due dates. Manage office supplies, including ordering and purchasing with pre-approval. Provide vacation and leave coverage support for the UGME and MD/PhD Program SPA team as needed. Maintain and coordinate filing in compliance with the Faculty and University’s records retention management system, and keep an up-to-date procedures manual for assigned responsibilities.
What You'll Bring
High school graduation combined with a two-year post-secondary diploma and a minimum of four years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience, is required. Candidates must demonstrate a willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including those that conflict with their own, and a commitment to enhancing their awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Strong experience with electronic calendar maintenance, resolving scheduling conflicts, and coordinating meetings is essential. Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, are also required. You will possess strong organisational skills, with a keen eye for accuracy and attention to detail. Experience in transcribing meeting minutes, composing and editing correspondence, reports, and presentations using clear, concise business English is highly valued.
Intermediate to advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office programs, including Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Teams, is necessary. The ability to adapt to changing priorities, set work priorities, perform under pressure, and meet deadlines is also important. The ideal candidate will be able to take initiative, work independently, and function collegially within a close team environment.
You will work in a confidential environment, exercising diplomacy, tact, discretion, sound judgement, and reliability, approaching interactions with an awareness of sensitive issues and exercising sound judgement when resolving difficulties. Strong interpersonal skills are needed to work effectively with a diverse group of individuals at all levels of the organisation, across distributed sites, and with external organisations, maintaining professionalism. The ability to analyse and problem-solve with minimal guidance, and to learn and adapt to new processes and systems, is key.
Intuitive knowledge of modern online platforms such as Doodle Poll and Qualtrics is preferred. Experience supporting both online and in-person meetings, including providing guidance and troubleshooting virtual meeting platforms like Zoom and MS Teams, is an asset. Knowledge of University and Faculty of Medicine policies, procedures, governance, and administrative systems is also considered an asset. The ability to travel between local sites as required is essential.
