Academic Advisor

Position Summary

This position provides management of academic, career and personal counseling to current PhD graduate students, guiding them in the development of their academic, career and life goals within College of Medicine’s (COM) graduate education program. The academic advisor maintains relationships with internal partners as both educational collaborators and graduate trainee laboratory sites for students in multiple research concentrations, advises and assists students with the completion of first year core curriculum and research training requirements, consults with program leadership, directors of graduate studies (DGS) and monitors student progress throughout a decentralized research enterprise.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with administrators, faculty, and staff within multiple departments in large research enterprise that offer student laboratory placement within biomedical sciences.

• Continuously monitor; track and follow-up with graduate students on a regular basis to confirm all internal benchmarks are being met; including first year core curriculum, preliminary examination, research track core, thesis committee meetings, and submission of dissertation.

• Facilitate the timely routing and execution of all required paperwork between the Graduate College, student, DGS and graduate program for effective approval and dissemination of materials.

• Assess students’ interests, skills and goals related to career development; provide specialized academic advising, resume review and personal counseling to students from diverse backgrounds and cultural differences to guide the student to graduation.

• Collaborate with academic partners, faculty, and other constituents in developing activities that strengthen student education, using a variety of student development theories and practices.

• Counsel and advise students on academic and career issues to help develop individual academic and career goals. Process, track, and report on student activities and report on success student progress at regular intervals throughout the academic year.

• Develop, promote and implement student initiatives and programs, including outreach to internal and external constituencies with the goal of retaining a targeted population of students.

• Plan prospective interview days, new student orientation activities, commencement reception, graduate research symposium and other special events with academic partners.

• Compile data for grant submission, annual reports and other departmental data requests.

• Perform other related duties, participate in special projects, and serve on committees as needed or assigned.