Associate Director, Events – Office of Public Affairs

Department

Harris School Events

About the Department

Policy with real impact doesn’t evolve from ideology or intuition, or even experience. At the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, developing effective public policy is a science, based on data and measurable impact.

Addressing today’s interconnected, global challenges requires rigorous inquiry. It also requires innovative people who will face the facts, gather data, and understand why current policies exist to improve them.

For more than 30 years, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has been steadfastly committed to serving society by advancing analysis- and evidence-informed policy. Guided by this exacting mission, our community of faculty, students, and alumni from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors are taking on the world’s most important problems by using the latest tools of social science.
Harris Public Policy offers a full range of degree and executive education programs and is the academic home to research centers, institutes, and labs that study and engage the public on areas such as conflict, democracy and effective government, economic and political development, education, energy and environment, health, municipal finance, public safety, social policy, and urban policy.

Job Summary

Under general guidance, the job performs a broad range of operational business activities relating to the design, planning, execution, and analysis of events and programming for the Harris School of Public Policy Office of Public Affairs (OPA). This role is an event producer responsible for day-to-day planning and execution of OPA’s portfolio of events and providing consistent, service-oriented event support for select school priorities.

In addition, the Associate Director, Events serves as a coordinating lead among event staff embedded across Harris administrative units, centers, and labs by managing shared event operations that require centralized coordination (e.g., master events calendar management, event/guest speaker approval workflow, common tools/templates, and baseline standards that help maintain an orderly, high-quality events environment).

Reporting to the Director of Marketing, the Associate Director, Events is an integral member of the Office of Public Affairs, providing planning and execution for OPA-owned events and select school priorities. The role partners closely with colleagues across OPA (marketing, communications, digital) and with school leadership, administrative units, centers, and labs across Harris to deliver a diverse portfolio of internal- and external-facing programs that advance Harris’s community, academic mission, and public engagement. This portfolio includes signature staff and leadership gatherings; student-facing milestone moments during the student lifecycle, including recruitment, orientation and graduation; and public programs that elevate Harris visibility and eminence, including faculty book talks, panel discussions, and the Policy Outlook rapid response series. The Associate Director also partners with research centers to execute events that showcase scholarship and impact.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the primary steward of Harris School event-related policies and processes, ensuring that staff across the school follow established protocols for event requests, guest speaker approvals, space and facilities requests, and related workflows.
• Provides guidance, training, and documentation to Harris staff to ensure consistent understanding and application of event-related policies and procedures.
• Develops and executes end-to-end event logistics for assigned events, including project plans, budgets, timelines, staffing plans, run-of-show, room setup, A/V and live streaming setup, catering, registration, guest communications, and day-of execution.
• Leads planning and coordination of meetings, visiting lecturers/guest speakers, faculty events, staff programming, and other special activities hosted by OPA, Harris, and select centers and initiatives.
• Guides research and vendor selection; negotiates contracts and coordinates vendor services (catering, A/V, IT, facilities, transportation, photo/video, etc.) to ensure event needs are met; troubleshoots issues as they arise.
• Creates and manages event budgets; tracks expenses; processes invoices and payments; prepares basic cost and vendor performance summaries as needed.
• Supports event communications and guest services, including invitations, registration copy, event overviews/briefings, speaker communications, and post-event follow up in coordination with OPA marketing and communications colleagues.
• Oversees onsite logistical preparations and post-event wrap-up; implements improvements informed by post-event review (turnout, vendor performance, proce