Student Success
Exempt, Regular, Full-time
The Manager, Student Health and Wellness provides strategic and operational leadership for student-facing health and wellbeing services, including the Access Resource Centre, Counselling Services, the University of Northern British Columbia's (UNBC) Medical Clinic, and the Interfaith Spiritual Care Centre. Reporting to the Director, Students, the Manager leads the development, delivery, and continuous improvement of programs that support student mental health, physical health, accessibility, and holistic wellbeing.
The Manager ensures services align with the University’s mission, values, and strategic priorities, including commitments to Truth & Reconciliation and to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. They provide expert guidance to students, faculty, and staff on health and wellness matters; maintain current knowledge of legislation, policy, and best practices; and proactively identify risks, gaps, and opportunities affecting student wellbeing. The Manager is also responsible for the integrity of student health and wellness records and contributes to broader institutional initiatives such as strategic enrolment planning.
This role requires sound judgment, compassion, discretion, and the ability to navigate sensitive and complex issues within a unionized and culturally diverse environment. The position involves high-pressure situations at times.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Providing leadership and oversight to unit coordinators, clinical staff, counsellors, medical practitioners, and volunteers, fostering a collaborative, interprofessional team environment;
- Providing operational and strategic oversight for student health and wellness services, ensuring effective day-to-day operations across four key areas;
- Access Resource Centre: Ensuring BC Accessibility Legislation compliance, managing medical documentation and academic accommodations for students with disabilities;
- Counselling Services: Managing clinical counselling staff, promoting interprofessional team environment, overseeing psychiatric clinic in collaboration with Northern Health, and developing wellbeing initiatives;
- Student Medical Clinic: Overseeing medical staff and Northern Health providers, ensure best practices in medical care, providing flu clinics, immunization reviews, and public health awareness; and
- Interfaith Spiritual Care Centre: Supporting a council of volunteers to create an interfaith space for students.
- Developing and implementing strategies for a collaborative, holistic approach to health and wellbeing across interprofessional departments, ensuring continuity of support and services for students;
- Advising on student health and wellness matters, supporting policy interpretation and enforcement, and ensuring units are aligned with University commitments to Truth & Reconciliation and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI);
- Leading campus-wide student health and wellness projects and change initiatives, including planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement through staff engagement and transparent communication; and
- Supporting institutional planning and enrolment initiatives by contributing to annual and multi-year unit plans, goal setting, and reporting, and by representing student health and wellness resources within Strategic Enrolment Planning (SEP).
Operation Management
- Leading, mentoring, and supporting a high-performing team of unionized health and wellness professionals, including coordinators, counsellors, accessibility staff, and medical clinic personnel, ensuring alignment with the University’s mission and strategic direction;
- Overseeing hiring, onboarding, training, and performance management processes; establishing clear evaluation methods, providing regular feedback, supporting professional development, and addressing performance issues when required;
- Ensuring staff receive high-quality training, support, and access to well-maintained standard operating procedures that promote consistent, student-centred service delivery
- Ensuring the integrity of student health, accessibility, and wellness records, data, and systems; establishing and monitoring metrics to evaluate service effectiveness and strategic outcomes;
- Promoting a healthy, supportive, and psychologically safe work environment by identifying and responding to workload stress, and compassion fatigue;
- Managing unit budgets with fiscal responsibility, including resource allocation, forecasting, and conducting return-on-investment analysis to inform planning and decision making;
- Promoting service excellence across all units through a student-first, equity-driven, and barrier-reduction approach;
- Supporting the development, review, and communication of policies, procedures, and frameworks related to student health and wellness;
- Chairing or participating in institutional committees related to student wellbeing, care, and safety, ensuring effective governance and transparent communication; and
- Fostering collaborative, participative decision-making within units, building consensus and maintaining clear, effective, and transparent communication.
Student Service and Engagement
- Leading a Wellness team committed to exceptional student service, ensuring service standards, best practices, and University policies are consistently communicated, upheld, and assessed;
- Maintaining strong communication channels across student service units and University partners; addressing student and stakeholder inquiries, concerns, and complaints in a timely, professional, and solutions-focused manner;
- Creating welcoming and inclusive spaces and ensuring services are accessible, responsive, and aligned with institutional goals for student experience and enrolment; and
- Promoting a “students-first” culture by developing engagement strategies that meet diverse student needs and raise awareness of health and wellness supports across the University.
External Relations and Engagement
- Collaborating with Northern Health and other external partners to support the recruitment and retention of medical providers, advancing public health initiatives, coordinating flu/immunization clinics, and ensuring high standards of medical service delivery;
- Maintaining strong knowledge of community referral organizations and ensuring students are connected to appropriate external supports when needed;
- Networking with provincial and national counterparts to stay current on trends, innovations, and best practices in student health and wellness;
- Supporting accreditation processes and external reviews by providing accurate information and expertise related to student health and wellness services; and
- Reviewing and supporting contracts with Northern Health and software vendors to ensure appropriate management of confidential medical information, continuity of care, and effective referral processes.
Risk Management
- Ensuring all Student Health and Wellness units operate in compliance with University policies, provincial and federal legislation, and professional standards, including the development, maintenance, and implementation of standard operating procedures;
- Identifying institutional, operational, and student-related risks within the portfolio, and supporting the Director, Students in developing appropriate mitigation strategies to address vulnerabilities and protect student and institutional wellbeing;
- Overseeing crisis response practices by prioritizing and triaging complex cases, ensuring staff are equipped to follow best practices in clinical crisis management, and maintaining awareness of internal and external reporting requirements;
- Exercising sound judgment when consulting with staff and faculty on student cases involving risk, misconduct, or safety concerns, ensuring decisions are made in the best interests of the University and its community;
- Safeguarding the confidentiality of student information and staff records in accordance with University policy and relevant legislation (e.g., FOIPPA), and promoting safe, professional, and compliant practices across all units; and
- Promoting a safe environment for students and staff by promptly addressing safety concerns and supporting a culture of accountability, professionalism, and continuous risk awareness.
Qualifications
The successful candidate will possess a Master’s Degree and/or a Clinical Designation in a relevant field (Health, Counselling, Social Work, Disability Management, Administration, etc.). Additional training in health and wellness is considered an asset (Mental Health First Aid, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, Violence Threat Risk Assessment, accessibility, trauma-informed care, substance use, etc.).
We are seeking the following further experience, knowledge, and skills:
- Minimum 5 years of related work experience, ideally in a post-secondary environment;
- Minimum 2 years of experience working within a health and wellness setting
- Demonstrated understanding of privacy and confidentiality (FIPPA) within a post-secondary environment;
- Demonstrated aptitude for leadership and success in motivating, engaging, and supporting individuals and team members to achieve positive organizational outcomes
- Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the health and wellness challenges facing post-secondary students;
- Demonstrated ability to think strategically, weigh risks, and apply sound judgment to decision making and problem-solving, while working within a strong ethical framework
- Demonstrated understanding of Duty to Accommodate; experience supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion, including direct work with diverse students;
- Must have proven success in leading collaborative teams in a unionized environment with experience supervising, coaching, developing and mentoring staff;
- Must be highly motivated, resilient, innovative, and deeply collaborative;
- Sound knowledge of related legislation including the Public Health Act, Canada Health Act, Accessibility Legislation, Human Rights, and the National Standard for Mental Health and Well-Being for Post-Secondary Students is an asset;
- Experience and/or training in areas such as Trauma-Informed Care, Harm Reduction, Health Promotion, and Public Health would be an asset; and
- Demonstrated understanding of health professional standards of practice and experience leading a group of health professionals would be considered an asset.
An equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
Salary
The starting salary will be determined with consideration of the successful candidate’s relevant education, skills, and experience. The annual salary range for this position is $95,000 to $110,000.
UNBC offers employee tuition waivers (includes spouse and dependents), excellent benefit and pension packages, as well as employee training and development opportunities. For more details please see http://www.unbc.ca/human-resources/employee-benefits.
Normal hours of work will be 8:30am – 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Employment Equity
The University of Northern British Columbia is fully committed to creating and maintaining an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment that is accessible to all. We are devoted to ensuring a welcoming, safe, and inclusive campus free from harassment, bullying, and discrimination. This commitment is woven into our motto and mission. In the Dakelh language, UNBC’s motto ‘En Cha Huná translates to “they also live” and means respect for all living things. Through the respect for all living things, we are able to grow and learn better together, each bringing our own unique individual differences and contributions to inspire leaders for tomorrow by influencing the world today.
Employment equity requires that we remove barriers and overcome both direct and indirect discrimination. In this way, the pool of excellent candidates increases substantially. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.
About UNBC and the Prince George community
Since its founding in 1990, the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) has emerged as one of Canada’s best small research-intensive universities, with a passion for teaching, discovery, people, and the North. UNBC’s excellence is derived from community-inspired research, hands-on learning, and alumni who are leading change around the world.
Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have walked gently on the diverse traditional territories where the University of Northern British Columbia community is grateful to live, work, learn, and play. We are committed to building and nurturing relationships with Indigenous peoples, we acknowledge their traditional lands, and we thank them for their hospitality. UNBC’s largest campus in Prince George is located on the traditional unceded territory of the Lheidli T’enneh, in the spectacular landscape near the geographic centre of beautiful British Columbia.
UNBC consistently ranks in the top three in its category in the annual Maclean’s university rankings. UNBC also recently placed among the top five per cent of higher education institutions worldwide by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
With a diverse student population, the University is friendly, inclusive, and supportive. Prince George is a city of ~80,000 people with impressive cultural, educational, and recreational amenities. For more information about living and working in Prince George, please refer to http://www.unbc.ca/experience and https://moveupprincegeorge.ca. Make your mark with this leading post-secondary institution.
To Apply
Applicants should create an applicant profile, and apply on this position by uploading and submitting a cover letter and resume. The position is an on-campus position, based at the Prince George campus.
The University of Northern British Columbia is committed to employment equity and encourages applications from the four designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities) as well as the 2SLGBTQ+ communities and individuals with intersectional identities.
Persons with disabilities, who anticipate needing accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, may contact UNBC Employee Health & Wellbeing at [email protected]. Any personal information provided will be maintained in confidence.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority. We thank all applicants for their interest in UNBC however, only those applicants selected for further consideration will be contacted.
Priority will be given to applications received by June 30, 2026. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
