Executive Assistant

The Opportunity

Essie Justice Group (Essie) is building grassroots power to dismantle the US incarceration system, the most egregious creator of racial and gender injustice of our time. We are a loving and powerful community of women with incarcerated loved ones. Our community includes cisgender women, transgender women, formerly incarcerated women, gender expansive people, elders, and young people.

After eleven years of building an active membership across California and beyond, Essie is deepening its base-building and leadership development strategies with the 1 in 4 women with incarcerated loved ones to propel bold decarceration agendas across the nation. We seek to transform the criminal legal system and create a Black feminist future rooted in care, equity, community safety, and liberation.

In a period of continued organizational growth, Essie seeks a mission-driven, conscientious, highly organized, and values-aligned Executive Assistant & Office Coordinator to support our Deputy Director while ensuring smooth office operations, events, and special projects. This role is ideal for someone who finds meaning in behind-the-scenes work, excels at logistics and relationship care, and understands how strong systems and welcoming spaces support powerful organizing.

Core Responsibilities

Executive & Administrative Support

Strategic Administrative Support - Provide a range of administrative support tasks to enable and enhance the ability of the Deputy Director to utilize their time and focus on leadership and strategic tasks.

• Provide high-level administrative support to senior leadership, enabling focus on strategic and leadership priorities.
• Manage complex calendars, scheduling, meeting coordination, and real-time adjustments.
• Coordinate travel, logistics, and expense documentation.
• Draft and manage correspondence; prepare materials for meetings and speaking engagements.
• Support Board of Directors and key staff meetings, including logistics and note-taking.
• Organize and manage external meetings, coordinating logistics, agendas, and stakeholder communications while ensuring all details are handled efficiently for a successful outcome.
• Provide project coordination by managing timelines, tracking deliverables, and ensuring all tasks are completed on schedule with attention to detail.

Office & Event Operations Support

• Ensure a well-functioning, welcoming office environment that supports staff wellbeing and productivity.
• Manage office systems, supplies, mail, inventory, and basic technology troubleshooting.
• Coordinate logistics for internal and external events, including venues, vendors, timelines, and materials.
• Support staff culture through celebrations, appreciation efforts, and hospitality-centered practices.
• Serve as a welcoming first point of contact for partners, donors, consultants, and visitors
• Foster peer learning and establish the office as a well-connected movement hub in Oakland, serving as a key point of contact for individuals within the Essie and movement ecosystem.
• Facilitate and manage event hosting opportunities by reaching out to individuals within the community, encouraging them to host their own events in the office space, while also coordinating all logistics to ensure successful execution.

Special Projects

• Support and coordinate priority projects led by Directors across operations, organizing, campaigns, and institution-building.
• Lead logistics, communication, and coordination for cross-team initiatives and events as needed.
• Contribute to improving systems, processes, and workflows that support organizational growth.

Who We’re Looking For

Qualifications

• 3-4+ years of experience in administrative support, office coordination, logistics, or similar roles.
• Experience supporting senior leaders in fast-paced, mission-driven environments strongly preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Impeccable attention to detail and strong organizational habits
• Proficiency with Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Zoom, and general office technology.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities with discretion, adaptability, and follow-through.
• Deep alignment with Essie’s values and a demonstrated commitment to racial justice, gender justice, and ending mass incarceration.

Qualities

• Highly trustworthy, discreet, and grounded in integrity
• Proactive, resourceful, and calm under pressure
• Warm, welcoming, and relationship-oriented
• Committed to personal and political growth, with humility and self-awareness
• Uplifting team member with a solutions-oriented mindset and a sense of humor
• Exhibits leadership empathy, working creatively with busy decision-makers to find solutions and ensure the timely delivery of key tasks

Qualities

• Dependable, solutions-oriented coordinator. You are extremely organized and handle projects with skill and grace, especially in a fast-paced, focused environment. In your previous experience, you’ve demonstrated exceptional follow-through by maintaining constant engagement and leadership in delegated projects from beginning to end. You value and pride yourself on absolute reliability, rooted in a deep sense of responsibility. You anticipate needs and take initiative to address them. “I persist despite obstacles” is one of your mottos.
• Welcoming energy. You project warmth and compassion and people naturally gravitate to you because they feel seen and appreciated by you. You are a natural host and take joy in making others comfortable; your presence brings calmness to any space you are in.
• Discernment and honesty we can trust. You are a thoughtful team member who acts in alignment with your integrity and are unfailingly trustworthy.
• Committed to evolution. You are committed to continuously deepening and evolving your own understanding of systems of oppression through study, openness, and humility. And, you easily recognize your own relationship to privilege and power, examining and shifting your behaviors as appropriate.
• Uplifting and additive. You see mistakes as opportunities for growth; problems as catalysts for solutions, and inspire others along the journey. You carry a positive approach, can-do attitude, and authentic kindness wherever you go.

The Position

The Executive Assistant a full-time,exempt position. The opportunity includes full medical, dental, and vision benefits, optional 401(k), a substantial vacation package, and a monthly personal wellness stipend. This position will be based in Essie’s office in Oakland, with a requirement to work from the office 4 days a week, with 1 day work from home.

To Apply

Please address a personal, specific, and thoughtful cover letter to the “Essie Hiring Committee” and submit along with a resume through our hiring portal (https://essiejusticegroup.bamboohr.com/jobs). Your resume tells us what you can do; your cover letter should tell us who you are and why you want to work with Essie.

Essie Justice Group provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all staff members. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and skills. Essie does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, immigration status, socioeconomic status, ancestry, age, size, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, familial status, veteran status, disability, AIDS/HIV status, medical condition, prior conviction, arrest history, traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Essie values and specifically seeks applicants who are people with incarcerated loved ones; formerly incarcerated people; people of color; women; queer, transgender, gender expansive, and gender fluid people.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, performance, assessment, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

About Essie Justice Group

Essie Justice Group is a nonprofit organization of women with incarcerated loved ones taking on the rampant injustices created by mass incarceration. Our award-winning Healing to Advocacy Model brings women together to heal, build collective power, and drive social change. Essie is Great Place to Work-Certified™ by Great Place to Work.

Learn more at www.essiejusticegroup.org.

The Executive Assistant a full-time,exempt position. The opportunity includes full medical, dental, and vision benefits, optional 401(k), a substantial vacation package, and a monthly personal wellness stipend. This position will be based in Essie’s office in Oakland, with a requirement to work from the office 4 days a week, with 1 day work from home.