Craigslist
Part-Time Personal Assistant (Somerville)
Summary:
Seeking a proactive, tech-savvy Personal Assistant to provide collaborative administrative, project-based, and daily support for a sustainability leader, bringing order to complexity.
Highlights:
1. Collaborative and respectful working relationship
2. Opportunity to bring order to complexity
3. Support a leader in sustainability and social change
I am a lifelong leader, author, and activist in the field of sustainability and social change – now partially retired. I’m seeking a part-time personal assistant to help with a mix of administrative, project-based, and day-to-day support related to my professional work and personal life. The work requires a collaborative, respectful working relationship and is ideal for someone who is organized, tech-savvy, dependable, and comfortable juggling many different kinds of tasks.
I’m looking for someone mature, reliable, and proactive—someone who enjoys bringing order to complexity and can work independently with good judgment. This role spans a wide range of support, from routine troubleshooting and occasional errands to more complex, longer-term administrative and project-based work. The work predominantly includes:
- Helping me stay on top of projects and tasks, including non-urgent but high-importance goals that run concurrent to my professional workload
- Supporting the ongoing organization of my office space, as well as physical and digital filing systems
- Assisting with travel planning, itineraries, and expense reporting
- Communicating with institutions or organizations on my behalf
- Executing discrete administrative tasks
- Responding to ongoing life-administration needs and troubleshooting recurring technology obstacles
While you will be aware of my professional workload, most of the support I need is administrative and personal, and although invaluably, only indirectly supports my professional productivity.
My current assistant and I have identified that strong computer and technology skills are essential for success in this role, especially in a Mac environment. This position requires fluency with Microsoft Suite, Google Suite, Canva or other design tools, Substack, and social media, along with a broader comfort with and interest in technology. Ideally, this role includes direct troubleshooting support as well as collaborative training and documentation, so that I may also continue to build my own technical skills.
There will be occasional errands, and from time to time the assistant may also provide modest technology and life-administration support to my wife, who is a professor. I am also looking for someone to assist us in planning and implementing several longer-term projects to improve our home’s technology systems and to organize our home.
This is a predominantly in-person position, though some work-from-home and independent follow-up tasks are expected between in-person shifts. I travel fairly regularly throughout the year, which creates natural down periods in our in-person workflow. Scheduling is ideally flexible for both parties on a weekly and seasonal basis. The role currently averages approximately 8 hours per week spread over the course of a year.
Being based in or near Somerville is preferred, and access to a car is helpful for occasional errands, though not required.
The starting hourly rate is $25 for an initial three-month period, to be revisited. A commitment of at least one or more years is desired. This position is compensated as a 1099 independent contractor.
How to apply:
Please send my current assistant (1) your resume and (2) a brief email introduction expressing why you are interested in the personal assistant role and what makes you a good fit: olivia.izabel.lopes@gmail.com We aim to hold interviews at the end of January and begin working at the start of February. The person currently serving in this role has been with me for two years and will be available to provide onboarding and training support to the new hire.

18 Sargent Ave, Somerville, MA 02145, USA
$25/hour