Dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences

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About the College of Education and Human Sciences
The College of Education and Human Sciences brings the power of higher education to bear on the challenges individuals, families, schools and communities face every day. That power manifests itself through the teaching, research, outreach, and extension of talented faculty, staff and students and is demonstrated through the contributions the alumni make to the communities in which they live. The land-grant mission of the university is strongly valued and upheld within the college. The College of Education and Human Sciences is a one-of-a-kind college comprised of seven academic departments that cross a wide range of content areas all focused on improving people’s lives. These include: Child, Youth and Family Studies; Educational Administration; Educational Psychology; Nutrition and Health Sciences; Special Education and Communication Disorders; Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education; Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design. The interrelated and multidisciplinary nature of the college promotes innovative ways of looking at issues, asking questions and seeking solutions to complex problems. The college has a strong, collaborative relationship with the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and many faculty embrace the ideals of translational research and impact on the communities through extension.

For instance, the teaching and research collaborations with Nebraska Extension place the college’s engagement efforts in all 93 counties in the state.

Visit cehs.unl.edu for additional information about the College of Education and Human Sciences.

The Opportunity

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks an innovative and inspiring academic leader to serve as the next Dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences. This is a unique and compelling opportunity to join one of the nation’s leading public land-grant research institutions at a time of strategic investment across UNL and the College’s academic programs, infrastructure, research, and community engagement. The next Dean will lead a diverse, collaborative, and collegial community of exceptional faculty, staff, and students poised to reveal and promote its strengths as the next leader charts a bold vision together. The incoming Dean will champion the College’s culture of rigorous inquiry and innovation in pursuit of meaningful impact and will position the College to play a central role within the University’s strategic vision. Headquartered in the newly constructed Carolyn Pope Edwards Hall, this one-of-a-kind college comprised of seven academic departments, with strong and important collaboration with the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources, is dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals, families, schools and communities and strengthening the relationships among them.

Reporting to the Executive Vice Chancellor, the College’s next Dean will join UNL at a pivotal moment, as the University is pursuing an aggressive agenda that will strengthen its position as a nationally preeminent and distinctive Big Ten university. Specific goals of this agenda include increasing enrollment; growing research expenditures; enhancing student retention and graduation rates; increasing the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty; prioritizing inclusive excellence and belonging; and increasing the number of faculty receiving national recognition and awards for their teaching, research, and creative activity. In service of this agenda, the incoming Dean will have the opportunity to harness the College’s rich history and collaborative culture, with a unique vantage point to shape and guide the College of Education and Human Sciences and support UNL’s future and continued successes.

The Role

The Dean reports directly to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer and serves as the chief academic and administrative officer of the College of Education and Human Sciences. The Dean will join a cohort of deans and campus leaders who are collaborative, supportive and committed. The Dean will engage with college leadership and will have responsibility for the strategic, programmatic, financial, fundraising, and management operations that support the mission and vision of the College of Education and Human Sciences and its role within the university and state.

The incoming Dean will:

• Have the opportunity to build upon the College’s strategic plan and its implementation in collaboration with faculty, staff, and students;
• Further the development of a relevant and distinctive identity for the multiple disciplines represented throughout the College;
• Serve as a public voice to develop the reputation of the College externally on national and international stages;
• Along with the department chairs, assure the continued prominence of the faculty by prioritizing the recruitment and retention of innovative and impactful faculty at all levels;
• Cultivate academic programs that demonstrate relevance, impact, innovation, and sustainability;
• Steward the relationship and strengthen the connections with Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR), Agricultural Research Division (ARD), Extension, and their leadership;
• Work to fully realize and enact the College’s and University’s commitment to community and belonging, ensuring that all individuals and interactions matter;
• Seek out and continue valuable collaborations with other academic units and partners;
• Promote and support a strong and diverse research agenda including attracting external funding;
• Champion and support multiple forms of scholarship, research, teaching, service, clinical work, and extension;
• Assure that the College continues to serve its students with academic programs of the highest quality and effectiveness, promoting practices for student success, retention, graduation and placement;
• Support the recruitment and retention of a high-quality staff;
• Engage alumni and other external supporters to advance the mission of the College;
• Take a leading role in attracting interested donors to support the College’s mission;
• Foster the development of an effective, ongoing leadership infrastructure throughout the College; and
• Continue an upward trajectory of enrollment in the College.

Candidate Profile
Successful candidates will have an outstanding academic record of impactful scholarship, teaching, and engagement; an abiding commitment to excellence of undergraduate and graduate education; significant record of success as a leader whose credibility, communication skills, and consultative management style can energize a dynamic, complex academic unit; a demonstrated commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment that fosters community and belonging; the ability to collaborate and partner effectively with a broad range of constituencies both across the University and with community partners and external audiences; demonstrate the ability to lead sophisticated and effective development and fundraising activities; and the skill to develop a purposeful and compelling strategy that will distinguish the College of Education and Human Sciences as a leader in the state, as well as a valuable regional, national and international resource. The next leader must also have and continue to demonstrate the highest level of integrity.

Candidates must hold an earned doctorate, with scholarly or research accomplishments commensurate with the rank of full professor in their home tenure department within the College.

Additional Attributes

A highly qualified candidate will also:

• Embody the role of advocate and champion for the College within the University setting and in the broader communities statewide and nationally;
• Possess and model a systems-thinking approach that focuses on integrative solutions to complex problems;
• Take bold, courageous risks to achieve excellence;
• Cultivate a vision for the future by being unafraid to propose new ideas and think beyond the existing structure and design of the College;
• Demonstrate comfort with and knowledge of the range of disciplines and scholarship represented through the College;
• Model an ethic of care and cultural consciousness for all college constituents;
• Demonstrate experience fostering and supporting a national and/or international reputation in diverse forms of scholarship, including interdisciplinary or community-engaged work, among others;
• Listen actively and model feedback to create more transparency, awareness, and understanding of decisions and outcomes throughout the College;
• Exhibit an authentic curiosity;
• Be energized to work in a complex organization and embrace the multifaceted needs of the College community including students, staff, all faculty, and external partners; and
• Embrace the challenges and unknowns of higher education today including the enrollment landscape and bring meaningful solutions for growing the reach and impact of the College.