Exempt, Regular, Full-time

University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) seeks an innovative, transformative, and learner-centered academic leader to serve as Portfolio Vice President & Dean of the School of Integrative and Professional Studies (PVP-IPS). This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of applied liberal arts and sciences by advancing interdisciplinary, skills-based education that prepares learners to thrive in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world. Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer (SVP-CAO), the PVP-IPS is an opportunity for a high-energy, future-focused servant leader motivated to facilitate organizational culture transformation that results in a portfolio of innovative, sought-after, employer-aligned learning products.

As chief product officer, chief experience officer, and chief learning officer for the School of Integrative and Professional Studies, the PVP-IPS will shape the market-responsive evolution of UMGC's learning experiences, ensuring they remain relevant, interdisciplinary, and deeply connected to workforce needs. This position acts with the sense of urgency, clarity of purpose, and awareness of what matters that this volatile time in postsecondary education demands.

As chief product officer, the PVP-IPS crafts a market-responsive product vision and drives iteration and innovation of all learning experiences from new product concept through the entire lifecycle, always with a continuous improvement mindset, ensuring that each experience aligns with UMGC's vision, strategy, and expected performance metrics.

As chief experience officer, the PVP-IPS is an influencer who leads the creation and implementation of personalized, digitized, and curated learning experience products across the enterprise, demonstrating an ability to “walk in the learner's shoes” from the moment they first hear of UMGC.

As chief learning officer, the PVP-IPS develops and empowers the evolution of academic experts and team members within the school and relevant stakeholders across the university, identifying the next set of skills team members will require and providing opportunities to acquire those skills.

The PVP-IPS must be a visionary and agile leader with the ability to bridge STEM, social sciences, humanities, and professional disciplines in ways that equip learners to address complex global challenges. This requires a deep understanding of how knowledge is applied across industries, preparing learners not just for today's careers but for lifelong adaptability in evolving fields. In today's fast-changing world, organizations require professionals who can navigate ambiguity, think critically, synthesize information across disciplines, and communicate effectively across myriad contexts. The School of Integrative and Professional Studies is uniquely positioned to deliver these "durable skills"—problem-solving, ethical leadership, and systems thinking—alongside specialized technical competencies. A futurist, constantly curious about next-level thinking, and a collaborator, eager to engage divergent perspectives as foundations to innovation, the PVP-IPS inspires individuals and teams to new levels of achievement in advancing the vision, mission, and prominence of the school and University. The PVP-IPS is an influencer and partner who thinks and acts locally, across the institution, and with key external partners and stakeholders. Collaboration, team empowerment, and change management are essential skills for the PVP-IPS, as the ability to achieve institutional and school-specific outcomes through the effective leadership and management of others will be paramount to the PVP-IPS's success.

About the UMGC School of Integrative and Professional Studies

The School of Integrative and Professional Studies (IPS) is committed to creating learning experiences that go beyond traditional education. With an emphasis on curiosity, adaptability, and innovation, the School of IPS provides dynamic, technology-rich skills-defined learning frameworks aimed at preparing graduates to be effective leaders and citizens in a rapidly evolving global landscape. The school's academic product portfolio comprises two primary areas: applied sciences and education and professional studies. Areas of study in applied sciences include behavioral and social sciences, psychology and clinical professional counseling, environmental science, biotechnology, nursing, political science, and mathematics. Interdisciplinary and professional areas of study include education, communications, history, world languages and cultures, humanities, and security and protective services.

Relocation to the Maryland/Washington, D.C./Northern VA metro area is required. Upon relocation, hybrid onsite three (3) days per week or more as necessary.

Primary accountabilities of the Dean include:

• Strengthen the integration of liberal arts and applied sciences to ensure graduates are both analytically rigorous and practically skilled
• Expand interdisciplinary offerings that develop professionals who understand the intersection of technology, ethics, policy, and human behavior
• Enhance global and civic perspectives to prepare learners for leadership roles in multinational and cross-sector environments
• Ensure that IPS programs provide learners with essential “humanics” skills—the ability to integrate human, technical, and data literacy for lifelong employability.
• Solicits and cultivates a breadth of perspectives, ideas, and experiences as drivers of innovation, recognizing that this leads to better decision-making and problem-solving
• Champion the relevance of applied liberal arts and sciences in preparing learners for a dynamic workforce where adaptability, ethical reasoning, and interdisciplinary expertise are critical
• Foster an expansive and compelling shared vision for the school to provide a leading-edge product array responsive to market dynamics, employer, and partner needs, and which differentiates the school from its competitors as the clear leader of post-secondary, skills-based education
• Clarify and expand the school's product portfolio of market-driven, differentiated, global products and learning experiences while promoting learner success, retention, persistence, timely degree completion, and ensuring that graduates are competitive within the workforce
• Identify and create opportunities for short and direct learner pathways, accelerated program pathways, stackable credentials, credit, and non-credit learning experiences that equip learners with industry-validated knowledge, abilities, and skills, including soft skills necessary for success in the workplace
• Navigate the challenges of creating scalable solutions to deliver workforce- and career-aligned learning experiences, ensuring consistency across learning experiences to deliver a uniform, predictable, user-intuitive learner experience, support learner retention, and enhance learning
• Own and improve key performance metrics for the IPS portfolio of learner and employee experiences, including the school's net promoter scores, learner satisfaction and engagement, course and program success, profit and loss, and IPS employee culture, satisfaction and engagement
• Manage, motivate, and evolve a high-performing team of faculty, staff, and a deeply experienced bench of practitioner adjunct faculty to sustain a learning community of experts committed to learner success, including teaching excellence, assessing, and validating non-traditional experiences for credentials, and learner-centric practices
• Create and implement a learning strategy to develop IPS faculty and staff knowledge, skills, and abilities that enable them to create and deliver best-in-class and differentiated learning experiences across the IPS portfolio
• Build capacity for intradepartmental collaboration and data-informed decision making to support success and persistence
• Lead with an entrepreneurial outlook, characterized by a drive to promote innovation and a willingness to take risks in service to innovation
• Expand strategic and collaborative partnerships with federal and state government agencies, federal and state civilian agencies, federal and congressional leaders, the Department of Defense, private sector industry, B2B, and other colleges and universities
• Develop industry and civic partnerships that reinforce the role of social sciences, humanities, and interdisciplinary education in solving complex, real-world problems
• Seek out and leverage a wide network of sector-relevant relationships, and serve the local, State, and national communities through service on boards, advisory groups, and industry commissions
• Collaborate with other Academic Affairs units, Analytics, Institutional Effectiveness, Student Affairs, Global Military Operations, Marketing and Admissions, and the Chief Community Engagement and Opportunity Officer to measure, assess, and improve learner engagement, success, persistence, completion, and satisfaction
• Oversee and manage the IPS budget, preparing annual budget requests to reflect the needs and priorities of the school, and executing the ongoing administration of the allocated budget
• Champion UMGC's open-access mission to offer workforce-relevant, high quality, affordable programs for adult learners
• Establish themselves as the nationally visible leader and voice of UMGC for all the learning experiences in the IPS portfolio
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned

Required education & experience: A demonstrated ability to get things done. An earned Master's degree from an accredited institution of higher learning in a discipline related to or represented within the school; at least 10 years of practical experience working directly in a related field in industry, government, or not-for-profit organizations, with evidence of progressive increases in levels of responsibility; demonstrated success developing and executing strategies that align to and drive key business outcomes; experience fostering a shared vision and leading people and projects to deliver results; evidence of cultivating trusting and collaborative relationships with individuals and teams; demonstrated expertise in fostering academic-industry-government collaborations that highlight the value of human-centered problem-solving, ethical leadership, and integrative learning; experience utilizing data and assessment to inform decisions and practices; strong executive gravitas and presence with the ability to communicate well with both technically-expert and non-technical audiences; demonstrated experience with developing and managing budgets; experience setting high standards for self and team and motivating teams to new levels of achievement; and an understanding of the higher education landscape and its regulatory environment.  

Preferred education & experience: An earned doctorate or other terminal degree from an accredited institution of higher learning, preferably in a discipline related to or represented within the school, with a strong interdisciplinary research or applied learning background; experience leading large-scale initiatives that connect liberal arts education with technology, business, healthcare, or government sectors; track record of leveraging data and human-centered design to create scalable, high-impact learning experiences that bridge disciplines and industries; experience working in higher education, adult education or training, or related educational leadership experience; demonstrated experience in promoting and scaling online educational programs for adult learners; familiarity with product management; leadership experience rooted in emotional intelligence, sensitivity, collaboration, and the highest ethical standards; proven success engendering an environment of trust and cultivating a community engaged in and committed to continuous quality improvement and efficient change management; broad understanding of current and emerging societal, economic issues affecting/influencing higher education; demonstrated ability to establish and maintain a productive network of relationships with potential partners in higher education, industry, government, the military, and the non-profit sector; as well as a creative, innovative, collaborative, consensus builder with excellent communication and presentation skills.

All submissions should include a cover letter and resume.

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination. UMGC is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, ancestry, political affiliation or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

Workplace Accommodations:

The University of Maryland Global Campus Global Campus (UMGC) is committed to creating and maintaining a welcoming and inclusive working environment for people of all abilities. UMGC is dedicated to the principle that no qualified individual with a disability shall, based on disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of the University, or be subjected to discrimination. For information about UMGC's Reasonable Workplace Accommodation Policy or to request an accommodation, applicants/candidates can contact Employee Accommodations via email at employee-accommodations@umgc.edu. 

Benefits Package Highlights:

• Generous Time Off: Enjoy 22 days of paid vacation, 15 days of sick leave, 3 personal days, and 15 paid holidays (16 during general election years). For part-time employees, time off rates will be prorated based on the number of hours worked.
• Comprehensive Health Coverage: Access to health care, medical with vision, dental, and prescription plans for both individuals and families, effective from the 1st of the month following your hire date.
• Insurance Options: Term Life Insurance, Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance, and Long-Term Disability (LTD) Insurance. Part-time employees working less than 0.5 FTE are not eligible for LTD.
• Flexible Spending Accounts: Available for medical and dependent care expenses.
• Retirement Plans: Choose between the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) or the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS).
• Supplemental Retirement Plans: include 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and various Roth options. The university does not provide matching funds.
• Tuition Remission: Immediate availability for Regular Exempt Staff. Spouses and dependent children are eligible for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service. NOTE: For part-time employees (at least 50 percent of the time), tuition remission benefits are prorated.

Hiring Range: