Senior Director – Academic Advising

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT

Title: Senior Director – Academic Advising

Location: Main Campus (Gainesville, FL)

Salary: Commensurate with training and experience

Timeline: Formal review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until a viable applicant pool is established.

You belong at a University that is Rising

The University of Florida, the flagship university of the state of Florida, is a top-tier research institution with a long history of training outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. UF is currently ranked #5 among U.S. public research universities by U.S. News and World Report.

UF Student Success, a unit within the Office of Undergraduate Affairs at the University of Florida strives to create a campus that will provide a transformative and model undergraduate experience through an effective and genuine balance between liberal education and professional preparation.

The Opportunity

UF Student Success invites applications for the inaugural position of Senior Director of Academic Advising. This inaugural role will serve as the most senior representative of and primary point of contact for professional academic advising at UF. The Senior Director will be responsible for ensuring coordination and development of undergraduate academic advising across the University. Reporting to the Assistant Provost for Student Success, the Senior Director will join the Office of Undergraduate Affairs (OUA) and support the OUA mission. The Senior Director will work collaboratively with the Provost staff, College Deans and Associate Deans, Department Chairs, Academic Advisors, and professional staff whose responsibilities are related to academic advising.
Areas of focus will include creating a structure to establish and maintain best practices across the University; professional development; and the role of academic advising in student success, retention, and persistence. The University of Florida maintains multiple academic advising structures throughout campus, including department-level, college-level, and program-level. This position will work closely with all academic advising stakeholders, including Academic Advisors, Faculty Advisors, and student Peer Advisors, and will uphold the UF Student Success philosophy of multidisciplinary collaboration to enhance the University’s excellent service in academic advising to all undergraduate students.

Primary Responsibilities:

The inaugural Senior Director will act as a member of the Advisory Council for Undergraduate Affairs to represent the academic advising community along with the University Advising Council Chair. This role provides oversight of UF-level websites and other forms of media related to Academic Advising. By partnering with UFIT, Enrollment Management, and UF Undergraduate Affairs Director of Academic Support Services, and other campus stakeholders, the incumbent will establish priorities for maintaining and implementing advising support tools and technology and concerns related to the student degree audits and undergraduate catalog. The Senior Director will coordinate the preparation of an annual report that represents the accurate, current Academic Advising model and state of Academic Advising in each unit and campus wide. Additionally, the incumbent will establish and lead a standing University Advising Leadership Group with representation from college and unit-level academic advising leadership as well as play a critical role in the development and implementation of the Academic Advising component of Preview. The Senior Director will also supervise a team of advisors that will assist students in transition (change of major status) as well as other university-wide advising responsibilities. Because Academic Advising is a critical pillar of UF Student Success, the incumbent will serve on the UF Student Success Executive Leadership team under the leadership of the Assistant Provost for Student Success, with whom the incumbent will work collaboratively.

The Office of Undergraduate Affairs

The mission of undergraduate education at UF is to develop in our students’ intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, creative potential, cultural sensitivity and sense of purpose. The Office of Undergraduate Affairs assists in the creation of nurturing, transformative, model on-campus and virtual learning environments for all undergraduate students through an effective balance between liberal education and professional preparation. The Office of Undergraduate Affairs collaborates with the campus community to ensure this goal is a collective one in common pursuit of dynamic undergraduate learning experiences that support the mission of the Office of the Provost and the University of Florida. To this end, staff in the Office of Undergraduate Affairs support university committees, oversee interdisciplinary curricula and programs, and monitor undergraduate degree requirements, aimed at maintaining connection and communication with administration, faculty, staff, and students; improving student persistence; furthering the university’s goals of excellence and its core values
In support of that mission, UF is committed to providing instruction of the highest quality, opportunities for research and innovation, and co-curricular programs that build students’ capacity for understanding themselves and the world, while fostering their commitment to the service of others locally, nationally and internationally.

It is the vision that University of Florida graduates will have a well-developed capacity for intellectual inquiry,
demonstrated competency in a chosen discipline, and a strong sense of personal, social, and global responsibility.

The University of Florida

Located in Gainesville since 1906, The University of Florida (UF) has 16 colleges, a major academic health center, a championship winning athletic program, a top-ranked undergraduate online program and, in keeping with its land-grant mission, one of the nation’s most comprehensive agriculture and natural resources programs. All are based at the University’s 2,000-acre campus, joining its historic red-brick core with advanced facilities and preserved natural areas and connecting to adjacent innovation, commercial and residential districts.

UF has 55,000 students, 30,000 employees, 5,500 faculty members, a $5 billion annual budget and more than 140 mission-focused units across the state of Florida. It is the Sunshine State’s only member of the Association of American Universities comprising the nation’s 60 leading public and private research universities. More than 51,000 students have applied as freshmen for the 2021-22 academic year — a new record.

Several qualities distinguish UF among today’s leading public research universities. The first is its highly comprehensive breadth on a single campus, facilitating interdisciplinary collaboration among, for example, faculty within the adjacent colleges of journalism, engineering, and medicine. The second is its unwavering support from the state of Florida, which has endorsed UF’s drive to become one of the nation’s very best public research universities — supporting those efforts since 2013 with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding to grow its faculty ranks by 500 members. UF’s third exceptional quality is its dynamism. Like Florida, the nation’s third-largest state and among the fastest-growing, UF is undergoing rapid transformation as it pursues the overarching aspiration to be “a premier university that the state, nation and world look to for leadership.”

The City of Gainesville

Gainesville (http://cityofgainesville.org) is home to Florida’s largest and oldest university, and so is one of the state’s centers of education, medicine, cultural events and athletics. The University of Florida and UF Health Shands Hospital are the leading employers in Gainesville and provide jobs for many residents of surrounding counties. Gainesville is also the largest city in Alachua County and is the county seat, with approximately 269,000 residents county-wide. It serves as the cultural, educational and commercial center for the north central Florida region. The city provides a full range of municipal services, including cultural and nature services and necessary administrative services to support these activities. Additionally, the city owns a regional transit system, a regional airport, and a 72-par championship golf course. Known for its preservation of historic buildings and the beauty of its natural surroundings, Gainesville’s numerous parks, museums and lakes provide entertainment to thousands of visitors. Because of its beautiful landscape and urban “forest,” Gainesville is one of the most attractive cities in Florida. The city is in a central location to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, providing easy access within a day’s drive to beaches, nature preserves, and water-based activities. Explore Gainesville in 60 Seconds.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The University of Florida is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The University is committed to non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations, genetic information, and veteran status in all aspects of employment including recruitment, hiring, promotion, transfers, discipline, terminations, wage and salary administration, benefits, and training.

Minimum Qualifications

Master’s degree
10+ years of experience in academic advising
Experience supervising employees

Preferred Qualifications

A successful Senior Director will nurture development of networks across the University and collaborate with diverse stakeholders; working to build consensus in a collaborative fashion. The Senior Director must work independently and interdependently and able to establish and communicate a vision for academic advising at UF. Prior knowledge of University policies and procedures is desirable.

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

Strong leadership and planning skills.
Proven problem-solving skills, organizational, and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple, competing priorities
Strong interpersonal and verbal communication skills and communicate effectively in writing.
The ability to cultivate and sustain collegial relationships is critical to this position.
Experience with academic advising and intervention strategies
Familiar with NACADA and its core values of academic advising

Application Instructions

Candidates must apply online and should include a letter of interest outlining their qualifications for this position, a resume or current curriculum vitae and list of professional references.

Inquiries and nominations can be sent to Mackenzie Burkett, Talent Consultant with the Strategic Talent Group at m.burkett@ufl.edu or 352-273-1751.

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call 352/392-2477 or the Florida Relay System at 800/955-8771 (TDD). Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the US.

The “government in the sunshine” laws of Florida require that all documents relating to the search process, including letters of application/nomination and reference, be available for public inspection upon request.

Formal review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until a viable applicant pool is established.

Anticipated start date of May 1st, 2023.

Inaugural Senior Director of Academic Advising Finalist:

Mr. Nigel Richardson | March 20th 2023

Assistant Director for New Student Transitions at University of Florida, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Academic Advising Center

Seminar: Monday, March 20th, 2023, 3:30pm, CSE Room 121, https://ufl.zoom.us/j/91316686762

Seminar Title: Promoting a Culture of Collaboration for Enhanced Student Support: Advancing Advising at the University of Florida

CV

Survey

Dr. Andrea Evangelist| March 22nd 2023

Director, College-wide Advising and Career Exploration at Santa Fe College

Seminar: Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023, 3:45pm, CSE Room 121, https://ufl.zoom.us/j/98075020648

Seminar Title: Order Up! Collaborating and Connecting to Ensure Everyone is Well-Fed

Survey

Dr. Sarah Ellison | March 27th, 2023

Assistant Dean of Advising, College of Agriculture, University of Kentucky

Seminar: Monday, March 27th 3:45pm, Little Hall 109, https://ufl.zoom.us/j/98930824895

Seminar Title: The University of Florida: A Personalized Advising Community

Dr. David Dearden | March 30th, 2023

Assistant Dean of Advising and Undergraduate Education, University of North Carolina Charlotte

Seminar: Thursday, March 30th 2:30pm, CSE 101, https://ufl.zoom.us/j/97751346233

Seminar Title: Supporting Academic Advisors at the University of Florida