Executive Director, Program for Leadership and Character in the College

External Applicants: 

Please ensure all required documents are ready to upload before beginning your application, including your resume, cover letter, and any additional materials specified in the job description.

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• Locate the "Resume/CV" document upload section at the bottom of the page.

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Job Description Summary

The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University seeks a high-level leader to be Executive Director of Leadership and Character in the College. This strategically minded senior leader will help lead an innovative, dynamic, and values-driven program that inspires, educates, and empowers leaders of character to serve humanity and is at the forefront of a national movement to educate character in U.S. colleges and universities. The Executive Director will serve as a member of the senior leadership team and work closely with the Senior Executive Director to develop and oversee the Program’s strategic plan, manage key Program staff and initiatives in the undergraduate College, and steward the Program’s resources and opportunities to advance its core mission, integrate key functions across the team, and extend its impact at Wake Forest and across higher education. The Executive Director will develop a strategic vision for advancing the Program’s mission, especially in the undergraduate College; hire and manage key staff; oversee special projects and ensure successful completion of core initiatives; build and sustain a culture of creative collaboration among the team; communicate the Program’s values, vision, and initiatives to a variety of audiences; and direct important aspects of program development, management, and communication. The ideal candidate will have a capacity for strategic thinking; a passion for management practices that support staff development; a commitment to fostering collaborative teams and encouraging organizational improvement; and an ability to communicate complexity with clarity and care. The ideal candidate will be also purpose-driven with a genuine enthusiasm for the mission of the Program and a desire to make a positive impact at Wake Forest and in higher education. They will be caring, reliable, humble, diligent, and detail-oriented, with the capacity to exercise wise judgment, write clearly and persuasively, and build meaningful relationships and collaborative cultures. Familiarity with higher education is required.

Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational institution dedicated to academic excellence in liberal arts, graduate and professional education. Located in Winston-Salem, NC (“The City of Arts and Innovation”), the University has a deep institutional commitment to public service and engagement with the world, as indicated by the motto Pro Humanitate (for humanity), which encourages students to develop the qualities of human character needed to serve humanity. With the aim to educate the whole person, the University has established an innovative Program for Leadership and Character that designs creative, liberal arts-based programming to help students develop the virtues of character needed to lead in an increasingly complex world. The Program is based on cutting-edge academic research on leadership and character, including research conducted by Wake Forest faculty who are leading experts on the study of character. The Program has received major gifts from individual donors and grants from major foundations to develop leaders of character at Wake Forest and beyond, including through the Educating Character Initiative, a national effort funded by $43 million from the Lilly Endowment to support other colleges and universities who wish to educate character in their contexts. The Program is increasingly seen as a national and international leader on issues of character in higher education.


Please submit 1) a cover letter explaining your interest in the position, your experience managing staff and/or building organizational cu