Director, Office of Student Support

Job DetailsJob Location: Forest Grove Campus - Forest Grove, OR 97116Position Type: ExemptSalary Range: $75,000.00 - $85,000.00Job Category: Faculty and Staff Pacific University achieves excellence and distinction by investing in exceptional people to think, care, create, and pursue justice in our world. We embrace discovery in a close and nurturing environment that leads to genuine transformation. Our community is diverse, sustainable, and dedicated to discovery and excellence in teaching, scholarship, and practice.

 

At Pacific University, we thrive in an extraordinary environment, surrounded by the beauty of the great Pacific Northwest, with campus locations in Forest Grove and Hillsboro. We humbly acknowledge and thank the original caretakers of the lands on which we live, work, teach, and acquire and share knowledge.

 

Enrollment Management & Student Affairs at Pacific University is dedicated to fostering student development in support of a more just, sustainable, and caring world. Guided by our core values—equity and inclusion, care, community, and learning—we center holistic student wellbeing, cultivate a sense of belonging, and champion equitable practices.


As part of this area, the Office of Student Support (OSS) is committed to continuous growth, collaboration, and innovation in service of students experiencing barriers to academic success, wellbeing, or belonging.
 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF POSITION

The Director of the OSS provides strategic leadership, operational oversight, and campus-wide coordination for Pacific University’s comprehensive student support and Care Referral infrastructure. This role is responsible for ensuring high-quality, equitable, and compliant delivery of case management, CARE Team coordination, academic persistence support, academic coaching, and holistic retention-focused interventions for undergraduate and graduate and professional students.

The Director serves as a key institutional leader advancing wraparound, culturally responsive student support practices that promote student wellbeing, belonging, safety, academic skill development, and persistence. The role requires strong supervisory leadership, systems thinking, policy development expertise, and the ability to collaborate across academic and administrative units to strengthen proactive retention and campus climate response efforts

 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS / MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Vision


Provide vision, direction, and leadership for the Office of Student Support aligned with divisional and university priorities related to student success, wellbeing, equity, retention, persistence, and academic skill development. 
Integrate academic coaching, academic persistence, case management, CARE Team, campus climate response, and outreach functions into a cohesive, student-centered system of care.
Serve as a campus leader advancing holistic, developmentally informed, culturally responsive, and prevention-oriented approaches to student support and retention.
Ensure OSS services and messaging promote trust, clarity, accessibility, and equitable access to both academic and non-academic support resources.
 


Supervision & Team Development


Provide direct supervision, coaching, and performance evaluation for OSS professional staff, including:


Associate Director for Graduate and Professional Student Support
Associate Director for Undergraduate Student Support
Assistant Director of Academic Persistence
Case Manager
Academic Success Coach


Clarify and maintain role differentiation between OSS position responsibilities to prevent role drift, duplication, and burnout.
Ensure equitable workload distribution, clear case ownership, and appropriate escalation pathways for complex or high-risk cases, and alignment between academic coaching, persistence, and case management functions.
Lead hiring, onboarding, training, and professional development for OSS staff.
Support staff sustainability through reflective supervision, secondary trauma mitigation strategies, and clear boundaries between direct service, consultation, and leadership responsibilities.
Ensure the Dean of Student Wellbeing is briefed with timely information, risk assessments, and response options for acute or high-impact situations.



Operational Oversight & Case Management Systems


Oversee OSS operational systems serving undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, ensuring coordinated triage, case assignment, academic coaching referrals, documentation, and follow-up practices.
Provide supervisory oversight of case management and academic coaching practices to ensure consistent risk assessment, intervention planning, documentation, and case closure standards.
Serve as a consultative resource for complex or high-risk cases, including threat assessment and safety planning.
Provide direct, non-clinical case management support dur