Associate Dean for the School of Health Sciences

Faculty are essential to Liberty University’s mission of Training Champions for Christ. It is expected that ‎‎‎‎‎a faculty member model a personal commitment to the goals and values of Liberty University, engage ‎‎‎‎‎in an active commitment to, and experience of, personal spiritual formation within a biblically informed ‎‎‎‎‎Christian worldview. Faculty should view their teaching, engagement with students, and scholarship as a ‎‎‎means to a significant educational ‎‎end. They should strive to employ a variety of techniques for the ‎‎‎development of good learning ‎‎conditions, view each student as a unique individual, and insofar as it is ‎‎‎possible, provide for individual ‎‎differences, abilities, and interests. ‎

The Associate Dean is a full time, 12 month contracted position within the designated college or school. This position is an academic administrator, as well as a member of the faculty, whose primary role is to support the Dean of the College/School in providing exceptional leadership for curricular initiatives, strategic planning, program evaluation and development, and the management of administrative and financial affairs. Duties include coordinating the daily operations of the College/School and all matters necessary for the progress and management of the College/School. Other duties may be required, as determined by University and/or College/School leadership, per the Liberty University Faculty Handbook.

The Associate Dean, School of Health Sciences is a key strategic leadership position within the Liberty University Health Sciences administration. Reporting directly to the Dean and working collaboratively with chairs, Dean's Office staff, and faculty, the Associate Dean plays an integral support role in leading School of Health Sciences projects and initiatives. The Associate Dean aligns projects with business goals, constructs detailed work plans, and communicates results across a stakeholder audience. The Associate Dean is responsible for oversight and coordination of programs and activities that support research and operations for the school. The successful candidate will serve as a trusted advisor to the Dean, providing proactive, comprehensive support and forecasting to the strategic administrative and operational priorities, including partnering closely with administrative partners and leaders of the School of Health Sciences. The successful candidate will maximize people and projects. He/she will work with key university constituencies including IT, marketing, institutional effectiveness, and research. He/she will lead the team to keep projects or programs on schedule and within scope and budget, working toward high efficiencies and flawless execution.

Objectives of the Role

• In collaboration with the dean, build and develop the project teams to ensure maximum performance, providing purpose, direction, and motivation.
• Lead projects from inception through successful deployment, identifying schedules, scopes, budget estimations, and project implementation plans, including risk mitigation.
• To coordinate internal and external resources, ensuring projects remain within scope, schedule, and defined budgets, in collaboration with project staff from various functional departments.
• Analyze project progress and, when necessary, adapt scope, timelines, and costs to ensure that the project team adheres to project requirements.
• Establish and maintain relationships with appropriate stakeholders.
• Develop and support mechanisms that promote research/scholarship of faculty and graduate/undergraduate students.
• Promote, develop opportunities for, and support interdisciplinary research/scholarship and/or clusters.

Essential Functions

• Oversight of operational activities to facilitate effective project management across teams.
• Determines and prioritizes which matters need the dean’s attention and works with appropriate leadership to resolve complex operational matters.
• Works closely with the dean on projects and issues of significant impact to the school.
• Works closely with the dean to lead projects and initiatives that support the priorities and mission of both Liberty University and the School of Health Sciences.
• Provides operational oversight for the internal strategic planning processes and internal priorities for growing the School of Health Sciences.
• Develops and implements the organizational systems that support the goals necessary to enable the dean to lead comprehensive strategy of all constituents (faculty, staff, students, researchers, etc.).
• Collaborating with administrative and faculty leaders, helps identify and resolve issues of substantial significance that affect the overall functioning of the school. Collaborating with administrative, staff and faculty leaders, helps move forward institutional priorit