Professor/Chair - Nutrition & Food Sciences

NFS IRC # 52962 Job Advertisement

Chair of Nutrition and Food Sciences Department

Texas Woman’s University (TWU) is seeking a dynamic leader to chair its Nutrition and Food Sciences Department.  Housed on the Denton and Houston campuses, the Department currently offers five undergraduate degrees: Culinary Science & Food Service Management, Food & Nutrition in Business & Industry, and Nutrition with emphasis in Dietetics, Wellness, and Nutritional Sciences; three master’s degrees: Nutrition, Exercise & Sports Nutrition, and Food Science & Flavor Chemistry; and a PhD in Nutrition. The Department Chair reports to the Dean of the College of Health Sciences. This 12-month position is housed on the Denton campus with expectations of quarterly travel to the Houston campus. TWU is a publicly funded co-educational institution and holds a Carnegie Foundation classification of a Doctoral/Professional University. 

Highlights from the Department include a ranked culinology program and a flavor chemistry research program, both unique to Texas. Department faculty have extensive partnerships with regional and national food industry leaders and collaborations with other research institutes at TWU and nationally, securing both industry and federal funding. Additional lines of research include nutrition and disease, community nutrition, epidemiology, and sports dietetics/nutrition through cell culture, animal models, and human studies. Our longstanding accredited dietetics programs and dietetic internships have affiliations with all major medical centers, 100% match rate at clinical internships, and high (>97%) pass rates. Our Nutrition Science laboratories are housed in the new collaborative Scientific Research Commons, shared with Chemistry and Biology departments. We are building a new 136,000 sq. ft. health sciences center with a medical clinic, which will provide interprofessional training for dietetics. With all this, there is still room for visionary growth from new leadership. 

We are looking for someone with strong governance skills, budget management skills, strategic thinking of long-term department goals, effective communications, and collaborative respect for the breadth of faculty from bench to clinical sciences. The ideal candidate would have a track record of mentoring and promoting students and faculty, external funding, national service in professional organizations, successful alumni networking, an interprofessional approach to leadership and curriculum, and an ability to articulate and advocate a vision for Departmental growth.

Essential duties include supporting over 15 full-time tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty members on both the TWU Denton and Houston campuses, with DI directors and a graduate program coordinator, and two staff members. Other duties include supporting accreditation and curricular issues, student concerns, and serving as an internal and external liaison for the department.

Minimum qualifications include: 

• At least three years of experience in a leadership position
• An earned research doctorate and the ability to be tenured at the Associate or Full Professor rank
• Trackable teaching, research, and funding experience 

Texas Woman’s University occupies a notable position in higher education as the nation’s largest university primarily for women. Established in 1901, TWU is a doctoral/research-intensive public university which emphasizes the liberal arts and sciences as well as specialized and professional studies in business, nursing, health sciences, and education. TWU research is supported by engaged staff in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Center for Research Design and Analysis, and libraries. TWU also provides leadership development through the Center of Faculty Excellence.  The College of Health Sciences transforms learners into ethical, inclusive and compassionate leaders who advance the health and well-being of diverse communities through evidence-based practice and interdisciplinary innovation. 

TWU is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) that is deeply committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for all our University members. Diversity enriches the lives of our campus community, is instrumental as well as inspirational to our growth, and the driving force to the exemplary education and experience we provide to our students. We believe that recruiting, hiring and retaining a diverse talent at all employment levels of the university is central to our philosophy of a campus with a heart. TWU’s main campus in Denton, located just north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, is a vibrant part of a progressive, charming community with a diverse culture and exceptional venues for music and the arts.