Executive Director, Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning

Description

About the Department

The University of Chicago is an urban research university that has driven new ways of thinking since 1890. Its commitment to free and open inquiry draws inspired scholars to its global campuses, where ideas are born that challenge and change the world. At the University of Chicago, students are taught how to think, not what to think. A University of Chicago education is transformative. Students do more than merely acquire knowledge; they develop the critical skills necessary to examine, understand and challenge ideas and assumptions—including their own. It is a proficiency they develop in the classroom and will use throughout their careers and their lives.

 

Central to the fulfillment of the university's educational mission and situated administratively in The College, the university's undergraduate college, is the Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning (CCTL). The CCTL supports faculty in their pedagogical and professional development enabling the expertise and creativity that drives the university's transformative education. After an institution-wide process to examine the mission, function and structure of the center, the CCTL has been reimagined, repositioned, and renamed to better support this mission. The university now seeks an innovative academic leader to shape and execute this newly reimagined future for the CCTL.

 

Job Summary

The University of Chicago seeks a creative, collaborative and experienced leader to serve as executive director of its newly envisioned and repositioned Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning.  The executive director will articulate a compelling vision for the role of teaching at the University of Chicago as well as the role of the CCTL in achieving that vision. Working together with the Dean and Masters of the College, as well as the Deans of the four graduate Divisions–biological sciences, humanities, physical sciences, social sciences– the Executive Director will extend the CCTL’s reach and impact across all academic programs, departments and disciplines, elevating the art and science of teaching and learning in support of the university’s educational mission. The Executive Director will be appointed as an Associate Dean in the College, reporting to the Dean of the College, and will receive a concurrent academic appointment at the rank of Senior Instructional Professor (open rank). This is a 12-month appointment, with eligibility to teach up to two courses per year.

 

Responsibilities

• The executive director will aid in developing imaginative and innovative courses, curricula and programs and in articulating a persuasive role for instructional technologies.
• The executive director will oversee the day-to-day operations and financial wellbeing of the CCTL as well as the recruitment, retention and supervision of six to eight staff who design and develop programming in support of all members of the University of Chicago community who have a teaching role.
• Program development will include support for teaching in STEM fields, inclusive teaching and equitable course design practices, and support for graduate students as they become effective teachers and fostering research on teaching and learning.
• The executive director will collaborate and coordinate with other units providing support for teaching and learning, including but not limited to Academic Technology Solutions, UChicagoGRAD, myCHOICE, and the College Writing Program.
• The executive director will foster and maintain systematic expansion of pedagogical and professional development programming, aimed at unionized Instructional Professors and Lecturers as well as Teaching Fellows in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Divinity.
• The executive director will provide sustained focus on the support of learning, in collaboration and coordination with the Dean of Students and other College units, including tutoring services, academic coaching, and academic skills assessment.  Increase focus on evaluating and assessing the efficacy of teaching and the success of learning both on an individual and curricular level. 
• Provides strategic leadership for a Center with senior management and serves as a liaison to academic departments, professional organizations and administrative units of the University.
• Oversees a communication strategy and marketing efforts aimed at increasing the visibility of the Center.