PROSPECTUS
Senior Director for the Center of Pathways and Purpose
Oxford College of Emory University
ABOUT OXFORD COLLEGE OF EMORY UNIVERSITY
Oxford College provides a distinctive liberal arts education for Emory University students in their first and second years of college. Located on Emory’s original campus in Oxford, Georgia, Oxford offers its students an intense focus on the liberal arts, leadership, and service on a small, residential campus, along with opportunities and resources that come with being an integral part of a leading research university.
As one of nine academic divisions at Emory University, Oxford College offers students a unique beginning to their Emory experience in an environment that helps build a foundation on which they can thrive both academically and personally. Oxford enrolls approximately 950 first- and second-year students, with 99% of the students residing in Oxford College housing. After two years at Oxford, students continue to Emory’s Atlanta campus to complete their bachelor’s degree through Emory College of Arts and Sciences, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, or the Goizueta School of Business.
Oxford students benefit from an intentional approach tailored to the first two years of college. An Oxford education centers on the close attention of faculty who both teach and mentor students through their academic and research pursuits. Oxford has a distinctive general education curriculum that includes Discovery Seminars, experiential learning, and a Milestone Project for every student. Oxford College has approximately 100 outstanding faculty members and 150 talented staff who contribute to this engaged and student-centered environment.
POSITION OVERVIEW
Oxford College of Emory University seeks a strategic, experienced leader to serve as the inaugural senior director for the Center of Pathways and Purpose, a center devoted to intentional reflection, personal discernment, and career exploration for first- and second-year students. In collaboration with partners at Oxford and across the university, the senior director will create and grow a robust office that impacts all students across the Oxford College community.
Reporting to the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs (Chief Academic Officer) at Oxford College, the Senior Director will oversee initiatives designed to support students in vocation and values exploration, community-engaged learning, global learning, research, and internship opportunities. Like its cognate Center at the Atlanta campus, the Center for Pathways and Purpose will play an important role in a campus-wide initiative to cultivate undergraduate student flourishing through experiential learning, intentional reflection, and mentoring relationships.
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Provide strategic, visible, and collaborative leadership for the personal and professional development of undergraduates in the liberal arts and sciences; articulate a holistic vision of undergraduate pathways for both internal and external stakeholders; develop measurements to gauge success; and work to integrate programs in partnership with Academic Affairs and Campus Life.
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Build, propose, and implement a budget process for the Center, exercising fiscal discipline and investing allocated resources according to institutional needs.
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Partner with Oxford College’s Advancement and Alumni Engagement team to increase philanthropic cultivation and stewardship with internal and external stakeholders and collaboration with alumni.
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Manage a team of professionals, including staff members as well as faculty with administrative duties, dedicated to the success of Oxford College undergraduates with regard to values exploration, leadership development, and experiential opportunities.
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Expand internship and meaningful experiential opportunities for Oxford College undergraduates, in close cooperation with the director of community-engaged learning and internships and relevant faculty. Collaborate with campus departments to develop credit-bearing opportunities for students related to leadership development. May teach an internship course.
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Partner with the director of community relations to intentionally grow external relationships with corporate and non-profit organizations to develop student opportunities in the Newton County region and elsewhere.
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Scale office impact by working closely with offices in Campus Life and student organizations to ensure that professional development activities respond to the needs of all students, including first-generation, low-income, and historically underrepresented groups.
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Ensure robust data collection and program evaluation of the work of the Center by partnering with Institutional Research.
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Shape the future of academic advising by working in close collaboration with the Advising Support Center and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
The Senior Director will be a member of the Academic Affairs leadership team and participate in regular meetings with Campus Life. The successful candidate will be able to develop strategies in collaboration with other campus leaders, implement new innovative programs and enhance existing ones, and deliver a coherent narrative for internal and external audiences about Emory’s investment in the success of our undergraduates.
Minimum Qualifications
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Ph.D. or Master’s degree in a relevant field and at least 5 years of senior leadership experience in career services and/or student development with an understanding of the evolving landscape or how students explore, pursue and navigate lives of purpose and impact.
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Experience in campus recruiting, employer partnerships, alumni relations and development, and/or career services. Technology, project management, and higher education desirable.
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Proven experience as a champion for all types of diversity and inclusion.
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Essential skills include strong people management skills; budget management/strategic resource allocation skills; excellent written and verbal communication skills; and effective collaboration skills to build relationships across campus with faculty, staff, and students.
ABOUT THE CENTER OF PATHWAYS AND PURPOSE
Oxford College’s Center for Pathways and Purpose supports Oxford’s abiding commitment to equip students to forge lifelong pathways of excellence and to develop an education of true and abiding value for our students.
The Center will bring together and expand existing programs that engage Oxford’s first- and second-year students in a developmental process of discovery, intentional reflection, and early career exploration. The center’s initiatives are designed to support students in vocation and values exploration, community-engaged learning, global learning, leadership development, research, and other meaningful experiences.
Like its cognate Center at the Atlanta campus, the Center for Pathways and Purpose will play an important role in a campus-wide initiative to cultivate student flourishing by providing resources, opportunities, and mentoring to all Oxford students.
Learn more about Emory College of Arts and Sciences Pathways Center here.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Oxford College is deeply committed to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. In particular, the recent hiring of a new director of student facing DEI initiatives within Campus Life, the formation of a faculty and staff group that has crafted a vision statement and goals for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Oxford, and several faculty hires that resulted in increased racial diversity among the faculty and increased curricular diversity for students demonstrate Oxford’s continued work to build a more diverse and inclusive community.
Institutional Statement on Diversity
The Emory community is open to all who have a commitment to the highest ideals of intellectual engagement, critical inquiry, and integrity. We welcome a diversity of gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, disabilities, ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, religious, national, and international backgrounds, believing that the academic and social energy that results from such diversity is essential to advancing knowledge, addressing society’s most pressing issues, and attending to the full spectrum of human needs in service to the common good. Read more here.
Kristin Bonnie
Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs (she/her/hers)
Kristin Bonnie is Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University. Dean Bonnie works in partnership with the Dean to oversee and enhance all aspects of the academic mission of the college.
Dr. Bonnie came to Oxford College in July 2022 from Beloit College, where she had served for fifteen years as a professor of Psychology and most recently as Associate Dean of Faculty and the Learning Experience. Before moving into administration, Dr. Bonnie taught courses in Introductory Psychology, Biological Psychology, Research Methods and Statistics, Animal Cognition, and within Beloit’s various first-year seminar programs. At Beloit, she was involved with multi-year institutional projects on topics including the development of student metacognition and reflective learning, decolonizing pedagogies and related DEI initiatives, and the development and implementation of a new strategic plan.
Dr. Bonnie earned a BS magna cum laude with honors in Psychology, and a minor in Biology from St. Lawrence University, and an MA and Ph.D. in Psychology from Emory University where she studied with renowned primatologist Frans de Waal. A former adjunct scientist with Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, her scholarship focuses on learning and decision-making in captive non-human primates and has resulted in more than 20 publications and dozens of invited and conference presentations.
Leadership Bio:
Dr. Kenneth Carter
Interim Dean of Oxford
(he/him/his)
Dr. Ken Carter is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology at Oxford College of Emory University, where he teaches introductory courses in psychology as well as advanced courses in clinical psychopharmacology, research methods, and personality.
Before joining the Oxford College faculty in 1994, Carter served as a senior assistant research scientist in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s prestigious Epidemic Intelligence Service, with a research focus on smoking as a risk marker for suicidal behaviors in adolescents.
Carter has published extensively in both academic and lay publications, actively engaging in the translation of research in psychology into everyday language. His articles have been published in magazines such as Mental Floss and has appeared on news programs such as Connect With Kids and NBC’s Today Show.
He is the co-author of Learn Psychology (Jones and Bartlett), a textbook now in its second edition, and he is currently at work on an introductory psychology textbook for SAGE publications as well as a psychopathology textbook for Cambridge University Press. He is the designer and instructor of a course on the psychology of thrill-seeking now offered by Emory University and Coursera as a MOOC (massive online open course). Canadian museum Science North has launched an exhibit on sensation-seeking that was informed by Carter’s work that is currently traveling in North America. His most recent book is Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies (Cambridge University Press).
A graduate of Oxford College and Emory University, Carter received an MA and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan. After completion of his doctoral work, he also earned an MS in psychopharmacology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and gained board certification as a clinical psychologist.
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
This position offers a competitive salary and benefits. Interested applicants should submit a cover letter, current resume, and three references as one document, either in Word or a PDF. The file name should start with your first name and then your last name, such as “John Doe - Oxford College Application.” This should be emailed to search@careerleadershipcollective.com with the email subject of “Application for Oxford College Senior Director.”
To be considered, interested applicants should submit the requested materials no later than May 19, 2023 by 11:59 EDT.
Oxford is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Employment is contingent upon eligibility to work in the US. Emory University is an e-verify employer.