Director for Wellbeing, Accessibility & Student Success

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Job Profile:

Job Duties:

Reporting to the Associate Vice President (AVP) for Enrollment & Student Success, the Director for Wellbeing, Accessibility & Student Success provides strategic leadership for systemwide initiatives that advance holistic student success, retention, and completion through integrated academic and career advising, health, mental health, accessibility, and well-being strategies. This role combines responsibility for student success leadership and staff supervision with subject-matter expertise in student mental health, well-being and accessibility. The Director collaborates closely with Universities of Wisconsin Administration (UWSA) leadership and campus partners to develop policies, programs, and practices that promote inclusion, belonging and student thriving for all students across diverse university contexts.

Key Job Responsibilities:

Leadership, Strategy, and Supervision

• Provide leadership for systemwide well-being, accessibility and student success initiatives aligned with enrollment, retention, and completion goals.
• Recruit, supervise, mentor, and evaluate professional staff supporting student success, including those with expertise in academic advising and career development, health and well-being, disability/accessibility services, student basic needs and support for special populations including former foster youth and veterans.
• Support the AVP in fostering a systemwide culture focused on equitable access, inclusion and belonging, holistic student success, and data-informed policies and practices in service of enrollment, retention and completion goals.
• Lead planning, implementation, and continuous improvement of initiatives addressing mental health, student well-being, disability/accessibility, student basic needs and student success.

Student Mental Health and Well-being

• Serve as a systemwide resource on student mental health and well-being policy and best practices.
• Advance a comprehensive, public-health–informed approach to student mental health and well-being that supports prevention, early intervention, treatment, and crisis response resources and initiatives.
• Integrate student mental health and well-being considerations with broader student success priorities such as basic needs, financial support, inclusion and belonging, and campus safety.
• Advise executive leadership on complex, sensitive, and evolving issues related to student mental health, well-being, disability, and accessibility.

Collaboration, Policy, and Campus Engagement

• Collaborate with UWSA and UW university stakeholders to develop and implement policies, plans, and practices that support student well-being, accessibility and success.
• Serve as a liaison and trusted resource to senior student affairs officers, deans of students, counseling center directors, health center directors, disability services directors, behavior intervention teams, alcohol/drug prevention coordinators, fostering success coordinators and other campus leaders.
• Represent the Universities of Wisconsin on internal and external committees, advisory groups, and professional organizations related to well-being, accessibility and student success.
• Prepare briefings, reports, and talking points for senior leadership, Regents, and legislative audiences as needed.

Assessment, Data, and Funding

• Partner with UW Administration and UW university stakeholders to develop metrics and evaluate the effectiveness of well-being, accessibility and student success initiatives.
• Lead or support systemwide assessment and reporting efforts related to counseling services, disability services, fostering success programs, and other student success programs and activities.
• Identify funding opportunities and lead or contribute to grant development to expand resources supporting well-being, accessibility and student success.

Budget and Operations

• Support development and management of budgets aligned with systemwide and divisional priorities.
• Ensure compliance with applicable policies, procedures, and employment requirements.
• Promote effective communication, healthy team processes, and accountability within the unit.

Department:

The Office of Enrollment and Student Success provides support to the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs, the President of the Universities of Wisconsin, and UW universities in the development of policies and practices that improve the recruitment, retention, and ultimate success for students in the Universities of Wisconsin. Of particular importance are efforts to maximize the educational benefits of equitable and safe institutional environments and engaging institutional enrollment management and student affairs units as vital resources in fostering access and student success.

Compensation:

The Director for Wellbeing, Accessibility & Student Success (Official Job Title: Student Affairs Director) is a full-time, limited, exempt position. Well-qualified candidates can expect a starting annual salary within a range of $115,000 - 128,000, commensurate with the candidate’s education, related experience, and qualifications.

Work Location:

The office location is located at 1220 Linden Drive, Madison WI.  An in-office requirement is expected three days per week with the option to work the remaining days off-site/remote. Telecommuting agreements are subject to change at any time. 

Required Qualifications:

• Earned master’s degree in higher education, counseling, psychology, public health, or a closely related field.

• Five years of progressively responsible experience in student affairs, student well-being, accessibility, and/or student success in higher education.

• Demonstrated leadership in developing and implementing well-being, accessibility and/or other student success initiatives.

• Knowledge of contemporary issues related to student mental health and well-being, disability/accessibility services, and student success.

• Experience supervising professional staff and facilitating cross-functional collaboration.

• Strong analytical, communication, and strategic planning skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Doctoral degree in a related field.

• Experience working in a multi-institution or system-level higher education environment.

• Advanced knowledge of population-level student mental health and well-being strategy.

• Advanced knowledge of wholistic student success models and practices.

• Demonstrated success advancing initiatives that support positive outcomes for all student populations.

• Experience with data-informed decision-making, assessment, and grant-funded initiatives.

How to Apply:

To ensure full consideration, please submit application materials as soon as possible. Applicant screening will begin immediately and be ongoing. To ensure full consideration, please apply by 11:59 PM on Monday, June 15. However, applications may be accepted until the position has been filled. 

Contact Information:

Questions may be addressed to: Shelby Buchanan, HR Manager: [email protected].

Accommodation Request

If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request by contacting [email protected]. 

Criminal Background Check and Reference Check Policy

This offer of employment is conditional pending the results of a criminal background check and a reference check process that includes questions regarding employee misconduct, sexual violence, and sexual harassment. If you have prior work history within the past 7 years with the Universities of Wisconsin, your personnel file will also be reviewed for employee misconduct. If the results are unacceptable, the offer will be withdrawn or, if you have started employment, your employment will be terminated.

Employment Authorization

Please note that successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e., a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of employer sponsorship) on, before, or after the effective date of appointment.   

Confidentiality

The Universities of Wisconsin will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. §. 19.36(7). 

Benefits Information

Universities of Wisconsin employees receive an excellent benefits package. To learn more about the benefits package, review the Faculty, Academic Staff & Limited Appointees  or University Staff   Please see this link for total compensation information: Universities of Wisconsin Health & Retirement Contributions Estimator to provide you with total compensation information. 

Clery Act information 

The Universities of Wisconsin provides statistics on campus crime in its Annual Security Report.  For more information on university campus statistics see https://www.wisconsin.edu/compliance/clery/.

UW is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other bases protected by applicable federal or State law and UW System policies. We are committed to building a workforce that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills, and encourage all qualified individuals to apply.