Program Director, RN to BSN Program, Jefferson College of Nursing, Thomas Jefferson University

Job Details

Thomas Jefferson University seeks a strategic and experienced academic leader to serve as Program Director for the fully online, asynchronous RN to BSN Program, delivered collaboratively between the Jefferson College of Nursing (JCN) and the Jefferson College of Health Professions (JCHP).

This is a full-time, 12-month faculty appointment that combines academic leadership, program oversight, and teaching. The Program Director is responsible for leading a high-quality, scalable online program that meets the needs of working registered nurses while advancing Jefferson’s mission, workforce commitments, and strategic growth priorities.

In this role, the Program Director provides integrated leadership across academic quality, enrollment growth, and operational execution. The Director ensures that the program remains responsive to a rapidly evolving healthcare and higher education landscape, while maintaining full alignment with accreditation standards and institutional expectations.

The position includes 0.60 FTE administrative leadership and 0.40 FTE faculty responsibilities, including teaching 2–3 courses annually in the online program.

Program Overview

The RN to BSN program is designed to support licensed registered nurses in completing the baccalaureate degree through a flexible, accessible, and career-aligned model.
The program features:
• Fully online, asynchronous delivery
• 30-credit curriculum delivered in 8-week courses
• Flexible completion timeline (1–3 years)
• A capstone/practicum experience (45 hours) focused on leadership or
community-based outcomes
• The program serves working nurses across Jefferson Health and external
partners and is positioned for growth within a competitive national market.

Role Overview

The Program Director leads all aspects of program performance, with responsibility for ensuring a cohesive, high-quality student experience while advancing enrollment, retention, and financial sustainability. This role requires the ability to lead within a distributed, technology-enabled environment, manage complexity across multiple stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement using data and evidence.

The Director works closely with faculty, instructional designers, enrollment management, student services, and institutional leadership to ensure that the program operates effectively at scale and maintains strong alignment with workforce needs.

Primary Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership, Growth, and Workforce Alignment
The Program Director is responsible for positioning the program for sustained growth and relevance within a competitive national landscape. This includes developing partnerships, expanding pipelines, and aligning the program with employer and workforce needs.
Key Responsibilities Include:
• Developing and executing a multi-year strategic growth plan
• Expanding employer-based partnerships, including Jefferson Health and
external organizations
• Monitoring market trends and competitor activity to maintain program
differentiation
• Leading a program designed for scale, including management of multiple
cohorts and course sections

Enrollment, Retention, and Student Success

The Director ensures that the program is designed and delivered in a way that supports adult learners and promotes student success in an online asynchronous environment.
Key responsibilities Include:
• Implementing strategies to improve:
Retention and persistence
Time to completion
Graduation rates
• Ensuring alignment with the needs of working professionals, including
flexibility and accessibility
• Monitoring student engagement, satisfaction, and progression data to inform
continuous improvement

Financial and Operational Engagement

The Program Director maintains awareness of the financial and operational dimensions of the program to support informed academic leadership and alignment with institutional priorities.

Key Responsibilities Include:
• Remaining informed about budgetary considerations as they relate to program
planning and sustainability
• Communicating program needs and considerations related to:
Course scheduling and delivery patterns
Section size and instructional capacity
Faculty workload distribution
• Offering program-level perspective to institutional partners engaged in
enrollment forecasting, academic planning, and continuous improvement
initiatives

Accreditation, Regulatory, and Compliance Oversight

The Director ensures that all aspects of the program meet accreditation and regulatory expectations, with particular attention to academic quality in online education.
Key responsibilities Include:
• Maintaining compliance with CCNE accreditation standards
• Leading accreditation processes, including self-study and reporting
• Ensuring alignment with current AACN Essentials
• Supporting continuous quality improvement through data, evaluation, and
documentation

Curriculum Leadership and Online Academic Quality

The Program Director provides leadership for a fully online, asynchronous curriculum that is high-quality, rigorous, coherent, and aligned with professional standards.

Key Responsibilities Include:
• Overseeing curriculum design, implementation, and evaluation
• Ensuring alignment with workforce needs and institutional goals
• Establishing consistent standards for asynchronous course delivery, including:
Faculty presence
Timely feedback
Student engagement
• Collaborating with instructional design and academic technology teams to
support course quality and innovation
• Ensuring teaching-learning practices support student achievement

Clinical/Practicum Oversight

Although the program is fully online, it includes a required applied learning experience. The Program Director ensures the quality, consistency, and integrity of this component.

Key Responsibilities Include:
• Overseeing the capstone/practicum (45 hours) experience
• Ensuring alignment with leadership and community-based outcomes
• Standardizing expectations, documentation, and evaluation processes
• Maintaining compliance with institutional and accreditation requirements

Faculty Leadership and Online Teaching Excellence

The Program Director leads faculty in delivering high-quality, asynchronous online education.
Key Responsibilities Include:
• Recruiting and mentoring faculty
• Ensuring faculty competency in:
Asynchronous teaching and facilitation
Student engagement and presence
Assessment and feedback practices
Promoting a culture of accountability and continuous improvement

Interprofessional and Institutional Collaboration

The Director plays a key role in coordinating across colleges and institutional units to support program success.
Key Responsibilities Include:
• Leading collaboration between JCN and JCHP
• Partnering with enrollment management, marketing, instructional designers,
and student services
• Engaging enterprise partners to strengthen workforce alignment

Teaching Responsibilities

The Program Director maintains an active faculty role by teaching in the program and contributing to course content development.
• Teach 2–3 courses annually in the fully online, asynchronous RN to BSN
program
• Demonstrate excellence in online teaching
• Participate in course content development and continuous improvement

Job Description

Qualifications Required:

Earned doctorate in nursing or a related field

Earned Graduate degree in Nursing

Eligible for appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor or higher

Current, unencumbered PA RN license (or eligibility as required)

Demonstrated experience teaching in an online, asynchronous environment

Knowledge of accreditation, curriculum design, and program evaluation

Demonstrated ability to use data to inform decision-making

Experience working with adult and working learners
 

Qualifications Preferred:

Progressive academic leadership experience with increasing responsibility

Experience leading or scaling an online academic program

Experience with workforce partnerships and enrollment growth strategies

Experience with employer-funded education models

Experience collaborating with instructional design teams

Record of scholarship, service, and professional engagement

Work Environment and Expectations
 

This is a 12-month faculty position supporting a fully online program. While the program is delivered asynchronously, the role requires engagement across three campuses for leadership, collaboration, and institutional responsibilities.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to lead in a distributed, technology-enabled environment, balancing strategic leadership with operational execution.

Interested candidates should submit on-line application/CV/Cover Letter detailing specific teaching and clinical experience, and areas of scholarship and service; http://hr.jefferson.edu/human-resources.html then enter in search box Job ID # REQ-0030659

Work Shift

Workday Day (United States of America)

Worker Sub Type

Regular

Employee Entity

Thomas Jefferson University

Primary Location Address

901 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Nationally ranked, Jefferson, which is principally located in the greater Philadelphia region, Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, is reimagining health care and higher education to create unparalleled value. Jefferson is more than 65,000 people strong, dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making our communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow's professional leaders for 21st-century careers; and creating new knowledge through basic/programmatic, clinical and applied research. Thomas Jefferson University, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates back to 1824 and today comprises 10 colleges and three schools offering 200+ undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students. Jefferson Health, nationally ranked as one of the top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the country and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients through millions of encounters each year at 32 hospitals campuses and more than 700 outpatient and urgent care locations throughout the region. Jefferson Health Plans is a not-for-profit managed health care organization providing a broad range of health coverage options in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 35 years.    

Jefferson is committed to providing equal educa­tional and employment opportunities for all persons without regard to age, race, color, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, military status, veteran status, handicap or disability or any other protected group or status. 

Benefits

Jefferson offers a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and part-time colleagues, including medical (including prescription), supplemental insurance, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, short- and long-term disability, flexible spending accounts, retirement plans, tuition assistance, as well as voluntary benefits, which provide colleagues with access to group rates on insurance and discounts. Colleagues have access to tuition discounts at Thomas Jefferson University after one year of full time service or two years of part time service. All colleagues, including those who work less than part-time (including per diem colleagues, adjunct faculty, and Jeff Temps), have access to medical (including prescription) insurance.

For more benefits information, please click here