The Senior Vice President (SVP) of the Leavitt School of Health at Western Governors University (WGU) is responsible for the overall performance of the school, leading both vision and strategic direction to advance the academic portfolio of programs, student success, and overall business and operational rigor. The SVP ensures a student-centric focus within the school that facilitates access and completion, with a curriculum that is responsive to workforce needs and exemplifies innovation. As the nation’s largest nonprofit, online university, WGU has a rich heritage of technology-enhanced, competency-based education. To continue our momentum, the Senior Vice President of the Leavitt School of Health looks ahead to spot trends in healthcare and responds with new strategies and programming that will increase WGU’s success in serving a growing student population effectively, from first-time college students to working adult students who want to advance their careers. The Senior Vice President also is committed to strong workforce alignment, helping to fill critical gaps in the healthcare industry with knowledgeable, skilled graduates.
With approximately 23,000 current students, the Leavitt School of Health offers a variety of bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and post-master’s certifications in nursing and health sciences. The Leavitt School of Health measures success through key performance indicators around student enrollment, progress and completion, with a special emphasis on enabling access to our programs and graduation for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color. WGU emphasizes a return on education that increases opportunity and economic mobility, especially in high demand areas with critical workforce shortages, such as nursing and other healthcare programs.
QUALIFICATIONS
The Senior Vice President for the Leavitt School of Health will bring strong leadership talents to inspire, guide, and engage our Vice President- and Director-level leaders and our faculty to provide the highest quality education to our students.
The successful SVP is a strategic and operational leader who is passionate about education and workforce alignment in healthcare fields. The SVP will have demonstrated experience at leading significant growth and success of a division, company, or not-for-profit organization. The SVP should have a strong, mission orientation and a passion for helping underserved students obtain relevant certificates and degrees that lead to better jobs and successful careers. In addition, the SVP must be highly credible within the health professionals’ space and able to clearly articulate WGU’s purpose, mission, vision, and goals. More broadly, this leader is probing, innovative, open-minded, and data driven. The SVP will have experience attracting talent and effectively leading teams, motivating others to achieve strategic priorities and specific outcomes in a diverse, complex, and highly collaborative work environment.
ABOUT THE INSTITUTION
Truly a university without boundaries, Western Governors University (WGU) is a non-profit, online university founded and supported by 19 U.S. governors nearly 30 years ago. WGU has been named by Fast Company as one of the world's 50 most-innovative companies. CNN calls WGU "a school without boundaries," and major news outlets from NPR to Bloomberg BusinessWeek are touting WGU's "potential to transform the higher education industry."
WGU is a mission-driven organization created to expand access to higher education through innovative, competency-based, online degree programs. WGU has remained focused on helping hardworking adults meet their educational goals and improve their career opportunities.
To fulfill that mission, WGU has remained affordable, flexible, and student-focused in a world of rising tuition. Hence, WGU strives to serve as many students as possible—including minorities, first-generation college students, those with modest incomes, and others whose lives or geographic locations do not allow them to attend traditional, campus-based colleges.
WGU has developed into a national university, serving more than 375,000 students from all 50 states. The organization continues to receive praise for its academic model and real-world competencies that enhance its reputation with employers for graduating highly competent professionals. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, WGU is a highly distributed organization of more than 10,000 employees, with a majority of employees working remotely in nearly every state.
For more on WGU, see: https://www.wgu.edu/about/annual-report.html
This is a full-time position that will be performed on-site in Utah. Up to 35% travel is expected. Salary is extremely competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $420,000 to $470,000 target compensation which includes variable compensation components. WGU offers a generous benefits package.
APPLICATIONS AND NOMINATIONS
Evaluation of candidate materials will begin immediately and continue until a new SVP is named.
Ruth Shoemaker Wood, Ph.D, Managing Director
Erin Meissner, Senior Search Associate
At WGU, we value diversity and equal opportunity. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. As an equal opportunity employer, WGU recognizes that our strength lies in our people. We are committed to diversity.