Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Western Governors University (WGU) announces the search for a catalytic leader, a visionary thinker, and a proven strategic partner to serve as its next Chief Academic Officer and Provost. Reporting to President Scott Pulsipher and serving on the President’s executive leadership team, the Provost provides vision, strategic direction, operational accountability, and overall leadership for the critical academic functions of the nation’s largest nonprofit university. This individual will directly shape the academic strategy, key initiatives and operational outcomes aligned with WGU’s Key Results (Completion, Return for Graduates, and Equity), student success outcomes, and long-term priorities. This leader will direct WGU’s academic affairs in realizing planned outcomes, including academic program offering, academic and credential integrity, institutional development, accreditation and compliance, program development, curriculum and instructional design, assessment development, and management of schools and colleges. As one of WGU’s key executive leaders, the Provost directly contributes to shaping WGU’s long-term vision of creating educational pathways to opportunity for all learners and being the world’s most student-centric university. The Provost will be a key thought leader and external advocate and spokesperson for the innovation and student impact that they and WGU are advancing and developing.

The Provost will serve as the chief architect of WGU’s signature competency-based education model, which is founded on principles of mastery, modularity, and flexible consumption currently serving over 144,000 online students. To support this impressive scale, the Provost oversees a staff of an estimated 2,000-2,500 and a budget of $250-$300M, the full scope and scale of which will change as WGU scales, expands, and innovates for the future of education and work. The Provost directs, develops, and recruits highly talented individuals to enable WGU’s differentiation and academic innovation.

The Provost is responsible for ensuring that all academic programs are student-centered and of the highest quality. The Provost administers and strengthens the WGU degree and nondegree programs and is responsible for working closely with academic leadership to determine their needs, project long-range curricular plans, prepare and control academic budgets, promote WGU to external audiences, secure grants to support academic innovation, and manage educational technologies. WGU currently offers 31 bachelors and 36 masters degrees across four colleges: College of Business, College of IT, Leavitt School of Health, and School of Education. This individual will be a key thought leader and spokesperson for the University and will work closely with peer executives to drive results that align with WGU’s mission, transformative influence, and endeavor to deliver impact at scale.

For the full position profile, please visit: https://diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/19572-western-governors-university-provost/

COMPENSATION
Location: Salt Lake City, UT. Relocation assistance is available. Ability to travel is required.

Salary is extremely competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $650,000 to $850,000 target compensation which includes variable compensation components. WGU offers a generous benefits package.

For best consideration, please send all nominations and applications to:

Shelly Weiss Storbeck, Global Education Practice Lead and Managing Director
Ruth Shoemaker Wood, Managing Director
Fiona Jaramillo, Senior Associate
Storbeck Search
WGUProvost@storbecksearch.com

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.