Description

The Success Coaching Program within Academic Advising was created in 2019 with the intention of fully supporting first-generation and/or limited-income (FLI) students, a population that now represents about a third of all undergraduate students. By providing intensive success coaching using an appreciative, strengths-based advising model, staff in the hybrid role of advisor/coach support students in increasing retention, completion, engagement, satisfaction, and social mobility. We are seeking a Senior Director, Success Coaching and Academic Advising (SCAA) who will be responsible for the leadership, vision, and strategic direction, meeting and reporting the goals and outcomes of the program, and the direct supervision of the SCAA leadership team. This position directly supervises up to six SCAA staff members and will oversee a total staff of twenty-four; this role is supported by a Senior Administrative Coordinator.

The position reports to the Associate Vice Provost of Student Success and Retention Initiatives, positioned in the Division of Student Affairs, where over 400 staff members serve Johns Hopkins undergraduate students. The Senior Director serves as a collaborative partner with the Assistant Deans of Advising in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering to build and maintain relationships to enhance collaboration between Student Success offices and other USS offices. This position regularly meets with members of the Student Success leadership team, leads the holistic advising workgroup, and participates as an active partner on the Student Success Initiative/Achieving Success Action Plan (ASAP) Workgroup.

The Senior Director's work develops within established principles that frame the University's Student Success Strategic Plan to increase rates of timely graduation and to build integrated services, optimize data-driven learning and adaptation, serve the greater good, activate all institutional resources, and address areas of friction/barriers that interrupt students' ability to remain enrolled term to term.

The Senior Director is responsible for 24 full-time employees (FTEs) and supervises a team of professional staff members who are embedded across multiple locations and have dual accountability. The SCAA team consists of Associate and Assistant Directors, Academic Advisor/Success Coaches, an Administrative Coordinator, and a Graduate Assistant. Currently, the Senior Director supervises six direct reports. While SCAA currently comprises a team of 24 FTEs, more roles may be added to accommodate the Student Success and Retention unit's new framework, for a potential total of 27 FTEs.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Oversee the program's expansion, ensuring alignment with the University's Student Success Strategic Plan.
• Serve as the lead for the Achieving Success Action Plan (ASAP) sub-workgroup on holistic advising.
• Leverage university-wide holistic advising.
• Identify student support services, systems, and experience enhancements that foster student connection, belonging, and community.
• Standing member of the ASAP Workgroup that monitors student retention, identifies students at risk for attrition, and identifies institutional systems that create barriers to student retention and persistence.
• Collaborate closely with the Assistant Deans of Advising in the University Schools to build and maintain relationships to enhance collaboration between the Student Success Strategic Plan and other USS offices.
• Identify and address areas of friction/barriers that impede students' ability to remain enrolled term to term, thereby increasing rates of timely graduation.
• Coordinate with Associate Deans of Advising to leverage student-centered, outcome-oriented advising technology platform.
• Foster collaboration to provide seamless services to students and university constituents.
• Inform decision-making with short-term actions and interventions to improve student success alignment with guiding principles, best practices, and key strategies.
• Convene and lead an advisory team of Associate Directors within SCAA toward the further strategic development of the program's staff-facing and student-facing work.
• Develop and oversee processes necessary to manage SCAA within the Office of Advising's current and future operations
• Develop and manage annual budgets; work closely with the Bloomberg budget analyst and CSS Finance Team to monitor accounts associated with SCAA.
• Align financial and human resources with priorities.
• In collaboration with campus partners, design and lead FLI student recruitment for SCAA to ensure that the university is matching FLI students with appropriate opportunities and to create consistent, affirmative messaging about those opportunities.
• Manage the program's budget, ensuring financial resources are aligned with strategic priorities.

• Contribute to FLI student recruitment efforts and maintain consistent, affirmative messaging about available opportunities.
• Develop and promote a long-range vision and mission for the Success Coaching Program aligned with institutional goals and FLI Initiatives.

Strategic Planning and Assessment

• Cultivate and promote a long-range vision and mission for SCAA aligned with the principles of the FLI Initiatives and JHU's academic mission.
• Convene regularly the AVP for Student Success and Assistant Deans of Academic Advising to advise on overall program direction and outcomes.
• Collaborate actively with the leadership team in the CSS and work in strong partnership with all CSS program heads.
• Provide leadership and direction in the development and implementation of assessment strategies to collect, manage, and report data related to the metrics of the FLI Initiatives.
• Evaluate program results and make changes as needed to reach desired program and student outcomes.
• Keep abreast of national trends in higher education and remain current in the field of retention and student success.

Campus Outreach, Collaborative Partnerships and Programming

• Maintain deep collaborative relationships with Student Success and Retention Unit leadership (Undergraduate Student Analytics, Student Outreach and Support, the Center for Student Success, and the new Office of Student Retention); discern and prioritize additional campus partnerships.
• Direct contributions to KSAS and WSE holistic advising models.
• Partner with the Executive Director of Student Success.
• Contributor and active participant of the To, Through, and Beyond, FLI, ASAP, and Emergency Fund workgroups.
• Cultivate collaborative relationships with various campus units, including Student Success Retention Initiatives, academic advising offices, and student support services.
• Collaborate with academic support units to ensure resources align with student needs.
• Facilitate coordination between SCAA and other campus initiatives, such as the Hop-In Summer Program.
• Collaborate with faculty, staff, and students to develop programs, services, or opportunities to support the success of FLI students.
• Collaborate and partner with Directors JUMP and the FLI Network to ensure coordination and shared purpose for student programming.
• Collaborate with the Assistant Deans of the Whiting School of Engineering and Krieger School of Arts and Sciences to ensure proper training and implement strategies to enhance the academic success and well-being of FLI students.
• Co-Lead for FLI Coordinated Recruitment.
• Direct contributions to KSAS and WSE advising coaching models and professional development trainings for the Office of Advising staff.
• Partner with Academic Support to ensure resources align with trends of need and support of SCAA students.
• Collaborate with the lead of the Hop-In Summer Program to ensure coordination and shared purpose between SCAA and Hop-In.
• Work closely with key campus partners (Life Design Lab, Financial Aid, Student Life, Residential Life, Student Outreach & Support) to ensure that all advisors/coaches function effectively in connecting advisees to campus resources and advisees participate in high-impact learning experiences, such as undergraduate research, internships, and service learning. Specifically, strategically manage the relationship with Student Outreach & Support and lead a standing collaborative group in partnership with the Senior Assistant Director of Student Financial Services and the Outreach Committee.
• Participate on university (school-based) and Student Affairs committees.
• Provide leadership in the development of programmatic advisory committees (both staff and student).

Metrics and Accountability

• Student satisfaction with responsiveness and timeliness of contact.
• Student satisfaction with academic advising and delivery of academic information.
• Completes academic data tasks and analysis in an accurate and timely manner.
• Communicates accurate academic information to students as evidenced by minimal advising errors.
• Maintains integrity of student records by ensuring compliance with the academic policies of the university.
• Student learning outcomes for advising.
• Retention rates for FLI students.
• Degree completion rates for FLI students.
• Evidence of increased social mobility for FLI students.
• Evidence of increased student engagement for FLI students.
• Student satisfaction rates.

Special Knowledge Skills & Abilities

• Strong budgetary, planning, organizational, supervision, and management skills and experience.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating, negotiating, and building consensus.
• Ability to work in a cross-cultural environment.
• Ability to use appropriate judgment when dealing with sensitive issues.
• Ability to influence societal and workplace attitudes that honor principles that create a more inclusive community.
• Extensive knowledge and experience managing holistic advising, assessment, academic and student affairs collaborations, diversity, and inclusion.
• Demonstrated success in a complex, multi-layered, and data-driven organization.
• Exceptional interpersonal, oral, public speaking, writing, and listening skills.
• Excellent ability to work collaboratively with students, faculty members, and staff at all levels.
• Demonstrated experience developing, articulating, operationalizing, and assessing strategic priorities.
• Demonstrated capacity to work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and to foster sensitivity to diversity and an inclusive campus and community culture.
• Proven ability to cultivate trust and credibility with colleagues and to build positive and effective relationships.
• Proven track record of establishing strategic relationships to strengthen program and service delivery.

Additional Information

• One unique feature of this position is that program staff are embedded in different locations and are accountable to two divisions of the university.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Student Affairs, Higher Education, Counseling, or related fields.
• Seven years of experience leading, implementing, and managing programs of similar complexity. Experience supervising staff is required.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctoral Degree preferred.

Classified Title: Director Student Success
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Senior Director, Success Coaching and Advising
Role/Level/Range: L/04/LE
Starting Salary Range: $86,300 - $151,000 Annually ($132,000 targeted; Commensurate w/exp.)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: 37.5 M-F 8am-5pm
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Hybrid/Homewood Campus
Department name: Student Development
Personnel area: University Student Services