Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) seeks a creative and highly-collaborative person to lead the University’s largest academic unit as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. This is an exciting opportunity for a leader who can truly realize the potential of a world-class university that is creating and transmitting knowledge across the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and computational sciences. Just entering its second half-century, UAB has already established itself as a major research university, ranked 16th in the nation among publics and 32nd overall in federally-funded research expenditures. In June 2019, for the second year in a row, UAB was ranked as the top young university in the United States, and No. 12 worldwide, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 2019 Young University Rankings. The University enjoys a close relationship with Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city and the state’s hub for medical and research activity. “The Magic City” is a primary industrial center in the region with a diverse economy with strengths across several industries.

The UAB College of Arts and Sciences is at the heart of the University’s commitment to empower students with the ability to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. Offering a foundational arts and sciences curriculum on an urban campus shared with an academic medical center, the College will play an increasingly integrated role with the University’s professional schools. The College offers the University a unique opportunity to expand its interdisciplinary mission to empower innovative research that includes—but also goes beyond—healthcare challenges. With both undergraduate and graduate students participating with faculty in research, the College has increased its annual research grants by 43%, to $23.3 million, since 2012. Enrollment in the College has increased by 12% since 2015, bucking national trends.

The next dean will build upon this momentum of enrollment and research growth over the past several years, as well as new state-of-the-art facilities and innovative cross-disciplinary institutes, to advance the mission of the University and the College. The new dean will demonstrate a true commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, through accomplishments in previous positions. It is also essential that the new dean be willing and able to balance his or her leadership of the College with a concurrent obligation as a leader and citizen of the larger University. They should actively embrace the external aspects of the position such as student recruitment, philanthropic advancement, and external collaborations.

Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, has been retained to support the search committee in this effort. Confidential inquiries, nominations, and applications may be directed to:

Greg Esposito, Partner

Joanna Cook, Senior Associate

Bryce Gilfillian, Associate

Isaacson, Miller

263 Summer Street, 7th Floor

Boston, MA 02210

Apply at the website: www.imsearch.com/7242

UAB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and family-friendly environment in which all faculty and staff can excel and achieve work-life balance irrespective of, race, national origin, age, genetic or family medical history, gender, faith, gender identity and expression as well as sexual orientation. UAB also encourages applications from individuals with disabilities and veterans. A pre-employment background check investigation is performed on candidates selected for employment.