Systemwide Provost and Executive Vice President – Academic Affairs

Reporting to the President of the University of California and based in Oakland, California, the Systemwide Provost & Executive Vice President – Academic Affairs (“Provost-EVP”) is both the University’s chief academic office and an executive leader in the University’s system office, the University of California Office of the President. As partner and deputy to the President, the Provost-EVP advocates for the University’s academic mission within the Office of the President. This unique leadership position provides the successful candidate an extraordinary opportunity to play a role in shaping the future of higher education in the State of California and at the national level and in ensuring that the University of California is even more than the sum of its remarkable parts.

While functioning at the University-wide level, the Provost-EVP supports the goals, priorities, and resources of the individual campuses and sustains close working relationships with the campus executive vice-chancellors/provosts and vice-chancellors for research. Working with campus-level academic and research leaders and their teams and with University-wide organizations such as the Academic Senate and the Council of Executive Vice Chancellors as well as the faculty writ large, the Provost-EVP facilitates the alignment of disparate views from many constituents to develop a systemwide academic strategy.

With the President and other executive leaders of the Office of the President, the Provost-EVP represents the University to the Board of Regents, the California legislature, and the state’s Washington, DC delegation, and the public.  Through all of these activities and responsibilities, the Provost-EVP contributes broadly to the ongoing success and impact of the country’s most significant public research university.

This role involves leadership in five broad, inter-related arenas:

  • Providing strategic oversight of University-wide academic and research mission areas as enabled through University-wide academic policy, academic planning, faculty affairs, and research infrastructure and programs
  • Representing, coordinating, and advocating for the academic interests of the campuses in the Office of the President, especially as articulated by the campus EVC-Provosts
  • Communicating and representing the objectives and priorities of the Office of the President to the campuses, contributing to strategic decision making on University-wide issues and resource allocation, and aligning support for multi-campus initiatives
  • Ensuring that the University’s commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion informs UCOP policy development, plans, and initiatives, whether in response to campus-led activities or in driving system-level activities
  • Leading the five departments that constitute the Division of Academic Affairs within the Office of the President: Academic Personnel and Programs; Graduate, Undergraduate, and Equity Affairs; Institutional Research and Academic Planning; and Research and Innovation to ensure that they are enabling and advancing the academic and research activities of the University at campus and system levels

Diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of California:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key components of the University of California’s commitment to excellence. Thus, teaching, research, professional, and public service contributions that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion are encouraged and receive due recognition in the evaluation of each application.

To review the University’s Diversity Statement, see https://diversity.universityofcalifornia.edu/ and https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4400.html.

The Office of the President seeks to create, reflect, and maintain a diverse, productive, equitable, and inclusive community committed to the University of California’s academic mission and to its core values: integrity in its work, respect for one another, accountability for its public resources, and excellence in its service to the University and to the State. As a member of Senior Management, the Provost-EVP cultivates, champions, embodies, embraces, and supports diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging.

Qualifications, Competencies, and Credentials
Required

  • An earned doctorate; outstanding record in teaching and research with national reputation in an academic field; accomplishments that have earned or would earn tenure as a full professor at the University of California
  • Demonstrated extensive experience successfully leading in a large, complex research university with established shared-governance practices and expectations
  • Demonstrated track record implementing initiatives and practices that measurably advance equity, diversity, and inclusion
  • Demonstrated ability and judgment to identify and implement innovative, even disruptive, changes in policy, programs, practices, and priorities to improve the use of resources relative to organizational goals and values
  • Earned reputation for integrity, will hold themselves to the highest ethical standards and will have enhanced the transparency and accountability of organizations
  • Demonstrated expertise in strategy and policy development and implementation
  • Experience leading people and managing budgets
  • Experience representing a mission-driven, public-service enterprise to external stakeholders
  • Expert ability to lead through persuasion, domain expertise, influence, and consensus more than positional authority – and the ability to use positional authority judiciously when required 
  • Exceptional interpersonal and relationship management skills to develop collaborative and productive partnerships, quickly establishing credibility and effective relationships with a broad range of constituents in a highly decentralized organization
  • Success in negotiating and implementing initiatives that require collaboration and the ability to manage competing priorities and change
  • The capacity to balance the needs of the larger institution with the goals of the campuses and the requirements of faculty
  • Leadership experience in an inherently political environment that expects transparency and public accountability

Preferred

  • Current or previous experience within the UC system
  • Familiarity with a faculty or academic senate
  • Understanding of the University of California's role in California's governmental structure, its policy context, and its three-segment system of public higher education
  • Passion for finding ways to ensure that UC is as successful as a public research university and benefits the state in its next 150 years as it has been in its first
  • Demonstrated success leading, developing, or participating in initiatives and programs that support the representation and inclusion of underrepresented groups; and that positively impact organizational values, culture, employment practices, and reward structures
  • Demonstrated respect for the value and importance of a workplace and a workforce that embrace, support, and promote broad and inclusive diversity in talents and backgrounds at all levels of the organization.
  • A record of demonstrating inclusivity: listening to, supporting, and including people at all levels of an organization engaging diverse perspectives and backgrounds
  • Expert interpersonal skills to interact effectively and develop and maintain respectful and productive working relationships with an array of diverse individuals and constituencies
  • Demonstrated self-awareness and active commitment and engagement with others to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in decisions and actions

 

The University hopes to complete its selection during the summer of 2022. The review of candidate materials will begin on May 1, 2022, and will continue until the position is filled. For best consideration, please submit materials by May 25, 2022. The search process is confidential.

For additional information about the search, including guidance on application requirements and access to an application portal, please visit https://www.ucop.edu/uc-provost-evp-search-2022/. Inquiries and nominations should be sent to the University’s search consultants at Opus Partners:

 

Craig Smith, Partner – craig.smith@opuspartners.net

Marisea Rivera, Senior Associate – marisea.rivera@opuspartners.net

Abigail Maynard, Associate – Abigail.maynard@opuspartners.net

Inquiries and applications may also go to ucswprovostevp@ucop.edu.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the University of California’s complete nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy, please visit this website: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct.