Vice President of Education

The Vice President of Education and Chief Academic Officer for the College of Lake County (CLC) is the executive leader responsible for academic, workforce, and learning support services within the organization. The Vice President of Education is an equity-minded, visionary leader committed to advancing student access and success outcomes for CLC’s diverse student body. The Vice President of Education demonstrates collaborative, values-driven leadership and is responsible for creating a dynamic work environment characterized by collegiality and inclusiveness for all students, faculty, and staff. The Vice President of Education is a strategic thought leader for the organization, reporting directly to the President, and serving on the College Leadership Team.

The Vice President of Education ensures inclusive, equitable, personalized, culturally relevant, high quality learning experiences across three campuses (Grayslake, Lakeshore, and Southlake). The Vice President of Education ensures continuous improvement of student success outcomes through hiring and ongoing development of faculty, leaders and staff. Responsibilities also include developing strategic and collaborative partnerships with educational and workforce partners in Lake County to increase educational attainment and meet workforce needs within diverse communities through intentionally designed pathways, the development, implementation, and evaluation of instructional programming, and the alignment of divisional work with the college’s strategic priorities, vision, and mission.

The Vice President of Education provides leadership for the academic, workforce, learning support services and community education areas of the College as follows:

• Adult Education
• Biological and Health Sciences
• Business and Social Sciences
• Communication Arts, Humanities, and Fine Arts
• Engineering, Math, and Physical Sciences
• Libraries and Instructional Services
• Academic Success, Tutoring, and Testing
• Lakeshore Campus Academic Operations
• Southlake Campus Academic Operations
• Teaching, Learning, and Educational Technology
• James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts
• Community Programs
• Dual Credit/College Readiness
• TRIO-Student Support Services
• Workforce and Professional Development Institute

Essential Job Functions
Collaborative leadership skills which cultivate internal and external partnerships that achieve excellence in student success outcomes, community engagement, and a highly engaged team-based culture are paramount in this role. The Vice President of Education will:

1. Serve as an engaged member of the College Leadership Team, which is responsible for fostering, developing, and prioritizing organizational culture, strategic priorities, planning, talent management, fiscal viability, policy, and community relations within a shared governance structure.

2. Champion the values of learning, integrity, quality, service, accountability and diversity as an executive leader of the College. Drive student and employee success through the value of diversity by demonstrating a commitment to equity, inclusion, and respectful interactions with persons of diverse ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, or educational backgrounds.

3. Implement best-practices in recruitment, evaluation, succession planning, recognition, and retention of highly qualified faculty, academic leaders and staff. Retain and nurture top talent in the College ensuring meaningful professional development focused on specific roles exists for each employee within the academic unit, particularly scholarly activities for faculty.

4. Design and implement an equitable data-informed systemic student success framework to improve student retention and progress to completion through collaborative partnership with the Vice President of Student Development to ensure the College achieves strong integration of instruction and student services.

5. Routinely advocate for and engage students across three campuses to ensure the student voice is represented in the design of curricular, co-curricular and student success initiatives.

6. Uphold the responsibilities of Chief Academic Officer including the development and evaluation of high quality instructional programming with curriculum that provides flexible delivery, accessibility, and success outcomes for learners throughout the college. Ensure academic standards of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and other external accrediting agencies are met. Develop and implement an effective and comprehensive system of assessment of learning.

7. Ensure the development of high-quality academic and career programs with market relevance and designed for optimized access, excellent student learning and transfer outcomes, and workforce employment, including the evaluation of existing programs.

8. Manifest a collaborative leadership style across all functional areas of the College to support innovation, experimentation, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

9. Provide leadership in collective bargaining, serving on the negotiations team, and upholding confidentiality in negotiations and collective bargaining matters. Ensure compliance with faculty and adjunct labor union contracts, be responsive to labor concerns, and nurture positive labor relations.

10. Oversee the operational leadership of the Lakeshore and Southlake campuses, online and flexible education programs, dual credit and college readiness partnerships.

11. Develop partnerships and lead collaborative initiatives with external stakeholders to advance the economic strength of the region. Serve as a key College liaison to area school districts, colleges and universities, business and industry, and various public agencies.

12. Model lifelong learning attributes by continuously seeking professional development opportunities and professional networks that help advance the organization.

13. Support College efforts to seek and obtain alternative funding sources including state and federal grants, as well as corporate and foundation sponsorship, particularly those focused on academic initiatives.

14. Perform other related duties and responsibilities as may be assigned by the President.
The duties listed are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related or a logical assignment to the position. The job description does not constitute an employment agreement between the employer and employee and is subject to change by the employer as the needs of the employer and requirements of the job change.