Maryville College seeks an experienced academic leader and administrator, with a collaborative, innovative, and strategic mindset, who is a champion of the liberal arts, to serve as the College’s Vice President and Dean of the College (VP and Dean). The VP and Dean will be a leader in cultivating Maryville’s strong, student-centric learning environment which promotes academic excellence, engagement, and personalized educational success. The new VP and Dean will join the College during a time of momentum, with increased student enrollment, new academic and co-curricular programs, record occupancy in student housing, new sources of philanthropic support, and increased alumni engagement.
Maryville College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. One of the oldest colleges in the country, Maryville was founded in 1819 by the Rev. Isaac Anderson, a Presbyterian minister, and the College maintains its voluntary covenant with the Presbyterian Church (USA). Maryville has more than 10,000 alumni living lives strong of mind and brave of heart, prepared, in the words of Rev. Anderson, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”
Maryville College enrolls more than 1,100 students, with a student-faculty ratio of 12:1, and an average class size of 17 students. Maryville students are taught and mentored by 72 talented full-time faculty members who are passionate teachers and scholars with a deep dedication to the liberal arts and to the academic and personal development of their students. Maryville is a member of the NCAA’s Division III, Collegiate Conference of the South, and the USA South Athletic Conference, fielding 16 varsity sports. The endowment totals just over $100 million, and the College boasts multiple years of balanced budgets, employee pay increases, and no increases in employee healthcare costs. Recent successes have also been experienced in securing federal support, including a Department of Education Title III grant.
The College offers more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs for undergraduate students, and a newly established graduate degree for a master’s in teaching secondary STEM (M.A.T.), the first graduate-level degree in the College’s modern history. The rigorous Maryville curriculum is based on the conviction that liberal learning is the best preparation for a satisfying and successful life, whatever one’s vocation. Across nine Divisions, Maryville students explore numerous programs designed to elevate the liberal arts tradition, combining professional preparation with rigorous well-rounded study, and a highly personalized experience.
Maryville believes differentiation amongst institutions is a key to success, and the greatest differentiator for Maryville is its scenic and opportune location, at the door to the Great Smoky Mountains. With targeted new programs, majors, and experiential learning for students that capitalize on the regional opportunities, industries, and workforce demands, Maryville is deeply committed to being “Of and For the Region.” In 2020, Maryville College received the Carnegie Foundation’s Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation that indicated institutional commitment to community engagement. The College, in partnership with Downtown Maryville, and will open the Maryville College Downtown Center in 2024. The Downtown Center will serve as home to the Hospitality and Regional Identity and Fermentation Sciences programs and be a hub for community connections and lifelong learning opportunities. Maryville is currently engaged in the initial planning and fundraising for a new Institute for Environmental Education and Sciences, with a tentative goal to break ground on the Institute during the 2025-26 academic year.
Reporting to President Bryan F. Coker, the VP and Dean is the chief academic officer and a member of the President’s cabinet. The VP and Dean is responsible for leading and implementing the strategic academic vision for the College, in conjunction with the faculty, administration, and program directors. The VP and Dean oversees academic policies and procedures, ensures a high-quality curriculum and related instruction, and sustains educational excellence for the College. The VP and Dean oversees an operational budget of just under $11 million annually.
The new VP and Dean will have the opportunity to steward, innovate, and provide strategic vision for all aspects of the College’s academic programs and be a leader of change to continue the momentum across the campus. With a dedication to student experience and outcomes, the VP and Dean will optimize and implement change to improve student retention and success. The VP and Dean will foster an environment that is supportive, and which emphasizes equity and accountability, and will ensure that the academic enterprise reflects a culture in which widely diverse values, experiences, and ideas are welcomed and, moreover, viewed as essential in the development of academic excellence. Through relationship building, the VP and Dean will strengthen current regional partnerships and beyond, and will identify, cultivate, and support academic opportunities that will advance the mission of the College, student experiential learning, faculty scholarship, and career opportunities for graduates.
The ideal candidate will be a seasoned administrator who will bring experience with, and depth of knowledge about, the current issues facing higher education, and especially small, private, liberal arts colleges. The successful candidate will hold a doctorate or terminal degree in a field represented in one of the College’s academic Divisions along with a record of achievement worthy of appointment as a full professor at the College. The new VP and Dean will be forward-thinking and will embrace the Maryville initiative to be “Of and For the Region.”
More details can be found here https://dsgconnect-files.diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/20034/position-profile.pdf
For best consideration, please send all nominations, inquiries, and applications, and expressions of interest as soon as possible to MaryvilleVP@storbecksearch.com.
Julie E. Tea, Managing Director
Kate Phillips, Senior Associate
MaryvilleVP@storbecksearch.com
For more information, please visit the Maryville College home page at www.maryvillecollege.edu
Maryville College is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and, as such, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, ethnic or national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, or political beliefs in the provision of educational opportunities, employment or benefits.
