CID Dean Search

A&M-Commerce is a rapidly growing university, with a rising profile, making positive strides toward innovation and the future. Driving the ascending trajectory is the university's commitment to providing high-quality educational opportunities that prepare students for success, including those from low-income and first-generation backgrounds. A student ready university leading in social mobility and achieving academic excellence in a wide range of traditional and interdisciplinary programs, including competency based education, the university is recognized nationally for an innovative spirit and unique rural-urban identity, providing access and opportunities to ensure student career preparedness and professional development for all members of the university community.

Texas A&M University-Commerce’s Division of Academic Affairs oversees administrative support and results-based accountability to ensure academic excellence and nurture a sense of belonging for all. The mission is to empower individuals to explore and pursue their passions, transforming their lives for the better. This is achieved by investing in an array of teaching, classroom experiences, research, service, partnership and professional development initiatives that encourage innovation. We strive to create a conducive environment where our faculty and staff can prepare students with the necessary skills and behaviors to become career-ready graduates of the 21st century. Through our collaborative efforts, we aim to add value and impact to the Northeast Texas region and beyond.

Four competencies (observable skills and behaviors) anchor our collaborative efforts and decision-making:

• Results-based accountability that establishes clear responsibilities, sets expectations for performance monitoring, measures results accurately and incorporates feedback loops into work.
• Empowerment that fosters collaboration, ideation and information sharing for team engagement.
• Excellence that shows personal commitment to the division’s vision, creating measurable milestones to garner support.
• Customer focus that prioritizes the unique needs of TAMUC students, faculty and staff, providing valuable insights to cultivate a sense of belonging.

The Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs has published seven clear expectations for leadership at the Dean level. Expectations for driving results through ambiguity to bring about change are:

1. ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT

• Our University’s ultimate objective is to transform lives through higher education by enabling access and ensuring success. This can be achieved by increasing enrollment, recruitment and retention, while also securing the university's financial stability. College leadership teams will work towards this goal by setting specific enrollment and retention targets for each department and program using a funding formula to determine the necessary resources.

2. DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF MENTORING

• Investing in the professional development of academic faculty and administrative staff is crucial in creating a culture of mentoring that fosters high-quality pedagogical experiences for students. This also helps in pursuing research and external funding, as well as developing leadership skills to enhance academic departments. Collaborating with highly effective staff can result in a proactive and efficient team, leading to the overall optimization of Academic Affairs.

3. OPTIMIZING WORK PROCESSES

• To enhance our operations and productivity throughout the department, it is essential to establish robust business practices that utilize our resources (people and finances) effectively. Our primary focus should be on delivering student-centered services while working collaboratively and fulfilling our fiduciary obligations.

4. INNOVATION AND RELEVANCE

• We aim to increase the significance of our division by remaining agile and nimble, and defining, recognizing and implementing innovative ideas. This means consistently being future-looking, forward-leaning, engaged in cutting-edge thinking and willing to take calculated risks.

5. STRENGTHENING HUMAN RESOURCES

• Enhance employee engagement, recruitment and retention by effectively managing our people to align with our strategic plans and optimizing our staff/faculty, resources and systems.

6. SENSE OF BELONGING

• It is important to create a workplace environment that fosters a sense of belonging for everyone, including students from diverse backgrounds and a faculty and staff that mirror our student body. This will allow for a wider range of life experiences, skills and perspectives, ultimately leading to increased productivity.

7. ACADEMIC PLATFORM FOR THE DALLAS SITE

• A primary objective is to cater to the educational unmet needs and requirements of the Dallas community, and we aim to achieve this by establishing an active academic program at the Dallas site. It is imperative that we develop numerous options for students, and without delay address this matter working together towards realizing this goal.

Deans are expected to embrace these expectations in the course of making difficult choices, implementing effective budget strategies and facilitating professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. The goal is leadership that is proactive and adaptable, able to achieve positive outcomes in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.

• Supervises college planning, constructs college budget, seeks requisite funds from University’s state budget, and allocates funds.
• Oversees faculty recruitment and development.
• Coordinates searches and recommends appointments of faculty and staff.
• Promotes teaching excellence among faculty.
• Oversees the teaching, research and administrative functions within the college and delegates responsibility to appropriate staff members.
• Participates in internal and external fund-raising activities.
• Supervises assigned staff.
• Oversees the university-wide program Investing in Us.
• Interacts with the administrators concerning state academic issues and corresponding budgets.
• Responsible for enrollment growth and student success and supervises enrollment management team responsible for the admission process, financial aid, and advising.
• Reviews college policies and programs and assists with development, communication and implementation.
• Establishes priorities for the college and pursues those through budget development, resource allocation, policy implementation and review, and evaluation of outcomes.
• Oversees the Competency Based Education (CBE) programs.
• Provides forward-focused leadership, maintaining awareness of national trends and fostering an environment of innovation, creativity, and cross discipline collaboration.
• Other duties as needed.

The successful candidate will be an entrepreneurial, innovative visionary who values students, faculty and staff, and celebrates their successes. Candidates with significant academic leadership success are welcome to apply. A terminal degree in an appropriate discipline is required, as are credentials that merit appointment at the rank of full professor. An understanding of competency based education is a priority.

The Dean will practice results-based accountability, drive engagement by empowering others, drive vision and purpose to achieve excellence and promote access through customer focus. In addition, the new dean will exhibit the following qualities and experiences:

• High academic standards that support rigor in the classroom and demonstrated enhancement of student success.
• Effective in driving enrollment management.
• Demonstrated success in competency based curriculum development and progression.
• An action-oriented focus on solutions, driving results.
• Significant executive experience in leadership roles, including effective hiring, and bringing faculty together to achieve identified goals.
• An inspirational, empowering, approachable style that builds relationships with faculty, staff and students; a team player who is collaborative, interpersonally skilled, and committed to bringing others along with them, including external stakeholders such as the community, donors, and alumni.
• Effective communication in all forms, including deep listening to various points of view; flexibility, fairness and clear explanations for decisions.
• A track record of working successfully in a shared governance context.
• Supports educational opportunities for all.
• Understand how to proactively work with public policymakers who scrutinize higher education.
• A commitment to set and meet high expectations with complete accountability.
• Development and successful launch of market demand programs.
• A history of working collaboratively with fundraising staff, demonstrating ability for managing donor relations.
• Strong fiscal stewardship.
• Superb organizational skills with excellent execution of plans and priorities.
• A strategic thinker who maintains awareness of higher education trends, including learning technology.
• Capacity to navigate complex and fast-paced organizational dynamics, including the understanding of policies, processes and people.
• The highest standards of integrity, ethics and transparency.
• Confidence, humility and welcoming of challenge and feedback.

Committee Chair

Devin Girod

Vice President, Division of Philanthropy and Engagement

Committee Members

Tina Lancaster, M.S.

Instructor, College of Innovation and Design

Joe Romero, Ph.D.

Dean, College of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts

Misty Lair

Director, Special Populations & Projects

Abbie Harper

Chief Operating Officer