Executive Director, Krantz Institute

Founded in 1863, Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic university located six miles from downtown Boston with an enrollment of 9,654 full-time undergraduates and 5,072 graduate and professional students. Ranked 37 among national universities, Boston College has 923 full-time and 1,336 FTE faculty, 2,822 non-faculty employees, an operating budget of $1.4 billion, and an endowment in excess of $3.9 billion.

About Boston College

Founded in 1863, Boston College is one of the 27 Jesuit, Catholic universities in the United States. It is dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the use of knowledge in service to the common good. The University’s mission is rooted in a world view that values rigorous intellectual development and ethical formation.Institutional Overview & Mission Alignment.

Boston College is embarking on a transformative initiative with the establishment of the Krantz Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Humanity. Enabled by a major gift from University Trustee Jason Krantz '95, P'23, and Keely (Fitzgerald) Krantz '95, P'23, the Institute will leverage BC’s formative and ethical strengths as a Jesuit, Catholic university to explore the opportunities, implications, and pitfalls of artificial intelligence.

Inspired by Pope Leo’s recently published encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which underscores education’s role in an era of rapid technological change, the Institute brings BC’s rich heritage of thoughtful reflection and discernment into a lively engagement with the promise and perils of a particularly transformative technology. The institute aims to inform emerging discussion of AI and to instill in students the judgment, wisdom, and critical thinking necessary to become moral leaders and creators of AI, ensuring that humanistic values and ethics remain foundational to the world's evolving approach to AI.

Position Overview & Strategic Direction

Reporting to the Provost and Dean of Faculties, the Executive Director will build an Institute that will position Boston College as a national and global leader in teaching, research, and discussion about the opportunities and implications of artificial intelligence as well as to scale foundational and applied AI initiatives across all nine of the schools and colleges at Boston College. Working closely with faculty colleagues, academic leadership, and external partners, the successful candidate will build this early-stage platform into a sustainable, world-class hub of institutional excellence.

The Executive Director will be charged with driving three primary goals:

1. Convene Global Thought Leaders: Organize world-class conferences and symposia at Boston College to explore AI’s potential impact on education and humanity.  The Executive Director will partner with academics across and beyond campus to sustain a lively and ongoing conversation about AI, ethics, and humanity.
2. Cultivate Student Formation and Leadership: Offer fellowships, internships, and experiential learning opportunities to equip BC students with the experience and expertise to participate thoughtfully in how the world should engage with AI.
3. Advance Curricular & Internal Innovation: Imagine and implement campus-wide AI programs, support the integration of AI-related topics across disciplines, and award internal seed grants to support innovation in applying AI to teaching, research, and higher education operations.

Core Programmatic Pillars

The Executive Director will develop, operationalize, and guide the institute's core strategic pillars to catalyze campus engagement with AI and to establish a clear framework for investment and prioritization with an ambition to inform national and global conversations about AI:

• AI & Human Flourishing: Exploring AI in light of fundamental questions about ethics and human dignity, and drawing on the University’s distinctive strengths in the humanities.
• AI & Democracy: Examining AI’s various effects on government and public life, in the United States and beyond.
• AI & the Economy: Guiding organizations on how to responsibly leverage AI and engaging with industry leaders (including partnering with the Carroll School of Management and the 2027 Finance Conference).
• AI & Health Care: Investigating how AI can improve healthcare outcomes while recognizing emerging threats to human-centered care for the vulnerable.
• AI & Formative Education: Imagining new possibilities for BC’s distinctive approach to teaching and learning in the context of the AI revolution.
• AI & Faith: Rooted in BC's Jesuit, Catholic heritage and mission, this pillar is at once the Institute's clearest differentiator and an area where Boston College is called to provide leadership to colleges, schools, and other faith-based organizations.

Within each pillar, the Executive Director will develop a robust set of mechanisms appropriate to the theme; examples include research grants, undergraduate fellowships, curriculum integration, industry partnerships, conferences and symposia, and visiting scholars.

Key Responsibilities and Scope

• Strategic & Operational Leadership: Partner with faculty and academic leadership to execute long-term strategies, balancing academic priorities with rigorous operational execution.
• Interdisciplinary Integration: Connect technical AI researchers with diverse fields, including business, law, education, social work, nursing, and the humanities, to advance an expansive portfolio of creative pedagogy and use-inspired research.
• Faculty Support: Facilitate large-scale, multi-investigator research proposals and support the recruitment, retention, and mentorship of senior faculty, tenure-track hires, postdoctoral scholars, and students.
• External Partnerships & Public Voice: Build strong partnerships with non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, government agencies, and policymakers to enable real-world experimentation. Serve as an important public voice on the ethical and social implications of emerging technologies.
• Fundraising & Advancement: Partner with University Advancement in fundraising and donor engagement efforts to expand the Institute's reach and global impact.

Experience, Qualifications, and Expectations

• Leadership Experience: At least 10 years of demonstrated leadership experience leading complex organizations, large collaborative initiatives, and/or multidisciplinary research programs.
• Education: A bachelor’s degree is required. A Ph.D. or the equivalent terminal degree is preferred. Given the institute’s fundamentally interdisciplinary mission, the university welcomes candidates from a broad range of disciplines, including the humanities and social sciences, as well as from computational fields such as computer science, engineering, statistics, and data science.
• Academic and Professional Credibility: The ideal profile includes an internationally recognized record of scholarly or professional achievement sufficient for a tenured faculty or professor of the practice appointment, along with the proven ability to navigate a mission-driven organizational environment.
• Core Competencies: Exceptional communication, resource management, and relationship-building skills. An entrepreneurial mindset capable of building institutions from the ground up and bridging academia, civil society, and industry.
• Mission Commitment: A profound, demonstrable commitment to advancing Boston College’s defining Jesuit and Catholic mission of formative education and ethical discernment.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should submit a comprehensive CV and a cover letter detailing their interest in the role and their strategic vision for the Krantz Institute. Boston College is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and welcoming environment.

The expected salary range for this position is $250,000-$350,000. The actual pay offered to the selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as, but not limited to, candidate qualifications and prior experience, scope of responsibilities, internal equity, and market considerations.