Senior Director, Student Wellbeing and Engagement

The Senior Director of Student Wellbeing and Engagement is a senior Student Success and Experience leader who guides the development and implementation of strategic, programmatic, financial, and management functions that support the mission and vision of the division and its role within the broader context of Columbus State.

This position is responsible for the Student Wellbeing and Engagement area and advises the Vice President on matters pertaining to student wellbeing, targeted student engagement, co-curricular support, and student success with a focus on belonging and holistic student support. The Senior Director ensures that the department strategy aligns with the mission of the institution and the needs of the community, fosters an ethos of belonging and support, and works collaboratively across the College to advance outcomes-driven programs, partnerships, and initiatives that promote student persistence, retention, and goal completion.

This role serves as a key strategic thought partner on the Vice President’s senior leadership team and is expected to bring strong skills in vision-setting, data-informed strategy, operational execution, resource allocation, and people leadership.

Strategic Leadership

• Provides vision and leadership to effectively develop and enhance Student Wellbeing and Engagement, working closely with leadership, staff, and College community to shape and implement plans and strategies aligned with college goals while creating a welcoming environment for all.

• Facilitates and coordinates College strategic planning and prioritization for Student Wellbeing and Engagement. Develops and strengthens alliances with the external community to support student wellbeing, engagement, and success inside and outside the College.

• Provides leadership on initiatives and addresses challenges related to student wellbeing, targeted student engagement, support, development, and identifies opportunities for institutional improvement.

• Ensures the development and communication of related College policies, standards, and procedures. Serves as an advocate, mentor, and resource for concerns related to wellbeing, engagement, belonging, and student support.

• Leads the advancement of a Community Resilience Model of Wellbeing from framework to practice in the community college context, ensuring strategy is translated into operational systems, partnerships, and student-facing supports that reflect the realities of students’ lives and needs.

• Seeks grants, external funding, and partnerships to support and sustain successful student services. Provides strategic leadership for grant proposal development, stewardship, compliance, and reporting across a portfolio that includes significant federal, public, and private funding.

Vision & Strategy Alignment

• Builds on the College’s data-driven approach to closing performance gaps and ensuring equity in student outcomes. Develops a strategic student wellbeing and engagement plan that reflects the College’s commitment to best practices in student success and proactive, holistic support. Develop and implement promising practices to decrease barriers to attract and retain students.

• Engages with faculty and staff to develop initiatives and support endeavors to narrow the student achievement gap, focusing on student success, retention, persistence, and goal completion for student populations.

• Provides strategic leadership in the functional areas of Student Wellbeing and Community Support and TRiO, including the federally funded and compliance-intensive programs of Student Support Services (SSS), Educational Talent Search (ETS), and Upward Bound (UB).

• Leads the formation of departmental and unit strategies and tactics that align with division and collegewide strategies and metrics. Ensuring programs, services, and engagement efforts support holistic student wellbeing, belonging, targeted outreach, and student success.

• Collaborates with campus leadership to ensure that wellbeing, support, and engagement activities align with the mission, vision, core values, and institutional priorities of the College. Oversees the development of programs, services, and initiatives that strengthen student support systems, promote belonging and resilience, and connect students to resources and community in ways that increase satisfaction, persistence, and retention.

• Guides directors and team leaders in moving from implementation to stronger strategic leadership by coaching the use of data, assessment, planning, and people-management practices while maintaining strong delivery of student support and programs.

Operational Leadership

• Collaborates with campus leadership to ensure that wellbeing, support, and engagement activities align with the mission, vision, core values, and institutional priorities of the College. Oversees the development of programs, services, and initiatives that strengthen student support systems, promote belonging and resilience, and connect students to resources and community in ways that increase satisfaction, persistence, and retention.

• Guides directors and team leaders in moving from implementation to stronger strategic leadership by coaching the use of data, assessment, planning, and people-management practices while maintaining strong delivery of student support and programs.

• Provides daily oversight of Student Wellbeing and Engagement. Ensures appropriate staffing across portfolio areas, assigns projects and delegates tasks, provides direction, resolves work problems, communicates job expectations, trains employees, and develops professional growth and development opportunities. Conducts, explains, interprets, and enforces policy.

• Conducts annual employee evaluations and assists department leadership in recommending pay increases, promotions, and other personnel actions.

• Approves leaves and authorizes overtime as appropriate. Manage employee recruitment, selection, and onboarding in partnership with Human Resources.

• Administers disciplinary actions upon approval, and in collaboration with Human Resources. Establishes and maintains a standard of excellent service to students, faculty, staff, and internal customers.

• Administers departmental and grant budgets in collaboration with Business Services. Estimates expenses to implement department objectives, completes budget reviews, reviews and approves requisitions, exercises budgetary controls, and reallocates resources when necessary. Contributes to resource allocation decisions with a college- and system-level perspective while ensuring fiscal stewardship and sustainability within the portfolio.

Community Engagement & Outreach  

• Coordinates portfolio-level programming, partnerships, and initiatives at the College and community level. Proposes and/or develops institutional programming and engagement strategies. Deploys and measures initiatives aimed at the promotion of student success and equity of student outcomes. Collects, analyzes, monitors, and disseminates institutional data to benchmarks and promotes accountability for student wellbeing, engagement, and success at the College.

• Publishes reports for dissemination, as directed. Establishes effective modes of communication about ongoing initiatives. Creates and implements communication strategies and content management for training, web resources, presentations, public-facing materials, and related communications to support student wellbeing and targeted engagement initiatives. Forms and cultivates strategic partnerships with individuals and organizations outside the College, particularly in community and human services sectors, to further the College’s student success agenda.

• Serves as a visible College representative in the community and plays a key role in relationship-building, partnership engagement, and cultivation efforts that strengthen the College’s network of support for students.

Culture of Respect

• Fosters and maintains a safe environment of respect and inclusion for faculty, staff, students, and members of the community.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in higher education, student affairs, social work, counseling, public administration, nonprofit leadership, education, or a closely related field

• Seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience with significant supervision and budget responsibility in student affairs, wellbeing, community support, basic needs, engagement, partnership development, or a related area.

• State Motor Vehicle Operator's License or demonstrable ability to gain access to work site(s).

• *An appropriate combination of education, training, coursework, and experience may qualify a candidate.

CSCC has the right to revise this position description at any time. This position description does not represent in any way a contract of employment.

Full time

40

Additional Information

In order to ensure your application is complete, you must complete the following:

• Please ensure you have all the necessary documents available when starting the application process. For all faculty positions (Instructor, Annually Contracted Faculty, and Adjunct), you will need to upload an unofficial copy of your transcript when completing your aplication.

• Prior to submitting your application, please review and update (if necessary) the information in your candidate profile as it will transfer to your application.

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