Department/Organization
223101 - Dean's Office-Nursing
Rank
Associate/Full Professor
Position Summary
The Associate Dean for Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Advancement is a senior executive leader who advances the College’s mission through the development and formalization of high impact partnerships that expand the nursing workforce, strengthen institutional capacity, and support long term strategic growth. This position operates under the direction of the Dean, who retains ultimate responsibility and oversight for the College’s partnership strategy, workforce expansion priorities, and global engagement agenda. The Associate Dean serves as the Dean’s senior designee for negotiating and stewarding institutional partnerships into scalable, executable agreements. This Associate Dean leads the College’s partnership strategy across health systems, academic institutions, K–12 school systems, and community stakeholders to support measurable growth in nursing workforce supply, clinical training capacity, and academic progression pathways. This role holds executive responsibility for negotiating and overseeing executive level memoranda of understanding and other formal partnership agreements. Global partnerships and study abroad initiatives are managed by the Coordinator of Global Partnerships and Study Abroad who reports to this Associate Dean. The Associate Dean reports directly to the Dean and serves on the Executive Council, collaborating closely with the Senior Associate Dean for Academics, the Associate Dean for Research, and the Vice Dean to ensure partnerships support faculty capacity, academic excellence, and workforce expansion without duplicating operational oversight.
Detailed Position Information
Strategic Partnership Development
• Develop and implement a comprehensive partnership strategy for workforce expansion, enrollment growth, and institutional advancement.
• Negotiate and oversee executive level memoranda of understanding and formal partnership agreements with health systems, clinics, school systems, and strategic partners.
• Serve as the College’s senior representative in system level partnership discussions as delegated by the Dean.
• Ensure agreements are structured for scalability, sustainability, risk mitigation, and measurable workforce outcomes.
• Develop and implement standardized processes for partnership evaluation, renewal, and strategic alignment.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for strategic partnership concerns requiring executive resolution in coordination with the Dean.
• Provide regular strategic reporting to the Dean and Executive Council regarding partnership performance and workforce impact.
Nursing Workforce Advancement
• Lead initiatives that expand the nursing workforce supply across pre licensure, graduate, and advanced practice levels.
• Develop structured pathway models including K–12 exposure programs, bridge programs, and academic progression partnerships that increase access to nursing education.
• Establish system level agreements that expand clinical training capacity in response to workforce demand projections.
• Support transition to practice and residency collaborations that strengthen workforce readiness and retention.
• Collaborate with the Senior Associate Dean for Academics to ensure partnership agreements align with enrollment planning and accreditation requirements.
• Partner with the Vice Dean to ensure workforce expansion strategies align with faculty recruitment, development, and workload planning.
• Establish data informed metrics and reporting structures to assess workforce expansion, partnership return on investment, and capacity growth.
• Collaborate with the Dean, Vice Dean, and University Government Affairs to support nursing workforce advancement through policy engagement, regulatory awareness, and alignment with state and federal initiatives.
Clinical and Health System Agreements
• Provide executive oversight of the College’s portfolio of health system and clinic partnership agreements at the system or enterprise level.
• Establish formal system level agreements that enable clinical placement expansion and workforce collaboration.
• This role does not manage clinical placement scheduling, site assignments, academic supervision, day to day clinical operations, or individual clinical contracts.
• Ensure partnership agreements align with strategic enrollment growth, long term workforce sustainability, and institutional priorities.
• Provide executive level oversight of the Symptom Management Clinic partnership structure, ensuring agreements support advanced practice education, faculty engagement, and sustainable operational models.
• In partnership with academic and institutional leadership, explore innovative partnership models, emerging care delivery structures, industry collaborations, and interprofessional initiatives that expand workforce capacity and strengthen clinical training infrastructure.
Research Partnership Support
• Collaborate with the Associate Dean for Research to ensure partnership agreements create environments supportive of scholarly activity and research competitiveness.
• Assist in structuring partnership frameworks that enable implementation science, practice-based inquiry, and grant readiness without assuming responsibility for research strategy, compliance, or grant administration.
Global Partnerships and Study Abroad Oversight
• Directly supervise the Coordinator of Global Partnerships and Study Abroad.
• Ensure global partnership agreements support workforce preparation, academic quality, faculty engagement, and international visibility.
• Maintain executive accountability for global partnership agreements and overall global strategy.
Executive Leadership and Collaboration
• Serve as a member of the Executive Council.
• Advise and execute on partnership strategy.
• Work collaboratively with the Senior Associate Dean for Academics to align partnership agreements with academic quality and capacity.
• Collaborate with the Vice Dean to ensure partnership expansion aligns with faculty strategy and long-term sustainability.
• Coordinate with the Associate Dean for Research to ensure agreements support research readiness.
• Oversee budget allocations related to partnership development within scope of responsibility.
• Represent the College in institutional and external partnership initiatives as delegated by the Dean.
• Collaborate with the Dean and development leadership to identify philanthropic opportunities aligned with workforce and partnership growth.
Decision Making Authority
• Negotiation and oversight of executive level memoranda of understanding and formal partnership agreements consistent with College and University policy.
• Supervision and evaluation of the Coordinator of Global Partnerships and Study Abroad.
• Strategic direction of partnership portfolios and workforce advancement initiatives.
• Budget oversight within assigned areas of responsibility.
Leadership Profile
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
• Executive level experience negotiating complex institutional partnerships.
• Deep understanding of nursing workforce supply and demand dynamics.
• Ability to translate strategic vision into structured agreements that enable enrollment growth and workforce expansion.
• Clear differentiation between strategic partnership development and operational academic oversight.
• Strong collaborative capacity across academic and faculty leadership.
• Professional judgment, discretion, and executive presence.
• Commitment to excellence, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
Minimum Qualifications
• Earned doctoral degree in nursing.
• Current or eligible for multistate licensure as a registered nurse in Alabama.
• Demonstrated leadership experience in strategic partnerships within healthcare or higher education.
• Experience advancing nursing workforce initiatives and institutional growth strategies.
• Experience collaborating effectively with academic and faculty leadership.
Preferred Qualifications
Instructions and Required Materials for Application
Application materials should include: 1) a complete and updated curriculum vitae (CV)/resume, 2) cover letter summarizing the interest in the position and how the minimum qualifications and any preferred qualifications are met by the candidate's background and experience, and 3) a list of four professional references with full contact information (references will only be contacted after consent of the candidate).
About the Division/College/School
About the University
The University of Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, named one of Travel + Leisure’s 25 Best College Towns and Cities in the U.S. As one of the nation’s premier universities, UA offers bachelor’s, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 200 fields of study. With more than 1,400 acres of tree-lined academic core campus and over 300 state-of-the art facilities, UA has been ranked among the most beautiful and most impressive college campuses in the South, in the state of Alabama and in the nation.
In Fall 2023, the Capstone set a new enrollment record with more than 39,000 students, including more than 8,200 in the freshman class. The current enrollment includes students from every county in Alabama, every state in the nation and 92 countries around the world. More than 1,100 National Merit Scholars are currently enrolled, making UA one of the largest enrolling institutions of the scholars in the country.
UA was recently recognized as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. students for the seventh time in nine years, as well as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars for the first time. UA is one of only 12 universities in the nation to receive both honors.
For reasons like this, the University made Forbes list of America’s Top Colleges for 2023 and Time magazine’s list of Top 50 Best Colleges for Future Leaders. It also made Princeton Review’s list of Top Value Colleges.
UA is also designated among the top doctoral research universities in the United States in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. One of the fastest growing major research institutions in the nation, UA saw a 21% increase in sponsored awards in the 2023 fiscal year.
Since 2015, UA has invested over $1.1 billion in the physical campus, adding more than 2.55 million gross square feet of space, over 150 new research-intensive faculty, signature research areas (e.g., “The Alabama Research Institutes”), and a growing number of partnerships with industry and with state and federal agencies.
The University employs nearly 2,100 faculty and over 4,500 staff, with 52 UA researchers included in the National Academy of Inventors. An additional 40 current faculty have received the NSF CAREER Award, the nation’s most prestigious recognition of top performing young scientists in disciplines ranging from nanoscience and engineering to biological sciences.
Background Investigation and EEO Statement
Background Investigation Statement: Prior to hiring, the final candidate(s) must successfully pass a pre-employment background investigation and information obtained from social media and other internet sources. A prior conviction reported as a result of the background investigation DOES NOT automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration for this position. A candidate with a prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags will receive an individualized review of the prior conviction or negative behavioral red flags before a hiring decision is made.
Equal Employment Opportunity: The University of Alabama is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment or volunteer status without regard to any legally protected basis and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants and employees of this institution are protected under Federal law from discrimination on several bases. More information is available in the EEOC’s Know Your Rights: Workplace (https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf) discrimination is illegal poster.
The University of Alabama affirms its longstanding commitment to institutional neutrality, free speech, and academic freedom.
