Associate Dean for Academic and Student Success

Naropa University • Boulder, CO

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

This Associate Dean for Academic and Student Success provides institution-wide leadership for academic advising, academic coaching, career and life development, student success, and cross-functional initiatives connecting Academic Affairs, Enrollment, and Student Affairs. This position serves as a strategic partner to university leadership in strengthening the student experience across the full student lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding through academic progression, experiential learning, retention, career development, and graduation. The role provides leadership for Naropa's comprehensive undergraduate and graduate academic advising model; oversees the Academic Coaching Program and Career & Life Development; and works closely with Academic Affairs to align student support systems with curriculum, academic policy, student resources and support for faculty, program development, and institutional priorities. In partnership with Enrollment leadership, the position also strengthens the connection between recruitment, onboarding, advising, persistence, and completion, ensuring that students experience a coordinated and intentional transition from prospective student to enrolled student to graduate. This expanded scope reflects a more integrated institutional model in which academic advising and student success function as a bridge between academic programs, enrollment strategy, and the broader student experience.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in appropriate area of specialization (Higher Education, College Student Personnel, Education, Counseling, Social Work, etc.)
• Five (5) + years of experience supervising, developing, mentoring, and motivating a team
• Experience building collaborative partnerships with faculty, administrators, students, parents, and community partners
• Able to demonstrate continuous quality improvement, strategic decision-making, problem-solving skills, and timely documentation
• Proven ability to develop strategy, manage budgets, and deliver departmental goals
• Excellent facilitation and public speaking skills
• Proven experience running professional development and strategic workshops, delivering presentations, and presenting at seminars
• Excellent interpersonal and team building skills; ability to build bridges and relationships across diverse cultures and people
• Five (5) years’ experience in academic advising
• Multicultural competence and a demonstrated commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in all their forms
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and the public

Nice To Haves

• Ed.D. or similar degree in related field
• Five (5) years of higher ed experience as listed above

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and direction for Naropa's comprehensive undergraduate and graduate academic advising program.
• Lead the university's academic advising strategy, including advising structures, caseload distribution, service delivery, training, assessment, budget management, and continuous improvement.
• Supervise and develop the Academic Advising team and ensure consistent, proactive, student-centered advising practices across undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Lead advising initiatives designed to improve student persistence, retention, degree progression, and completion.
• Develop systems and processes that allow advisors to identify and respond proactively to academic barriers and students requiring additional support.
• Partner with faculty, program chairs, Registrar, Financial Aid, Student Affairs, and other campus partners to resolve complex student and academic issues.
• Provide leadership around complex advising cases, academic policy interpretation, degree completion planning, and student progression.
• Use advising and student-success data to identify trends, barriers, and opportunities for institutional improvement.
• Maintain a caseload of graduate and undergraduate advisees.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Partner with the Chief Academic Officer, academic deans, chairs, and faculty leadership on academic advising, student progression, retention, curriculum implementation, and academic support initiatives.
• Provide the student success and advising perspective in discussions related to curriculum development, program changes, academic policies, course planning, and degree pathways.
• Identify systemic barriers affecting students' ability to progress toward degree completion and collaborate with Academic Affairs to develop solutions.
• Support implementation and communication of curricular and academic policy changes across advising and student-facing departments.
• Strengthen communication structures between faculty, academic leadership, advisors, and student-support teams.
• Participate in institutional planning and governance related to academic engagement, retention, persistence, and completion.
• Support strategic initiatives and special projects within Academic Affairs where coordination across academic and student-facing functions is needed.
• Work closely with Enrollment leadership to align advising and student-success strategies with university enrollment and retention goals.
• Develop intentional handoffs between Admissions, Enrollment, academic advising, and academic programs.
• Embed academic advising and student-success touchpoints into recruitment, onboarding, orientation, and new-student transition processes.
• Support enrollment initiatives that require academic program knowledge, degree pathway expertise, or faculty/academic coordination.
• Identify opportunities to improve conversion, persistence, and retention through stronger communication and coordination across Enrollment and Academic Affairs.
• Help ensure that information presented to prospective and incoming students accurately reflects curriculum, degree requirements, academic expectations, and available student support.
• Collaborate on initiatives designed to re-engage stopped-out, unregistered, or at-risk students.
• Oversee the Academic Coaching team, including recruitment, hiring, training, supervision, professional development, and evaluation.
• Develop and maintain a consistent academic coaching model aligned with advising, retention, and institutional student-success priorities.
• Coordinate referrals and communication among academic coaches, advisors, faculty, and other student-support services.
• Develop resources, training, and programming addressing executive functioning, academic skills, time management, accountability, and student self-efficacy.
• Assess coaching utilization and outcomes and identify opportunities for program growth and improvement.
• Integrate academic coaching more intentionally into the university's broader retention and academic-support strategy.
• Serve as a strategic partner and connector between Academic Affairs and the university's student-success infrastructure.
• Partner with Enrollment leadership to create a coordinated student experience from recruitment through graduation.
• Provide direct leadership and oversight of Naropa's Academic Coaching Program.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• FSA
• HSA
• employer-paid short-term and long-term disability
• employer-paid life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment
• an employer-sponsored pre-tax retirement savings plan
• a variety of voluntary, employee-paid supplemental insurance plans
• generous tuition remission opportunities for themselves and their family members
• participation in the Council of Independent Colleges Tuition Exchange Program (CIC-TEP)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level