Associate Dean for Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Advancement - 528786

The University of Alabama•Tuscaloosa, AL

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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.

Responsibilities

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.