Dean of the Graduate School

University of Miami•Coral Gables, FL

About The Position

The Dean of the Graduate School serves as the administrative academic leader of the Graduate School, responsible for advancing excellence in graduate and postdoctoral education across the University. Guided by the University’s mission and strategic priorities, the Dean leads the central hub of the University’s graduate education at the University with vision and authority. The Dean champions a service-oriented culture, fosters interdisciplinary opportunities, and ensures clear and unified processes. The Dean supports the Graduate School’s multiple student and trainee constituencies (including master’s and doctoral students and postdoctoral associates and scholars) and their academic units in achieving scholarly and educational goals. The Dean also serves as a liaison between graduate programs and the administrative units that serve them, and as an ambassador representing the University’s graduate and postdoctoral programs externally with particular emphasis on enhancing the visibility and placement of graduates in high-impact academic, industry and leadership roles that strengthen the University’s national and global reputation. This is a full-time administrative appointment. The Dean is expected to drive continuous improvement of the Graduate School’s operations, ensuring clarity, efficiency, and student-centered services. The Dean reports directly to the Executive Vice President and Provost and supervises the Graduate School’s staff. Through the Graduate School team and other campus-wide partners, the Dean leads the coordination of policies, academic standards, centralized graduate student services, program reviews, data systems, and initiatives that strengthen the quality, consistency, competitiveness, and national reputation of graduate and postdoctoral education at the University. The Graduate School is a key unit in positioning the University nationally as a leader in graduate education by elevating program competitiveness and reputation, strengthening student recruitment and support, and advancing interdisciplinary innovation as evidenced by improved graduate placement outcomes, national rankings, external funding success, and leadership representation of alumni in academia and industry.

Requirements

Tenured full professor with a distinguished record of scholarship.
Demonstrated academic leadership experience in graduate education, including program administration, fiscal management, supervisory responsibility, academic policy and compliance, and graduate student support.
Commitment to cultivating a service-oriented Graduate School that promotes transparency, equity, data-informed decision making, and interdisciplinary collaboration for students, postdocs, and their academic units.
Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills; ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, students, and senior leadership.
Capacity to lead a complex portfolio with clarity of authority, strong operational judgment, and a collaborative approach.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Institutional Alignment Provide overarching leadership for the University’s graduate education ecosystem, ensuring alignment with institutional mission, research strengths, and long-term strategic goals.
Guide the transformation of the Graduate School into a highly effective, well-coordinated central unit, with clarified authority, efficient processes, and a strong service mindset.
Lead efforts to strengthen graduate education, including identifying opportunities for cross‑school collaboration.
Lead efforts to strengthen graduate education through philanthropic efforts.
Develop and implement strategies to track, improve, and communicate graduate placement outcomes, including tenure-track placements, postdoctoral appointments, industry placement, and leadership roles in their respective disciplines.
Serve as the University’s principal advocate for graduate education within the institution and externally interacting with students, faculty, trustees, alumni and senior leadership.
Effectively champion graduate education within the institution and externally at the national level.
Oversee and manage the Graduate School budget to strategically resource operational and initiatives.
Policy, Standards, and Academic Integrity Establish, maintain, and enforce University-level policies governing graduate education, including the Graduate Student Handbook and Graduate Honor Code.
Oversee centralized academic processes such as forms, approvals, candidacy milestones, time-to-degree extensions, readmissions, withdrawals, credit transfers, and graduation clearances.
Oversee the adjudication of academic issues including grievances, violations, grade appeals, and dismissal cases.
Graduate Program Oversight and Review Lead systematic, holistic reviews of units that support doctoral and master’s programs.
Chair the Graduate Council, empowering the Council to provide collaborative leadership and governance, monitor curricular overlap, promote synergies across programs, support development of new degrees and close degrees as needed.
Coordinate workflow with the Graduate Council and ensure transparent, efficient processes for curricular and policy governance.
Enhance efficiency and responsiveness of graduate curriculum review and approval workflow from department through Faculty Senate review.
Provide guidance to program directors on policy compliance, student support resources, and best practices.
Centralized Student Services and Support Direct centralized services including dissertation/thesis final review and ETD processes, new student orientation coordination, student training programs, and graduate-level case management.
Ensure and coordinate the consistent communication with students across all programs, including milestone reminders, policies, and support pathways.
Actively engage with and support the Graduate Student Association.
Lead and coordinate the efforts for the planning of Commencement events related to graduate students, such as selection of speakers and the coordination of hooding ceremonies.
Liaise with the leaders of central services to ensure support for all graduate students and coordination of policies, where appropriate.
Funding, Fellowships, and Financial Processes Oversee centrally-funded fellowships, stipends, health insurance, and financial support programs for graduate students.
Provide direction for internal funding mechanisms, external fellowship support, and policies related to financial aid and matriculation clearance.
Collaborate with academic units to ensure equitable support and clarity around Graduate Assistantship distributions and tuition waivers.
Admissions, Matriculation, and Enrollment Operations Lead centralized admissions documentation processes, including development of University-wide transcript verification system, graduate holds, matriculation clearance, and compliance with institutional requirements.
Ensure clear and consistent guidance on admissions processes, student documentation, and enrollment standards.
Understand the graduate recruitment landscape for both master’s and doctoral students.
Support units, as needed, with recruitment through coordinated systems, such as Slate.
Career and Professional Development Collaborate with the Career Services leader to ensure support for graduate students and postdoctoral trainees, ensuring access and parity for smaller departments and programs.
Liaise with University-wide career services leadership to develop career readiness programming that includes professional development opportunities, employer engagement, and connection to alumni networks.
Establish pipelines and partnerships that increase placement of graduates into faculty positions, postdoctoral fellowships, and high-level leadership roles.
Support for Postdoctoral Associates and Scholars Deliver resources for postdoctoral associates and scholars that support training, mentorship, wellbeing, and career readiness.
Partner with Human Resources to provide support and policy oversight for this constituency.
Data, Systems, and Institutional Analysis Lead the development and maintenance of a unified graduate education data infrastructure, including key metrics such as yield, time-to-degree, completion, placement, funding, and international student compliance.
Ensure data-informed decision making across graduate programs and university leadership.
Develop protocols to ensure periodic and routine sharing of data with program units and school leaders to promote data-driven analysis and decision-making.
Direct improvements in digital systems supporting academic progress, student tracking, and reporting.
Collaboration with Academic Units Partner with deans, associate deans, and graduate program directors to support recruiting, admissions, curriculum management, and student advising.
Provide training and support for faculty and staff in units—especially smaller programs—to ensure consistent implementation of policies and processes.
Balance centralized standards with the flexibility required for disciplinary specificity.
Communications, Community Building, and Events Oversee signature engagement events and programming ( e.g., 3MT, symposia, and annual awards) to promote graduate student curricular and co-curricular development, promote UM graduate education regionally and nationally, and highlight alumni success and placement outcomes as part of the University’s graduate education narrative
Foster opportunities for career and alumni networking, interdisciplinary research collaboration, and team science across graduate programs.
Ensure clear, consistent communication standards for students, faculty, and staff, including unified handbooks and guidelines.