Portland State University

Compensation

Full Description

Portland State University seeks a Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Click here to view position profile: https://summitsearchsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/PSU_Provost_Profile.pdf Location: Portland, Oregon The Position: Portland State University (PSU), Oregon’s urban public research university, invites nominations and applications for the position of Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. As the chief academic officer and second-in-command to the President, the Provost will play a defining role in implementing PSU’s bold new strategic plan, Future in Focus, and transforming the University into a national model for inclusive student success, academic innovation, and regional impact. This is a unique opportunity for a visionary and collaborative academic leader to shape the future of a diverse, access-oriented, and mission-driven institution located in the heart of downtown Portland. The Provost will be charged with advancing academic excellence, empowering faculty, fostering research, supporting student learning, and overseeing the entire student experience, including admissions, enrollment management, financial aid, student affairs, advising, and student success. The Provost must demonstrate exceptional ability to lead strategic change, make difficult decisions, and ensure sustainable financial stewardship. The successful candidate will be a deeply committed champion of student achievement and belonging, with a passion for creating a learning environment that is culturally responsive, equity-focused, and tailored to the needs of PSU’s diverse student population, including first-generation, transfer, adult, and historically underserved students. Responsibilities: Strategic and Visionary Academic Leadership • Serve as the principal advisor to the President on academic and student affairs and as a collaborative partner in the implementation of the University’s Future in Focus strategic plan. • Work within a shared leadership model that emphasizes collaboration with the President’s Executive Council, Board of Trustees, Academic Leadership Team (including the Deans) and senior leadership colleagues. • Champion the integration of academics and student support to create clear, equitable pathways aligned with workforce needs, lifelong learning, and post-graduation success. • In collaboration with the Deans, provide academic leadership across all colleges, schools, and departments, ensuring excellence in teaching, learning, research, and community engagement, and steer the academic enterprise through the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing higher education landscape. • Lead strategic academic planning, program review, and realignment efforts to ensure PSU's offerings remain responsive and sustainable. This includes the ability to translate multi-year institutional strategies into decisive action. Undergraduate Student Experience and Success • Oversee all aspects of the undergraduate student experience, including admissions, enrollment management, financial aid, student affairs, academic advising, and student success programs. This includes direct oversight of student services and a strategic vision for integrating academic and student affairs. • Foster a cohesive and proactive support ecosystem that ensures students receive timely, personalized guidance from entry to graduation. Promote clear academic pathways, proactive advising, and targeted interventions to support persistence, degree attainment, and career readiness. • Advance PSU’s commitment to equity and inclusive excellence by aligning student-facing services to meet the needs of a diverse, transfer-heavy, and often first-generation student population. • Promote high-impact practices such as undergraduate research, internships, service learning, community-based learning, and digital and technology-enhanced learning opportunities. Research and Graduate Education • Work in close collaboration with the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies to expand PSU’s research portfolio and strengthen its research infrastructure. • Support interdisciplinary collaboration, applied scholarship, and research addressing local, regional, and global challenges. • Co-lead efforts to enhance and grow graduate programs, ensuring alignment with labor market needs and academic excellence. • Advance graduate student recruitment, retention, and success, especially among diverse and historically underserved student populations. Faculty Excellence and Shared Governance • Support a dynamic, inclusive, and intellectually rigorous academic community by recruiting and retaining exceptional faculty. • Provide leadership for faculty hiring, development, tenure, and promotion processes that reflect excellence, fairness, and transparency. • Engage constructively with Faculty Senate and shared governance bodies, upholding academic freedom and faculty voice in institutional decisions. • Promote innovation in curriculum and pedagogy, including hybrid learning, interdisciplinary teaching, and digital delivery. The Provost should also demonstrate comfort with technological innovation, including AI, and strategically leverage academic technology to advance student learning. • Provide university leadership in bargaining with faculty and academic staff unions. Regional Stewardship and External Engagement • Advance PSU’s role as a steward of place, building partnerships that support Portland’s economic, cultural, and civic vitality. • Strengthen ties with employers, government agencies, K–12 districts, community colleges, non-profit organizations, and alumni to create seamless educational pipelines and work-based learning opportunities. • Represent PSU’s academic mission to external stakeholders, including accreditors, legislators, foundations, donors, alumni, and community leaders. • Partner with the University President and the President of the PSU Foundation to align academic priorities with fundraising goals and foster a culture of philanthropy that supports students, faculty, and programs. Operational Excellence and Resource Stewardship • Serve as a senior leader in PSU’s budgeting process, aligning academic and student support investments with institutional goals. This requires close partnership with the Vice President for Finance and Administration and the ability to analyze financial data for strategic decision-making. • Promote data-informed decision-making and continuous improvement across all academic and student affairs functions. • Support administrative innovation and streamline academic operations to ensure financial sustainability and organizational effectiveness. Required Qualifications: • Terminal degree from an accredited institution and academic qualifications for appointment at the rank of full professor. • A distinguished record of academic and administrative leadership, including responsibility for academic affairs, student success, and resource management. • Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and access, with tangible outcomes in support of diverse learners and communities. • Proven success in collaborative leadership, institutional planning, and academic innovation within a complex higher education environment. • Demonstrated financial acumen and ability to develop strategic, sustainable, mission-aligned responses to funding challenges. • Experience leading in alignment with shared governance values and working with faculty, staff, and students to build consensus and drive progress. • Strong people management skills, including the ability to guide, affirm, and hold accountable a large number of direct reports. • Expertise and experience with institutional assessment and regional and/or disciplinary accreditation processes. • Senior-level leadership experience at a research university. Preferred Qualifications: • Demonstrated academic leadership experience at a public, urban, research university serving a diverse, non-traditional, and transfer-inclusive student population. • A sustained record of fostering interdisciplinary teaching and research, innovative curriculum design, and leading academic transformation in response to institutional mission and societal needs. • Deep understanding of and demonstrated success with institution-wide student success frameworks, including proactive advising, guided academic pathways, momentum-building strategies, early alerts, and interventions that close equity gaps in retention, progression, and graduation. • A commitment to and experience in cultivating a culture of academic rigor and belonging, ensuring that student achievement is supported by intentional and equitable structures across academic and student affairs. • Experience advancing high-impact learning practices, such as undergraduate research, internships, service learning, and experiential education, with attention to broad access and impact across student demographics. • Knowledge of graduate education, research development, and strategies to support both emerging and established research faculty and graduate student success. • Demonstrated ability to represent the academic mission to a range of external stakeholders, including employers, state and federal agencies, accreditors, philanthropic organizations, and community partners. • Experience serving in a unionized academic environment. Leadership Success: Success in this role will require: • A mission-driven, equity-minded approach to leadership, with a strong belief in the power of higher education to transform lives and communities. • The vision and courage to lead transformative change, especially during times of resource constraint and demographic transition. • Exceptional collaboration, communication, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to foster trust, transparency, and shared ownership across the University. • A commitment to building a vibrant, inclusive academic culture that supports faculty excellence and student belonging. • The ability to translate strategy into measurable results, particularly around academic quality, student outcomes, and institutional sustainability. • Expertise in cultural and organizational transformation, and comfort with digital transformation and academic technologies. • A global perspective and national engagement in higher education networks and conversations. About Portland State University: Portland State University (PSU) is Oregon’s largest urban university, located in Portland, Oregon. PSU enrolls over 20,000 students and offers programs for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. PSU is an internationally recognized university known for excellence in student learning, innovative research, and community engagement. PSU contributes to the economic vitality, environmental sustainability, and quality of life in the Portland region and beyond. Employees describe Portland State University as a vibrant, diverse, progressive place to work and an environment that welcomes process improvement and innovation. Portland State’s 50-acre downtown campus is located in the heart of the city; a hub of culture, business, and technology, and just 90 minutes from mountains and the Oregon Coast. Portland State is composed of 10 constituent schools and colleges, offering undergraduate degrees in 95 fields, postgraduate degrees in 105 fields, and certificates in 77 fields, for a total of over 250 degree and certificate progams. Academic units at PSU include The School of Business, College of Education, School of Social Work, College of Urban and Public Affairs, College of the Arts, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Combined OHSU/PSU School of Public Health, the Graduate School, and the Honors College. The athletic teams are known as the Portland State Vikings and compete at the NCAA Division I Level, primarily in the Big Sky Conference. The University’s new strategic plan, Future in Focus, lays out an ambitious agenda to lead in social mobility, become a national model for serving minoritized learners, and drive Portland’s resurgence through innovation, equity, and regional impact. As President Ann Cudd recently remarked, “PSU is truly an anchor institution: We are a powerhouse for education and the arts in this region. We are woven into the fabric of this city. We are an innovative hub of research, much of it trained on addressing Oregon’s current and future challenges. And our students — our wonderful, creative, and passionate students — will take their education out into the community and make lasting change.” Leadership: Dr. Ann E. Cudd President Ann E. Cudd joined Portland State in August of 2023, bringing with her an immense amount of energy and focus on the mission and values of Oregon’s urban research university. She comes to the president’s office as an accomplished academic leader and philosophy scholar whose research explores themes of oppression, economic inequality, capitalism and gender. Cudd came to Portland from western Pennsylvania where she served as Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor of the 34,000-student, five-campus University of Pittsburgh from 2018 to 2023. During her tenure at Pitt, applications increased by 60% and Cudd was instrumental in the university offering enhanced financial aid through the Pitt Success Pell Match, similar to PSU’s Tuition-Free Degree Program. She is a proven champion of racial justice and equity initiatives, including the development of an online course for incoming students on racism in America. Cudd holds three advanced degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, including a doctorate of philosophy and master’s degrees in philosophy and economics. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy from Swarthmore College. She has held faculty positions at the University of Kansas, Occidental College, Boston University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cudd, the second woman to serve as PSU’s president in its 76-year history, has prioritized restoring the University’s downtown campus vitality. Dr. Cudd is keen to ensure that the University plays an active role in the city of Portland’s revival, using the example of the city’s current charter reform process and suggesting ways that PSU can act as a convener of citizens and experts to help inform and shape that effort. Getting more students to enroll at Portland State is also high on her list. “There is a national challenge in re-engaging potential students, especially among low-income and first-generation students, with higher education,” she said. “PSU is perfectly positioned to turn that around.” To Apply: Confidential review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Applications received by December 1, 2025 will be given full consideration. To apply, go to: https://theapplicantmanager.com/jobs?pos=su476 Applicants must submit a CV, a letter of interest that details their related qualifications and vision for the role, as well as a statement (one page maximum) that describes their commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion personally and/or professionally. For more information or to offer recommendations or nominations: Caitlin Hummel Senior Consultant Summit Search Solutions, Inc. (585) 880-7550 chummel@summitsearchsolutions.com Portland State University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and seeks candidates who are committed to the highest standards of scholarship and professional activities and a campus climate that supports equality, diversity, and inclusion.