Provost Academic Affairs

Woodbury School of Business; Orem (UT); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Utah Valley University seeks a collaborative Provost/Vice President—Academic Affairs to advance academic excellence, faculty success, and meaningful innovation. This leader will guide UVU’s academic enterprise in a changing landscape, ensuring programs remain rigorous, relevant, and aligned with UVU’s mission.

The Provost will foster collaboration across the university, strengthen connections to student success, and navigate emerging opportunities, including AI and workforce needs, to position

Qualifications

• An earned terminal degree from an accredited institution.
• Minimum of 5 years of senior academic leadership experience.
• Minimum of seven years full-time teaching experience at a four-year college or university.

Responsibilities

• Provide vision and strategic leadership for Academic Affairs while advancing UVU’s mission, academic identity, and student success.
• Provide direct supervision of Academic Affairs leadership, including associate and deputy provosts, deans, and other direct reports.
• Use data-driven analysis to champion academic excellence, ensuring programs remain rigorous, relevant, innovative, and responsive while maintaining a culture of continuous improvement.
• Advance student success, retention, completion, and applied learning throughout UVU’s integrated university and community college mission.
• Support faculty scholarship and creative work that enriches teaching, including industry engagement and applied research opportunities for students.
• Partner meaningfully with faculty and the Faculty Senate through shared governance to strengthen curriculum, academic standards, teaching, scholarship, and faculty success.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Communication

Change management

Shared governance

Team building

Data-driven decision making

Education

Terminal degree (PhD or equivalent)

Senior academic leadership experience

Seven years teaching at a four-year college/university

Job description

Position Announcement

Utah Valley University (UVU) seeks a collaborative, student-centered academic leader who will champion academic excellence, faculty success, shared governance, and meaningful innovation while building trust through transparent and engaged leadership. The next Provost/Vice President – Academic Affairs will bring vision and experience to guide UVU’s academic enterprise through a changing higher education landscape while ensuring programs remain rigorous, relevant, responsive, and aligned with UVU’s distinctive mission.

As a member of the President's executive leadership team, the Provost advances UVU's mission as an integrated regional comprehensive university and community college that educates every student for success in work and life through excellence in engaged teaching, service, and scholarship. The Provost will be a visible, accessible, and trusted academic leader who values faculty expertise and meaningful shared governance.

The Provost will foster collaboration across the university, strengthen connections between academic programs and student success, and help UVU thoughtfully navigate emerging opportunities and challenges, including artificial intelligence, technological change, workforce needs, and changing expectations for higher education and position UVU for continued growth and impact across Utah and beyond.

For more information about the position please visit https://www.uvu.edu/provostsearch/

The position will remain open until filled, but only applications received by November 9, 2026, can be assured full consideration.

UVU’s Leadership Priorities

• Clear strategy - Maintain UVU’s distinctive identity as an accessible, teaching-focused university committed to providing opportunities for all students. Prioritize transformative educational experiences, student success, and meaningful pathways to careers and continued learning over institutional prestige.
• Operational efficiency - Ensure that institutional resources, processes, and organizational structures effectively advance strategic priorities. Regularly evaluate performance, identify inefficiencies, and implement improvements that strengthen institutional effectiveness.
• Healthy culture - Foster a respectful, collaborative, and people-centered institutional culture. Build trust, address conflict constructively, resolve strained relationships promptly, and promote professionalism and shared purpose.
• Timely, inclusive decision-making - Seek meaningful input from appropriate stakeholders while maintaining the ability to make timely, informed decisions. Demonstrate sound judgment, accountability, and a willingness to reassess decisions when warranted by new evidence.
• A single point of coordination - Establish a clearly designated leader to coordinate cross-functional initiatives, facilitate collaboration, and maintain alignment across participating divisions, while recognizing their shared responsibility for institutional outcomes.

This position serves at the pleasure of the President of Utah Valley University and is exempt from standard employment appointment provisions.

Continued employment is contingent upon the discretion of the President and the needs of the University.

Why UVU?

Utah Valley University is one of the nation’s largest open-admission institutions and serves a dynamic and rapidly growing region. UVU’s distinctive identity as an integrated university and community college combines accessibility and opportunity with the rigor and quality of a teaching university. This dual mission enables UVU to serve students at many stages of their educational journeys while maintaining a strong commitment to academic quality, engaged learning, workforce relevance, and student success.

UVU is defined by access, engagement, and impact and by the belief that “UVU has a place for you.” As the university continues to grow and evolve, the next Provost will have a significant opportunity to help shape UVU’s academic future while preserving the distinctive mission and culture that have driven its success.

The Next Provost Will Have The Opportunity To

• Shape the academic future of one of Utah's fastest-growing universities.
• Lead and support a talented and dedicated academic community deeply committed to student success and academic excellence.
• Advance innovative teaching, workforce partnerships, and community engagement.
• Help UVU thoughtfully navigate artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies while preserving academic integrity and strengthening teaching and learning.
• Advance partnerships that connect academic programs with Utah’s communities, industries, and workforce needs.
• Strengthen collaboration, transparency, shared governance, and a shared sense of purpose across the university.
• Help define UVU’s next chapter as an accessible, innovative, academically excellent, and student-centered institution.

Join UVU and help define the future of higher education in one of the most vibrant and innovative regions in the country.

Summary Of Responsibilities

• Provide vision and strategic leadership for Academic Affairs while advancing UVU’s mission, academic identity, and commitment to student success.
• Provide direct supervision of Academic Affairs leadership, including associate and deputy provosts, deans, and other direct reports.
• Use data-driven analysis to champion academic excellence, ensuring programs remain rigorous, relevant, innovative, and responsive while maintaining a culture of continuous improvement.
• Advance student success, retention, completion, and engaged and applied learning throughout UVU’s integrated university and community college mission.
• Support faculty scholarship and creative work that enriches teaching, including industry engagement and applied research opportunities for students.
• Partner meaningfully with faculty and the Faculty Senate through shared governance to strengthen curriculum, academic standards, teaching, scholarship, and faculty success.
• Support and develop outstanding faculty through recruitment, retention, tenure, promotion, professional development, recognition, and opportunities for continued growth.
• Support campus strategic enrollment management (SEM) efforts to meet the educational need of our service region.
• Lead academic planning, program development and review, accreditation, assessment, and continuous improvement, using evidence and student outcomes to inform decision-making.
• Lead academic student success programs and initiatives, educational support services, and support and develop experiential and engaged learning experiences and encourage the use of high-impact practices for undergraduate and graduate students.
• Lead and strengthen academic partnerships with regional community and technical colleges and local K-12 districts, while fostering collaborative relationships with other Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) institutions and the system office to advance shared priorities, expand educational pathways, and support student success.
• Guide the academic enterprise through emerging opportunities and challenges associated with artificial intelligence and technology, including pedagogy, academic integrity, faculty development, and preparation of students for a rapidly evolving workforce.
• Foster a culture of teaching excellence, innovation, collaboration, and intellectual inquiry.
• Support and develop the Academic Affairs staff, who are essential to student success, through clear expectations, professional development, recognition, and opportunities for growth.
• Build institutional trust through transparent communication, active listening, open dialogue, visible leadership, and sustained engagement with faculty, staff, and students.
• Oversee academic resource allocation and stewardship to ensure alignment with university priorities including planning so that faculty and staff capacity, space, and budgets keep pace with enrollment changes.
• Partner with university leaders, Board of Trustees, and external stakeholders to advance UVU's mission and strategic goals.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, responsiveness, and exceptional service that makes UVU an accessible and effective partner for industry, alumni, donors, community organizations, and other stakeholders, creating meaningful opportunities for engagement and mutual success.
• Partner with campus leaders to sustain a safe, supportive learning environment and to lead academic continuity and recovery for students, faculty, and staff when crises occur.
• Represent the President and the university in internal and external settings as assigned.

Qualifications / Licenses / Certifications

• An earned terminal degree from an accredited institution.
• Minimum of 5 years of senior academic leadership experience, such as dean, associate provost, or higher, in increasingly complex roles.
• Minimum of seven years full-time teaching experience at a four-year college or university.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD.
• At least 7 years of senior academic leadership experience, such as dean, associate provost, or higher, in increasingly complex roles.

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities

The successful candidate should be available to start in January 2027 and will bring:

• Strong communication, relationship-building, and consensus-building skills.
• Demonstrated academic leadership and credibility in increasingly complex roles in higher education, including experience as a faculty member and academic administrator.
• A reputation for personal integrity and ethical leadership, shown through fairness, accountability, and consistency between words and actions.
• Strong understanding of faculty roles in teaching, scholarship, service, and tenure and promotion.
• A demonstrated commitment to student success, academic excellence, teaching excellence, and faculty achievement.
• A track record of building faculty-driven partnerships between higher education and industry resulting in aligned curricula. and innovative, experiential collaborations that enhance student success and meet workforce needs.
• Fostering industry connections that lead to student internships and faculty externships, financial support, placements of graduating students.
• An understanding of public higher education governance and the ability to work effectively with institutional and system-level stakeholders.
• An understanding of the rapidly evolving higher education landscape and a proven ability to lead systemic change, including artificial intelligence, technological change, changing student needs, workforce expectations, and the opportunities and challenges facing public higher education.
• The ability to balance innovation and responsiveness with academic rigor, faculty expertise, and the long-term quality and integrity of the academic enterprise.
• The ability to align strategy, budgets and other resources, and academic priorities while exercising responsible stewardship.
• In coordination with the President set academic strategy and thoughtfully guide organizational and institutional change.
• Demonstrated ability to build trust, listen actively, and communicate transparently to bring people together around a shared academic vision.
• A demonstrated record of listening to and acting upon student input and improving access and support to students from diverse backgrounds.