Senior Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs

University of Houston; Houston (TX); Presencial; USD 220.000 - 320.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

University of Houston's Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine seeks a Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs to provide strategic leadership for clinical education partnerships and to expand the college’s network of affiliated health care partners.

The role reports to the Dean and drives strategic initiatives, capacity planning, and external relationships to advance educational excellence. The Senior Associate Dean will oversee clinical affiliation development, partner engagement,

Formación

• MD, DO, or equivalent terminal degree required.
• Significant leadership experience in academic medicine.
• Knowledge of LCME accreditation standards.

Responsabilidades

• Provide strategic leadership for clinical affairs and network development with affiliated organizations.
• Lead development and stewardship of clinical training capacity across sites.
• Oversee affiliation agreements, onboarding, site capacity, and operational metrics.
• Represent the College of Medicine in external negotiations with healthcare partners.
• Ensure alignment with LCME standards and institutional policies.

Conocimientos

Strategic leadership

Healthcare partnerships

Negotiation

Relationship management

Academic medicine

Educación

MD/DO or terminal degree

Descripción del empleo

Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs
Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine

Position Description

The Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs provides senior strategic leadership for the development, expansion, stewardship, and alignment of the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine’s clinical education partnerships and affiliated healthcare network. Reporting to the Dean, this role is responsible for advancing and sustaining the clinical relationships and healthcare assets necessary to support the college’s educational mission, strategic growth, community engagement, and long-term institutional success.

The Senior Associate Dean serves as a principal representative of the College of Medicine with healthcare systems, hospitals, clinics, physician organizations, community practices, and related external partners. Working closely with the Dean, Vice Dean, department chairs, medical education leadership, faculty affairs, and healthcare executives, this role leads institutional efforts to identify, cultivate, negotiate, and strengthen partnerships that expand and sustain high-quality clinical training opportunities for medical students, residents, and fellows.

This position provides strategic oversight of clinical affiliation development, physician and preceptor engagement, clinical training site capacity planning, external partnership management, and development or acquisition of healthcare assets in an increasingly competitive and rapidly evolving healthcare environment.

The Senior Associate Dean must possess exceptional relationship-building, strategic communication, negotiation, and organizational leadership skills, with the ability to effectively represent senior leadership of the College of Medicine across diverse healthcare and community settings.

Job Duties

• Strategic Leadership for Clinical Affairs
  • Lead the strategic development, expansion, and stewardship of the College of Medicine’s network of affiliated healthcare organizations, hospitals, clinics, physician practices, and community partners.
  • Identify opportunities to establish new clinical training partnerships that align with institutional priorities, workforce needs, curricular goals, geographic expansion, enrollment growth, and accreditation requirements.
  • Develop and implement long-range strategies to ensure sufficient, sustainable, and high-quality clinical training capacity across all phases of the medical education program and GME programs.
  • Monitor trends in healthcare delivery, physician workforce dynamics, hospital operations, and clinical education to proactively address risks and opportunities affecting clinical training partnerships.
  • Collaborate with the Dean, Vice Dean, and senior leadership to align clinical partnership strategy with the broader mission, vision, and strategic priorities of the College of Medicine and university.
  • Represent the College of Medicine in high-level discussions and negotiations with healthcare executives, physician leaders, community organizations in the health space, and external stakeholders.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to institutional leadership regarding clinical partnership strategy, healthcare market dynamics, and opportunities for institutional growth and collaboration including development or acquisition of healthcare assets.
• Development and Stewardship of Clinical Training Capacity
  • Partner with relevant College of Medicine leaders to support institutional efforts to recruit, develop, and maintain sufficient clinical training sites and physician preceptors to support undergraduate medical education programs.
  • Collaborate with medical education leadership, department chairs, clerkship directors, and course directors to assess current and projected clinical placement needs across specialties and training settings.
  • Lead initiatives to strengthen engagement, satisfaction, retention, and long-term partnership development among affiliated clinical sites and preceptors.
  • Facilitate collaborative solutions to operational, educational, or relationship challenges affecting clinical training environments.
  • Support development of innovative community-based, ambulatory, longitudinal, and distributed clinical education models that enhance educational quality and expand training capacity.
  • Promote alignment between affiliated sites and institutional expectations related to learner experience, supervision, educational quality, professionalism, and accreditation standards.
• Oversight of Clinical Affiliations and Partnership Operations
  • Provide oversight for the operational processes related to affiliation agreements, clinical partnership development, and preceptor recruitment.
  • Collaborate with leaders in the Office of Medical Education to ensure effective operational systems, workflows, and accountability structures are in place to support efficient coordination of clinical partnerships and site development activities.
  • Oversee systems for tracking partnership development, affiliation agreements, onboarding progress, site capacity, and related operational metrics.
  • Collaborate with legal counsel, compliance, faculty affairs, contracting offices, and healthcare partners to facilitate timely execution of agreements and resolution of partnership-related issues.
  • Ensure operational alignment and communication among medical education leadership, external partners, faculty affairs, and institutional administrative offices.
• Institutional Representation and External Relations
  • Serve as a senior representative of the Dean’s Office in interactions with healthcare systems, hospitals, physician groups, community organizations, and external partners.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with healthcare executives, physician leaders, and community stakeholders to advance the educational and clinical missions and reputation of the College of Medicine.
  • Represent the College of Medicine in meetings, negotiations, community forums, and partnership discussions on behalf of the Dean, Vice Dean, and senior leadership.
  • Facilitate productive communication and collaboration between the College of Medicine and affiliated organizations.
  • Support institutional advancement, strategic initiatives, and community engagement efforts related to clinical partnerships and healthcare collaborations.
  • Explore and develop innovative opportunities to enhance our training environments and healthcare assets.
• Accreditation, Quality, and Continuous Improvement
  • Collaborate with medical education leadership, assessment and quality improvement teams, and accreditation leaders to ensure affiliated clinical sites and partnerships support compliance with LCME standards and institutional policies.
  • Support ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement related to clinical training capacity, comparability of educational experiences, learner satisfaction, and site quality.
  • Utilize data and operational metrics to inform strategic planning, partnership decisions, and continuous improvement efforts.
  • Participate in institutional accreditation activities, strategic planning initiatives, and leadership committees as appropriate.

Job Requirements

Required:

• Education: Requires advanced professional knowledge typically obtained through a terminal degree in medicine, healthcare administration, higher education leadership, public health, business administration, or a related field. MD, DO, or equivalent terminal degree strongly preferred. Additional leadership or administrative training highly desirable.
• Experience: Requires a record of significant, progressively responsible leadership experience in academic medicine, healthcare administration, physician relations, clinical operations, or healthcare partnership development.

Preferred:

• Experience in undergraduate or graduate medical education leadership.
• Experience developing and managing healthcare partnerships or clinical affiliation networks.
• Experience working with hospitals, healthcare systems, physician organizations, or community-based healthcare entities.
• Experience supervising operational teams and leading complex organizational initiatives.
• Familiarity with LCME accreditation standards and clinical education requirements.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Exceptional interpersonal, relationship-building, and diplomatic communication skills.
• Ability to effectively represent senior institutional leadership in high-level external engagements.
• Strong strategic thinking, negotiation, and organizational leadership abilities.
• Knowledge of healthcare systems, clinical operations, physician practice environments, and medical education.
• Ability to lead complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives in dynamic and evolving environments.
• Strong operational oversight and project management skills.
• Ability to develop trust and credibility with internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong judgment, professionalism, and political acumen.

Work Complexity:

Requires executive-level leadership and strategic oversight in a highly complex and evolving healthcare and academic environment. Work involves balancing institutional priorities, healthcare market realities, accreditation expectations, operational demands, and long-term partnership development across multiple organizations and stakeholders.

The role requires navigating complex organizational relationships, sensitive negotiations, and high-impact strategic decisions affecting the educational mission and institutional growth of the College of Medicine.

Change in Knowledge:

The healthcare and medical education environments continue to evolve rapidly, requiring ongoing engagement with emerging trends in healthcare delivery, workforce development, accreditation standards, physician practice models, community partnerships, and clinical education innovation.

Problem Solving:

Requires advanced strategic judgment, diplomacy, and independent decision-making to address complex organizational, operational, and partnership-related challenges. The role requires initiative, the ability to anticipate risks, identify opportunities, align diverse stakeholder interests, and develop sustainable solutions that support the long-term educational and strategic goals of the College of Medicine.

The University of Houston is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Minorities, women, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

The University of Houston is responsive to the needs of dual career couples.