Director, Strategic Projects & External Relations

Boston College Introduction

Founded in 1863, Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic university located six miles from downtown Boston with an enrollment of 9,654 full-time undergraduates and 5,072 graduate and professional students. Ranked 37 among national universities, Boston College has 923 full-time and 1,336 FTE faculty, 2,822 non-faculty employees, an operating budget of $1.4 billion, and an endowment in excess of $3.9 billion.

The Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics (CPHE) at Boston College invites applications for the position of Director of Strategic Partnerships and External Relations. The Center was founded on a conviction that contemporary psychology operates within too narrow a frame — one stripped of the humanistic, moral, and civic dimensions that once animated the field. CPHE’s mission is to recover and advance those dimensions, not by abandoning psychological science, but by re-embedding it in the philosophical, theological, and humanistic traditions from which it was uprooted.

The Director will serve as a primary architect of the Center’s external presence and intellectual impact, building the partnerships, networks, and flagship initiatives through which that mission becomes visible, credible, and consequential across research, professional formation, and public life.

After a period of significant growth and increased demand, the CPHE is now seeking a Director of Strategic Projects and External Relations to serve as a primary external face of this intellectual and civic project, building many of the partnerships, networks and initiatives through which it becomes visible, credible and impactful. The Director role requires academic research, institution-building and field-building in equal measure.

The Director will serve as a primary architect of the Center’s external presence and intellectual impact by building networks, initiatives, and resources that will help to translate the Center’s approach to psychological humanities into institutional change across research, professional formation and public life. The Director will be a recognized scholar with a substantive research agenda, an institutional entrepreneur with experience building networks and programs across sectors and a strategic leader who will represent the Center to senior audiences in philanthropy, higher education, policy and public discourse.

The person will lead three flagship Center initiatives—development of a major digital ecosystem/online platform, the Civic Imagination Forum, and the Teaching Commons—while constructing the broader partnership infrastructure through which the Center exercises influence beyond its walls and curricular offerings. The work that this position leads would be expanded and scaled by a team that this person will work with Center leadership to build and manage.

This is an appointment for a scholar-entrepreneur — someone who brings genuine intellectual ambition, relational depth, and institutional imagination to a role that demands all three in equal measure. The Director will serve as a public intellectual contributing to influential outlets, representing the Center at academic conferences and public convenings, and helping to define what a humanistic, morally serious approach to psychology can mean for institutions and communities navigating genuine cultural crisis.

Work will take place at Boston College under the direct supervision of the Executive Director of the Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics. Full-Time Equivalent Hiring Range: $118,700 to $148,400; salary commensurate with relevant experience.

• PhD degree in a relevant humanities, social science, or professional discipline
• Demonstrated scholarly achievement, including publications in peer-reviewed venues and a research agenda recognized as a genuine contribution to the field
• Significant experience (10+ years) building institutional relationships, networks, and programs across organizational and sectoral boundaries, with evidence of genuine field-building impact
• Knowledge of technical solutions through online platform development for practitioners and scholars
• Signif…