Expressive Therapies Core Faculty and Department Chair

The Opportunity


Reporting to an Associate Provost, the Expressive Therapies Core Faculty and Department Chair is a member of the university's academic administrative team and is responsible for providing leadership for academic department curricula and shepherding the academic vision in alignment with university goals and objectives. In this capacity, the Department Chair plays a key role in ensuring effective curriculum implementation by mentoring faculty in successful pedagogical strategies and by planning, organizing, and managing the department curriculum and providing guidance to department faculty in working as a cohesive unit to promote and implement the university's strategic framework and policies at the department level.

The Department Chair is an integral part of the academic leadership team, charged with ensuring academic departments are compelling in the marketplace and meet defined academic quality.

Foundational Leadership Essentials:

• Advise leadership on issues that may develop in the department in a timely manner and include recommended action as needed.
• Any other duties as needed to help drive the university's vision, mission, and abide by the university's values.
• Consistently model leadership behavior that promotes inclusion, belonging and respect for all.
• Contextualize actions, behaviors, and work in consideration of the overall university goals and mission.

Position Specific Essentials:

• Teach across a range of subject areas within the Expressive Therapies master's and PhD programs.
• Responsible for the planning, implementation, and coordination of department curriculum.
• Responsible for ensuring programs are coherent and consistently delivered, including content, timing, modality, and quality.
• Guide and mentor faculty in effective pedagogical implementation of the curriculum, including designated modality.
• Implement and lead department meetings, maintaining a climate that promotes professionalism, responsibility, creativity and innovation toward academic department goals and student outcomes.
• Participate as needed in faculty recruitment activities.
• Partner with marketing to ensure smooth implementation of targeted marketing strategies and participate in outreach initiatives as needed to promote the academic department to prospective students.
• Lead and oversee the departmental plan for continuous assessment of program outcomes including those related to accreditation.
• Coordinate with Advising to ensure consistent and accurate department information is conveyed with advisees and provide guidance on course registration matters. Field questions regarding substitutions and waivers as needed.
• Coordinate with the Associate Provost on matters related to course scheduling and rotations, faculty assignments, student issues and concerns, and institutional initiatives.
• Advise the Associate Provost on evaluation of faculty within the departments.

Qualities and Capabilities


A successful candidate will have:

• Earned degree in area of specialty required. Master's degree required;
  PhD or terminal degree preferred.
• Comprehension of pertinent state and national professional licensure and certification requirements and processes.
• A minimum of five+ years of demonstrated teaching experience, with proven proficiency in online and in-person instruction and curriculum delivery.
• Capability to teach across a range of subject areas within the Expressive Therapies master's and PhD programs.
• Demonstrated expertise in curriculum evaluation and design. Experience in assessing pedagogical quality of academic programs and academic planning, curriculum review, evaluation and development and professional accreditation or certification, as applicable.
• Ability to diplomatically tackle difficult topics and conventional thinking in a respectful and productive manner.
• Excellent analytical, communication, problem solving and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to promote a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, measurement, and learning.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work with diverse community.

Why Lesley


Located in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lesley University is highly regarded for its…