Director of Didactic Education, Physician Assistant Program

Overview

National Louis University is seeking a Director of Didactic Education and Principal Faculty member for a new Physician Assistant (PA) program launching at its Chicago campus. This is a 12-month professional practice faculty position that will function in a joint role with administrative and faculty responsibilities that will involve activities in both the didactic and clinical phases of the students’ academic program.

The annual workload requirement is 36 semester credit hours. Rank will be commensurate with education, experience, and academic record.

The Director of Didactic Education (DDE) will assume the responsibility for developing and overseeing the didactic phase of the PA program, ensuring it aligns with ARC-PA accreditation standards, program goals, and curricular requirements in collaboration with the Physician Assistant Program Director. Duties include, but are not limited to, planning, developing, implementing and evaluating the didactic education experience, to ensure students are prepared and demonstrate the competencies required to progress to the clinical phase of the program.

The DDE will report to the Program Director at the Chicago campus and serve in a leadership role in the Physician Assistant Program. The PA faculty consists of a highly motivated, cohesive group of experienced educators. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive curriculum to prepare students to practice in a variety of clinical settings and specialties.

The National Louis University (NLU) Physician Assistant Program will apply for Accreditation - Provisional from the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). The NLU Physician Assistant Program anticipates matriculating its first class in October of 2027, pending achievement of Accreditation - Provisional status at the July of 2027 ARC-PA meeting. Accreditation - Provisional is an accreditation status granted when the plans and resource allocation, if fully implemented as planned, of a proposed program that has not yet enrolled students appear to demonstrate the program’s ability to meet the ARC-PA Standards or when a program holding accreditation-provisional status appears to demonstrate continued progress in complying with the Standards as it prepares for the graduation of the first class (cohort) of students.

ADMINISTRATION

• Oversee implementation of curricular design and coordination of scheduling of the didactic program with faculty and instructors to optimize delivery of instructional content to students.
• Ensure faculty are appropriately oriented to: program mission and goals, specific teaching responsibilities, program instructional resources, and specific learning objectives for which they are responsible.
• Mentor and support didactic instructors to ensure alignment of program, course, learning, and session objectives with classroom instruction and student assessment.
• Confirm, record, and report remediation instruction is occurring in didactic courses according to department policy and procedure.
• Serve as a member of the Education Committee and lead curricular evaluation to ensure high quality education through curriculum development and continuous self‑assessment and improvement processes.
• Design original or review and modify as appropriate existing curricula to correlate with established or new course and program outcomes.
• Implement curricula in alignment with the educational objectives of the National Louis University Physician Assistant Program.

TEACHING

• Mentor, instruct and evaluate students within areas of need, expertise, and interest.
• Develop, revise, and publish syllabi that are compliant with institutional and departmental requirements.
• Develop, revise, and maintain student course learning objectives in alignment with session objectives.
• Serve as course director, conduct classroom teaching, and participate in course assignments in a setting promoting team teaching.
• Understand and use the university provided learning management system to facilitate the course. Turn in grades to the registrar by the posted deadline each semester.
• Develop, revise, adjudicate, and align student…