Associate Vice President-Exec Mgt

Working/Functional Title

Associate Vice President for Health Sciences

Operating through influence, facilitation, and consensus-driven leadership, the AVPRI connects colleges, centers, institutes, core facilities, and external partners - including Henry Ford Health and Corewell Health - to ensure MSU’s health research strategy is coherent, executable, and nationally competitive. Along with these partners, the AVPRI will drive the design, development, and execution of large team funding opportunities in health from both federal and non-federal funding sources.

The AVPRI will promote cross-unit collaborations, implement institutional research decisions, and represent MSU externally to elevate the reputation and stature of the university.

MSU’s health sciences research enterprise operates through a networked partnership based model that emphasizes shared governance, collaboration, and integration across academic units and external partners. The AVPRI role is designed to lead within this environment through facilitation, alignment, and strategic influence.

• Align university-wide strategy for Health Sciences research, translational science, and interdisciplinary initiatives. Develop a partnership focused strategic plan that supports the researcher’s interests and long-term vision.
• Collaborate with deans, chairs, and center directors to address cross-unit research challenges and implement institution-wide health initiatives, ensuring effective coordination and progress across the university’s research enterprise.
• Translate institutional research priorities into actionable, fundable portfolios that increase national competitiveness and reduce risk.
• Serve as a connector and facilitator across academic units to ensure research strategy is coherent, aligned, and executable within MSU’s shared governance environment.

• Provide executive research partnership-oriented leadership for MSU’s Health Sciences and the One Team, One Health Research Network, integrating human health, animal health, and environmental health across MSU colleges.
• Translate the One Team, One Health vision into operational research programs, shared infrastructure priorities, and large-scale funding strategies.
• Ensure the network functions as a cohesive research platform, aligned with MSU’s research priorities.

• Supports and coordinates MSU’s research with health systems, federal agencies (NIH, ARPA-H, DoD), foundations, and industry partners.
• Facilitate research integration associated with major health‑system alliances, including Corewell Health by aligning investigators, infrastructure, and funding strategies.
• Represent MSU in national forums related to specific research areas of interests to the partnership translational science, research infrastructure, and health sciences in general.
• Enable connections across partnerships to maximize synergies with MSU’s One Team, One Health research platform.

• Serve as MSU’s executive research partner for the Henry Ford Health + MSU partnership, ensuring alignment of strategy, research priorities, and operational execution.
• Facilitate and sustain integrated research programs based upon the available technical strengths, translational science, clinical research, and population health
• Engage with agencies such as ARPA-H, NIH, DoD and various federally funded centers and institutes to co-create programs that align with the assets available within the partnership. Demonstrate success through creation of funded activities.
• Partner with HFH+MSU and HFH on leading the development and execution of joint research strategy, planning, implementation and performance, including coordination of leadership teams, faculty engagement, and joint investment strategies.
• Drive collaborative problem‑solving and change management to identify and remove cross‑institutional barriers related to research operations, appointments, onboarding, space, compliance, and sponsored programs, working through existing leadership structures…