Executive Director of Student Success

Job Details:

Job Location:

Philander Smith University - LITTLE ROCK, AR 72202, Position Type:
Full Time, Education Level: Graduate Degree, Salary Range: $75,000.00 - $85,000.00 Salary, Travel Percentage:
Up to 25%, Job Shift: Day, Position Overview

Philander Smith University seeks a strategic, data-driven, and student-centered Executive Director of Student Success to lead a coordinated University-wide approach to student retention, persistence, academic support, tutoring, and degree completion.

Reporting to the Chief Transformation Officer, the Executive Director will provide institutional leadership for developing and executing a comprehensive student-success strategy designed to improve student outcomes from matriculation through graduation. The position will ensure that students receive intentional, timely, and coordinated support while helping the University identify and remove institutional barriers that impede persistence and completion.

The Executive Director will work across Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, Student Affairs, Financial Aid, the Registrar, Institutional Effectiveness, faculty, and other University offices to establish clear accountability for student success. The role will use data, early intervention, case management, academic support, and high-touch engagement to strengthen retention and create a more seamless student experience.

• Lead the University’s comprehensive retention, persistence, and completion strategy, establishing measurable goals, interventions, timelines, and accountability structures.
• Develop and implement strategies to improve semester-to-semester persistence, year-to-year retention, academic progression, and graduation rates.
• Establish a coordinated early-alert and intervention framework for students experiencing academic, financial, attendance, engagement, registration, or other barriers to persistence.
• Use student-success data to identify at‑risk populations, analyze persistence trends, evaluate interventions, and recommend strategies to University leadership.
• Lead targeted retention campaigns and student outreach initiatives at critical points throughout the academic year.
• Coordinate interventions for students who stop attending, fail to register, demonstrate academic difficulty, or otherwise show indicators of potential attrition.
• Ensure appropriate follow-up, documentation, referrals, and resolution of identified student barriers.

• Provide executive leadership for University tutoring and academic‑support services, including peer and professional tutoring, supplemental instruction, academic coaching, study‑skills development, and other student‑success interventions.
• Establish standards for tutor selection, training, scheduling, service delivery, documentation, utilization, and assessment.
• Use course performance, D/F/W rates, faculty referrals, academic standing, and student demand to strategically deploy tutoring and academic‑support resources.
• Partner with Academic Affairs and faculty to strengthen academic recovery initiatives, probation support, and interventions for students experiencing academic difficulty.
• Develop targeted academic‑support strategies for gateway courses and other courses with significant impact on student persistence and progression.

• Develop and oversee a coordinated student‑success case‑management model that ensures students experiencing barriers receive timely and appropriate intervention.
• Convene and lead cross‑functional student‑success meetings focused on students requiring immediate or sustained intervention.
• Establish clear protocols for referrals, escalation, follow‑up,…