Dean of LR Online; Associate Provost Regional Expansion and Strategic

Role Overview

Location:

Hickory, North Carolina

The Dean of LR Online and Associate Provost for Regional Expansion and Strategic Growth serves as a senior academic leader responsible for advancing Lenoir-Rhyne University’s online, graduate and professional education portfolio, regional expansion strategy, and externally facing growth initiatives. The role integrates academic leadership, enrollment and market execution, and partnership development to ensure that academic offerings are coherent, responsive to workforce demand, and positioned for sustainable growth.

The position is designed to operate across colleges, locations, and delivery modalities, including responsibility for digital-first, hybrid, and low-residency models that enable scale, access, and regional reach, while providing institution-level coordination and preserving academic ownership within individual colleges. In addition to its academic leadership responsibilities, the role carries accountability for aligning marketing, admission, instructional design, and program launch activities in support of online, graduate and professional education.

Lenoir-Rhyne University’s online, graduate and professional portfolio plays a critical role in extending access, supporting workforce and community needs, and advancing the university’s mission beyond its traditional residential undergraduate core. As this portfolio continues to expand across locations, audiences, and delivery models, the institution requires a senior leader with responsibility for integration, execution, and accountability across academic, operational, and market-facing dimensions.

This role exists to ensure that online, graduate and professional education is managed as a coordinated institutional enterprise, one that connects academic strategy with enrollment outcomes, employer and community partnerships, and modern delivery practices while remaining grounded in shared governance and disciplinary expertise within the colleges.

The Dean And Associate Provost Provides Institution-level Leadership For Graduate And Professional Education Across All Colleges And Delivery Modalities.

Responsibilities Include:

• Coordinating strategy for the university’s graduate and professional portfolio, ensuring coherence, differentiation, and alignment with institutional priorities.
• Working collaboratively with Deans, program chairs, and directors to support program quality, curricular innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Identifying opportunities for program growth, consolidation, or launch in response to workforce demand and institutional capacity.
• Supporting accreditation, assessment, and compliance requirements related to graduate and professional education.

Programs remain housed within their respective colleges; the role is to align, coordinate, and support rather than to displace college-level academic ownership.

The Role Carries End-to-end Responsibility For Enrollment Outcomes Within The Online, Graduate And Professional Portfolio. In This Capacity, The Dean And Associate Provost Provides Strategic Leadership And Coordination Across Key Enabling Functions, Including:

• Online, graduate and professional admission strategy and recruitment planning.
• Market positioning, messaging, and marketing strategy for graduate and professional programs.
• Enrollment management and forecasting in partnership with institutional planning and finance.
• Instructional design, product development, and program launch execution to support new and existing offerings, including the design, launch, and scaling of online, hybrid, and digitally mediated graduate programs, ensuring instructional design, product development, and digital delivery are aligned with market demand and enrollment strategy.

The Dean and Associate Provost works in close coordination with undergraduate enrollment, marketing, and communications teams to ensure that academic strategy, market demand, and student recruitment operate as an integrated system, while respecting differentiated approaches for…