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Job Description

Kent State University
Dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Kent, OH

The Kent State University College of Architecture and Environmental Design seeks a dean and invites nominations and expressions of interest.

Founded in 1910, Kent State University is the largest public multi-campus system in Ohio with eight campuses serving local communities across Northeast Ohio. It provides the intellectual, scientific, social, economic, and artistic resources of a major research university in a safe and serene campus setting. The Kent Campus has a student body of 24,000. The College of Architecture and Environmental Design has 37 full-time and 33 part-time faculty and staff, as well as three full-time faculty and staff in Florence, Italy. They each share a deep commitment to their students and to the excellence of the academic program. The university is characterized by its collaborative culture, strong academic and research orientation, commitment to community engagement, and diversity.

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design is dedicated to the education of responsible professionals who are committed to the enhancement of the physical environment and the protection of the public welfare. The college promotes research in the various fields of environmental design and contributes to the public welfare through its outreach programs. The programs in architecture, architectural studies, interior design and urban design are linked by a common studio pedagogical philosophy that ensures participation by each student in an intensive, creative and collaborative learning experience. The programs share a common interest in making the natural, built and social-political environment meaningful, sustainable and accessible to everyone.

The dean reports to the provost and provides strategic and operational leadership to advance the college. The university seeks an experienced and dynamic leader with a strong entrepreneurial spirit who will articulate a shared vision for the college's future, set the standard of intellectual engagement and accomplishment, encourage a strong sense of collegiality internally, increase association with external partners, and be a voice of the college, championing its work and its successes. The dean will be a leader experienced in administration and committed to both undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as strong faculty research. He or she will have the ability to work collaboratively with the faculty and, with their support, strengthen and expand the college's teaching, research and creative agenda.

The dean will foster faculty scholarship and establish a strong research program within the college. He or she will take a leading role in raising funds externally from corporations, foundations and individuals to support the college's mission. The dean, with the faculty, will be responsible for recruiting and retaining faculty and for new program development. Increasing the diversity of the student body and the faculty is essential to the mission of the college and the university as a whole. The dean will serve as the principal steward for the college's resources - its faculty and staff, students, finances and facilities.

The ideal candidate will be an educator with a clear vision, a scholar committed to the search for new knowledge and a professional able to imagine new possibilities for the college. The dean will bring a strong record of accomplishment in architecture, interior design, urban planning or allied fields (making her/him eligible to be tenured at the rank of full professor), and with a deep appreciation of and commitment to supporting each of the disciplines represented in the college.

Nominations, credentials and letters of interest (in electronic form) should be sent in confidence to the search committee at KentStateAED@wittkieffer.com. Confidential inquiries and requests for more information may be made to the university's Witt/Kieffer consultants, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, 212-686-2676, or John K. Thornburgh, 412-209-2666.

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