University of Illinois Springfield - Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost

The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) seeks a seasoned leader with deep administrative and academic experience to serve as its next vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost.

Established in 1969 as Sangamon State University by the Illinois General Assembly, the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) became the newest member of the University of Illinois System on July 1, 1995. UIS serves 4,200 students (2,400 undergraduate students and 1,800 graduate students) with 201 full-time faculty and 500 full-time staff with an operating budget of $90.5 million. UIS is dedicated to fully engaging students in the process of active teaching and learning. UIS offers degrees that are relevant to students’ personal and professional success across a lifetime and provides students with a distinctive academic experience through a cross-discipline approach to teaching, research and outreach. Located six miles southeast of the Illinois State Capitol, the campus occupies 740 acres in Springfield, IL, approximately 200 miles southwest of Chicago and 100 miles northeast of St. Louis.

The incoming vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost (VCAA/Provost) will be a key advisor and thought partner to Chancellor Janet L. Gooch who joined the UIS community on July 1, 2022. The VCAA/Provost will play an integral role in the new university leadership team by actively collaborating with the chancellor and the creative and dedicated faculty, staff and student body to provide a strategic vision for the future of teaching, research and service at UIS amidst the context of the rapidly changing higher education landscape. The VCAA/Provost will collaborate with campus and external constituents to grow opportunities and partnerships with the local community, region and across the state and will capitalize on UIS’s dedication to student-centeredness, academic innovation and strength in online education to ensure the workforce readiness of its graduates.

UIS’s new VCAA/Provost will be a communicative, engaging and transparent leader, ready to support a campus community that is eager to engage in strategy and operating decisions that impact the university’s future. The VCAA/Provost will also ensure a robust and compelling academic program by continuing to create, analyze and support multiple delivery modalities that address the needs of various student populations, specific program goals and market demand. The new VCAA/Provost will possess many key attributes necessary to lead the institution through change, including the ability to inspire and instill optimism and confidence; a dedication to student success and teaching excellence; a record of advancing diversity, equity and inclusion; valuing the educational experience offered by a public comprehensive regional university; a propensity for data-driven decision making; the ability to work collegially and cooperatively; interest in fundraising and developing external partnerships; and the financial expertise to innovate academic programming and initiatives that will serve the ever-diversifying UIS student population.

Critical to the new VCAA/Provost’s success will be a record of progressive and successful leadership and management experience, strong financial acumen and a team-based approach to problem solving and execution. Candidates must possess an earned doctorate coupled with a substantial record of scholarly achievement that would qualify the candidate for appointment at the rank of professor.

All applications, nominations and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the profile. WittKieffer is assisting University of Illinois Springfield in this search. For fullest consideration, candidate materials should be received by March 22, 2023.

Application materials should be submitted to WittKieffer’s candidate portal using the buttons below. Nominations and inquiries can be directed to Jen Meyers Pickard, Ph.D., and Darrien Davenport, Ed.D. at UIS-VCAA@wittkieffer.com.

The University of Illinois Springfield is committed to a policy of equal opportunity in employment, education, and access to campus facilities without regard to race, creed, sex, national origin, age, disability or sexual orientation. UIS’ policy is intended to carry out explicitly all state and federal laws and executive orders that prohibit discrimination.