WittKieffer’s Education Practice partners with higher education institutions across the country and around the world to identify and recruit exceptional academic leaders. With the majority of our consultants having served as higher education leaders themselves, our experience and expertise provide clients with a distinct advantage. We specialize in the recruitment of provosts; vice presidents or provosts for research, graduate studies, digital learning and other areas; and decanal leadership across disciplines from the arts and sciences and engineering to the performing arts and education, including professional schools from business and law to architecture, public health and nursing.
Provost, Dean and Academic Leadership Search
Experts at Identifying Academic Leadership
Provosts
WittKieffer has recruited more than 80 chief academic officers in the last five years. Our consultants have the best networks in the field in addition to intimately understanding the changing landscape of higher education and the myriad challenges that today’s provosts face.
Deans
Searches for decanal leadership represent more than one third of WittKieffer’s education searches annually. As of 2018, 92 percent of these placements have had tenures at their respective institutions of at least five years, and 73 percent have remained at their institutions for 10 years or more.
Chief Research Officers
We identify leaders for research enterprises across the spectrum — from R1 institutions to emerging research programs — with proven success developing support for research and innovation, cultivating large-scale multidisciplinary collaboration, stimulating industry partnerships and ensuring research compliance.
Chief Online Officers
WittKieffer recruits leaders on behalf of institutions across the country seeking to advance their online and digital education strategies. Our placements are catalyzing innovation in teaching and learning, strengthening their institutions and extending their reach.
Success Story
Susana Rivera-Mills, provost at Ball State
Ball State Embraces Rivera-Mills' Inclusive, Accountable Leadership Style
Ball State University selected Susana Rivera-Mills as its provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in July 2018. From day one, she engaged the campus community in an effort to educate herself more thoroughly on all aspects of Ball State. They responded in kind to embrace inclusivity, challenge established ideas of unit boundaries and identify opportunities for shared success. To date, she has reorganized the office’s central units, streamlined operations and procedures, and established clear communications with direct reports and faculty governance groups. Rivera-Mills has established a clear and authentic leadership tone for the institution, challenging others to step up and lead through shared responsibility and accountability.
Academic Leadership Resources
The DEI Question in Administrative Job Interviews
How Higher Education Can Reinvent the Leadership Search
The Best Search Committees
Who Will Keep Business Schools in Business?
Education Candidates
Learn more about leadership opportunities at the institutions we serve.
Connect with a Practice Leader
We partner with leading education institutions every day. Let us know how we can help yours. Practice Leader Zach Smith, Ph.D. can answer your questions or tell you more.
Education Leadership Resources
Explore our resources to discover the impact of academic leadership.