Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement and Success (AVP)

About the role

The Division of Student Life invites applications for the Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement and Success (AVP) position. In this role, you will serve as a senior executive leader within the Division of Student Life, responsible for advancing institution-wide student engagement, belonging, retention, career readiness, and post-graduation success. The AVP serves as a strategic advisor to divisional and university leadership, influencing policy, resource allocation, organizational effectiveness, and student success outcomes across academic and administrative divisions.

Responsibilities

• Create an overarching vision and provide strategic leadership to create a campus culture that promotes students’ academic learning and career development, provides a safe, healthy, nurturing and welcoming campus environment for a diverse student body, and create a sense of community and connection.
• Lead division-wide student success initiatives that measurably improve retention, persistence, graduation, experiential learning participation, and postgraduate outcomes through evidence-based interventions.
• Serve as a senior liaison with Undergraduate Education, Graduate School, Enrollment Management, Institutional Research, Advancement, and other external campus partners to align curricular and co-curricular ecosystems that advance student success.
• Develop systems and processes to measure and assess the effectiveness of services for how you impact retention, graduation, engagement, outcomes, and student/alumni learning objectives.
• Develop and disseminate key performance indicators and accompanying reports on student success and career metrics.
• Adjust programs and services as needed to improve outcomes and impact.

Requirements

• Master’s degree
• A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in higher education within student affairs/success, student engagement, or a relevant field.
• Demonstrated record of leading innovative and equity-focused student success initiatives in a higher education setting.
• Prominent knowledge of trends and best practices in higher education as they relate to career and professional development.
• The ability to persuasively present data and advocate for decisions based on best practices; and a record of professional accomplishment.
• Demonstrated experience in support of a diverse working environment dedicated to principles of social justice, inclusivity and equity.
• Demonstrated experience in personnel management to include hiring, supervising, and coaching employees, as well as experience providing leadership and direction in programmatic, budgetary, and operational functions.
• Organizational skills to set goals, prioritize assignments, monitor performance, and exceed set deadlines.
• Strong oral and written communication skills with experience creating and delivering presentations to small and large diverse groups.
• Ability to develop innovative approaches, techniques and procedures to provide more efficient services.
• Ability to demonstrate critical thinking based upon in-depth data, substantiating information, while considering and respecting others’ input, personal values, and ethics.

Qualifications

• Terminal degree preferred

Skills

• Strategic Leadership
• Student Engagement
• Career Development
• Equity-Focused Initiatives
• Collaborative Communication
• Data Analysis
• Program Evaluation
• Leadership in Higher Education

Benefits

• Details about benefits will be provided in the offer letter.

Pay

$170,000 - $190,000

Schedule

Full-time

Contact Information

Contact: Kesha Foster
Title: Director, Student Life Human Resources/Unit Diversity Officer
Email: kelanier@buffalo.edu
Phone: 716-645-2376