Director, Tartan Scholars Program - Office of the Vice Provost for Education

About the role

The Director of the Tartan Scholars Program provides strategic vision, leadership, and programmatic stewardship for CMU’s flagship initiative dedicated to widening access and enhancing success for high-achieving undergraduate students from limited-resource backgrounds.

Responsibilities

• Academic Success & Curricular Scaffolding:

  • Leverage an established comprehensive academic support framework that enables scholars to master the rigors of CMU’s world-class, highly demanding curriculum and demystify the "hidden curriculum" of higher education.
  • Support cohort-wide milestones and individual student academic journeys; collaborate with the Student Academic Success Center to design, implement, and scale key interventions, including specialized math primers, tutoring networks, and localized learning cohorts.

• Student Advocacy and Holistic Coordinated Support:

  • Enable a coordinated and comprehensive system of holistic student support that is highly collaborative and consultative, requiring ongoing relationship management with internal stakeholders and a depth of knowledge regarding relevant student success scholarship.

• Campus Partnerships:

  • Cultivate deep strategic alliances across divisional boundaries, notably with Enrollment Management, Undergraduate Admissions, Student Affairs, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, and the individual undergraduate colleges.
  • Partner with campus care coordination groups to maintain seamless, cross-divisional networks of care.

• Material & Emergency Relief Coordination:

  • Coordinate cross-departmental connections to manage emergency grants, technology lending pools, and student-enterprise resources like professional attire collections.

• Community Building, Belonging, and Student-Forward Leadership:

  • Oversee the operational delivery of a meaningful cohort experience marked by hallmark transition events and traditions—such as pre-fall welcome experiences, summer connections, and cohort meetings—across the span of the undergraduate journey.
  • Develop, refine, and maintain a structured leadership development program for student contributors that facilitates an effective and meaningful peer mentorship model.
  • Maintain an ongoing Student Advisory Committee, ensuring transparent integration of student feedback into leadership searches, strategic choices, and daily programming.

• Personnel Supervision & Operational Excellence:

  • Supervise, coach, and manage professional program staff to ensure significant and sustained student-facing engagement.
  • Create, implement, and maintain administrative processes and procedures related to tracking student persistence, milestone progression, and graduation rates. Design and execute ongoing assessment protocols for all programs under the Director's purview to evaluate overall programmatic efficacy.
  • Manage logistics, analyze student feedback, and use data to adjust daily operational supports.
  • Periodically report on Tartan Scholars program activities and outcomes to various university-level governance committees. Chair the Tartan Scholars Advisory Committee, a representative group of community partners deeply committed to the Tartan Scholars program.

• Service to the University Community:

  • Participate in university-wide committees, task forces, and cross-campus working groups.
  • Volunteer at university-wide initiatives and cornerstone events that provide professional and personal development while actively engaging in the vibrant life of the broader institution.

Qualifications

• Education: Master’s degree in education, higher education, leadership development, counseling, or a closely related field.

• Experience: 5+ years of relevant professional work experience demonstrating progressive leadership within a higher education institution.

• Required Skills: Strong oral and written communication skills; direct experience with staff supervision and leading student-facing initiatives.

• Preferred Qualifications: Master’s degree in higher education administration, leadership development, counseling, or a related field—explicitly incorporating a distinct knowledge of student development and learning theory; 7+ years of relevant work experience showing progressive leadership within higher education; an expansive, documented record of individual student advocacy, successful supervision of full-time professional staff, and direct hands-on experience with support program assessment and data management.

Benefits

Joining the CMU team opens the door to an array of exceptional benefits. Benefits eligible employees enjoy a wide array of benefits including comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance as well as a generous retirement savings program with employer contributions. Unlock your potential with tuition benefits, take well-deserved breaks with ample paid time off and observed holidays, and rest easy with life and accidental death and disability insurance. Additional perks include a free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass, access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs, fitness center access, and much more!