Program Chair (PMHNP)

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

About the Role

Responsible for the overall end-to-end ownership of a program through its entire lifecycle. This includes:

• Pre-definition research: market-segment selection, targeted skills, market demand for graduates, student demand, competitive analysis, portfolio strategy, pricing, program requirements, and program-level P&L.
• Building and launching the program by working with academic program directors and subject matter experts to define the curriculum, and collaborating with the program development team to build and launch the program with the right quality, on-time, and within budget.
• Tracking post-launch adoption by working with marketing and partnership teams to drive student adoption, monitoring student success, making ongoing adjustments to improve student outcomes and market relevance, and managing the program-level P&L.

Success is measured in terms of planning, building, delivering, and scaling the right programs profitably that cater to underserved student populations with high retention and ROI for students.

Responsibilities

• Drives a culture of continuous experimentation, measurement, and learning from data to rapidly improve program quality and delivery.
• Leads academic program leaders, instructional faculty, and student coaches/mentors.
• Influences and communicates effectively to improve teamwork, decision-making, and problem-solving. Listens and responds to diverse ideas and adjusts messaging to fit the audience.
• Collaborates across the organization to achieve shared objectives, partners with others, and credits contributions.
• Manages ambiguity by handling uncertainty, risk, and incomplete information calmly and productively.
• Drives for results with an outcomes-based orientation, persistence, and a continuous improvement mindset.
• Builds effective teams with diverse styles, perspectives, and experiences, fostering collaboration and morale.
• Promotes organizational learning by quickly adapting to new situations, experimenting with innovative solutions, and extracting lessons from failures.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Deep understanding of how students learn and combining innovative curriculum and student support strategies to drive success.
• Customer or student obsession with a focus on driving successful outcomes.
• Industry or academic leadership in the discipline (PMHNP).
• Understanding of industry trends, job opportunities, and educational market trends in the discipline.
• Strong external presence as a credible voice for the department in partnerships and presentations.
• Ability to lead a diverse team of 25+ people, including academic program leaders, instructional faculty, and student coaches/mentors.
• Execution focus with the ability to dive deep into details and maintain a fast-paced weekly cadence.
• Ability to organize and coordinate activities across cross-functional teams.
• Coaching and developing direct reports.
• Collaborating with and managing remote teams while demonstrating excellence, integrity, and respect.
• Working effectively in a highly matrixed organization.
• Building relationships and influencing at all levels, both internally and externally.
• Acting as an agent of change in a rapidly evolving environment.
• Analyzing data to identify trends and drive innovation.
• Exercising sound judgment and decision-making.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master of Science in Nursing degree, or a Post-Master's Certificate, or a PhD in Nursing/DNP in place of a master’s degree.
• Active national certification as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
• Active unencumbered RN license.
• 5 years of demonstrated teaching excellence in a variety of post-secondary courses.
• 2 years of leadership or supervisory experience, preferably in a post-secondary institution.
• 4+ years of related experience, including program P&L responsibility, planning and operating degree-granting programs to drive student outcomes, satisfaction, and profitability.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Doctoral degree in Nursing in a programmatically appropriate/related field.
• Experience in higher education.
• Experience in developing online education programs and/or scaling rapidly changing organizations/programs.
• Experience in developing curriculum and/or high-stakes assessments.
• Demonstrated success in change management and bringing structure to complex situations.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Ability to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

Travel

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed.

Pay

The salary range for this position takes into account factors such as skill sets, experience, training, licensure, certifications, and business needs. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

• Grade: Professional 313
• Pay Range: $123,000.00 - $190,700.00

It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range, and compensation decisions depend on the facts and circumstances of each case.

Benefits

• Full-time, regular position (40 standard weekly hours) eligible for bonuses.
• Medical, dental, vision, telehealth, and mental healthcare.
• Health savings account and flexible spending account.
• Basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage.
• Accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages.
• Legal and identity theft coverage.
• Retirement savings plan.
• Wellbeing program.
• Discounted WGU tuition.
• Flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation (no accrual required).
• Flexible paid sick time (no accrual required).
• 11 paid holidays.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental leave.