Associate Vice President, USC Educational Partnerships

USC Educational Partnerships, within University Relations, seeks an accomplished senior executive to serve as Associate Vice President, USC Educational Partnerships, leading the University’s educational partnerships and community-based programs.

The Associate Vice President (AVP) is the senior executive responsible for the strategic leadership, institutional stewardship, and overall performance of USC Educational Partnerships. As a member of the USC University Relations executive team, this position establishes vision, objectives, and strategy for the department’s complex portfolio and translates University priorities into coordinated programs, partnerships, operating systems, and measurable outcomes. The position provides direction and executive oversight for a collective of more than 150 full-time and part-time employees, teachers and other temporary staff, contractors, student workers, volunteers, and interns. The AVP also administers an annual operating budget of between $7–8 million, approximately 80 percent of which is secured through fundraising, grants, and sponsored funding led or directly supported by this position.

The Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI) at USC supports nearly 1,400 students annually through college-access and success programming spanning sixth grade through college graduation, as well as approximately 200 children through early literacy programs. NAI is a rigorous, seven-year pre-college enrichment program designed to prepare students from South and East Los Angeles for admission to a college or university. The program supports students through the college application and financial aid processes and provides case management through college graduation. Since its first graduating class in 1997, more than 1,700 students have completed the program, with 83 percent enrolling as freshmen at four-year universities and 42 percent enrolling at USC.

The portfolio overseen by this position includes the USC Leslie and William McMorrow Neighborhood Academic Initiative (Health Sciences Campus, University Park Campus–Foshay, and University Park Campus–Southwest), the Mental Health Clinic, Upward Bound (Central/Southeast Los Angeles, Math/Science, and South/Southwest Los Angeles), TRIO Programs, the USC Family of Schools/NAI Partner Schools, KidWatch, the Safety Task Force, Kinder2College, and Educational Partnerships finance and operations.

This position will be onsite, reporting between the University Park Campus, the Health Sciences Campus and program partner locations throughout Los Angeles.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Oversees, directs, and coordinates the strategy and overall operations of all USC Educational Partnerships programs, projects, services, events, and activities.

• Develops, implements, and continuously strengthens an integrated cradle-to-college-and-career educational pathway that supports students, families, and communities from early engagement through college access, enrollment, persistence, graduation, and career success.

• Establishes department-wide goals, priorities, performance standards, and outcome measures; evaluates program effectiveness and directs corrective action, improvement, replication, or responsible growth.

• Holds executive accountability for the quality, integrity, and outcomes of the NAI program and the complete Educational Partnerships portfolio.

• Directly and indirectly manages the Educational Partnerships workforce, primarily through subordinate directors, managers, and professional staff; determines organizational structure, reporting relationships, and staffing needs.

• Develops high-performing teams and emerging leaders through coaching, professional development, succession planning, and meaningful delegation.

• Represents USC Educational Partnerships credibly and effectively with University leadership, school districts, community organizations, families, students, alumni, donors, funders, public officials, and regional and national education networks.

• Serves as a principal public representative and spokesperson for the portfolio at conferences, community events, the NAI Annual Gala, partner convenings, donor engagements, and other internal and external forums.

• Advises University Relations leadership on Educational Partnerships strategy, performance, financial position, emerging opportunities, material risks, community concerns, and matters requiring executive action.

• Develops and administers the Educational Partnerships operating budget; establishes financial priorities, approves expenditures, monitors performance, and provides timely financial reporting to University Relations leadership.

• Leads or directly supports the fundraising required to sustain the portfolio, including donor and funder cultivation, prospecting, pipeline development, grant writing, proposal development, and stewardship, in alignment with USC protocols.

• Manage relationships with approximately 20 major donors and grantors annually and maintain executive relationships with the leadership and teams of approximately 50 school partners each academic year.

• Works with USC Development and Advancement, Contracts and Grants, Sponsored-Project Accounting, business offices, and other University units on pre-award and post-award requirements, grant administration, revenue goals, reporting, and stewardship.

• Develops, implements, interprets, and administers departmental policies, procedures, protocols, and internal controls in alignment with University requirements.

• Ensures compliance with applicable federal and state laws and regulations, USC policies, Department of Education and TRIO requirements, grant and contract terms, financial controls, human-resources requirements, and safety and security protocols.

• Coordinates security and emergency-response procedures with the USC Department of Public Safety and other relevant University offices.

Perform other related duties as assigned or requested. The University reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Higher Education, Public Administration, Business Administration or in related field(s); combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education.
• 10 years of progressively responsible experience, including leadership in a university, educational, or similarly complex mission-driven environment.
• Eight (8) years of leadership and administrative management in education, higher education, K-12 educational partnerships, or college and student success.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Doctorate in Higher Education, Public Administration, Business Administration or in related field(s).

• 15 years of progressively responsible experience, including leadership in a university, educational, or similarly complex mission-driven environment.

• 10 years of leadership and administrative management in education, higher education, K-12 educational partnerships, or college and student success.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

This is an exceptional opportunity for a senior executive who brings a rare combination of institutional fluency, community credibility, executive leadership and firsthand understanding of the college-access pathways this portfolio exists to create. The strongest candidates will offer substantial leadership and administrative experience in education, higher education or K–12 educational partnerships, ideally reflecting 10 or more years, along with comparable depth of hands-on experience advancing college access and student success.

Additional attributes include:

• Fluency in institutional governance, budgeting, advancement, sponsored programs, academic operations and cross-unit decision-making;
• Executive oversight of federally and institutionally funded initiatives and community-based programming, with a record of expanding programs responsibly while preserving quality;
• Demonstrated ability to set strategy, lead multiple major initiatives simultaneously, manage through subordinate directors and managers, develop emerging leaders and navigate change while maintaining operational excellence;
• Significant expertise in budgeting, finance, fundraising, donor stewardship, grant development, sponsored-program administration, compliance and resource allocation;
• Established, trusted relationships across school districts, school sites, community organizations, families, students, alumni, donors, funders and University partners, together with deep knowledge of the Los Angeles educational landscape;
• Experience approaching this work from multiple vantage points, including direct service, program management, executive leadership, institutional partnership and community engagement, and firsthand understanding of the student and family experience within college-access pathways;
• The ability to translate frontline and community realities into senior institutional strategy, exercise executive judgment and political acumen, and represent USC credibly across constituencies; and
• Bilingual proficiency in English and Spanish.

Required Documents and Additional Information

Resume and cover letter required (may be submitted as one attachment).

The annual base salary range for this position is $220,000-$257,000. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer alignment, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

To support faculty and staff well-being, USC provides benefits-eligible employees with a broad range of benefits and perks to help protect their and their dependents’ health, wealth, and future. These benefits are available as part of the overall compensation and total rewards package.

The University of Southern California is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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USC is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. USC observes affirmative action obligations consistent with state and federal law. USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and with due consideration for patient and student safety. Please refer to the Background Screening Policy Appendix D for specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying. 

We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

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