Reporting to the Vice Provost for Academic Programs (OVPAP), the Associate Director for Academic Programs coordinates OVPAP's assessment and accreditation efforts. The Associate Director works closely with the OVPAP team to identify, coordinate, and prioritize needs and manage related projects. This individual will also coordinate reporting efforts across the University as related to accreditation.                            

Coordination and Strategic Planning

• Work strategically and collaboratively with University constituents, including faculty, administrators, staff, and students, to create content and processes that meet the needs of institutional accreditation and associated assessment of educational effectiveness.
• Apply rigor and domain knowledge to exploring options and deciding on action steps to effectively engage with constituents, serving in a role of an effective liaison.
• Work with Vice Provost to create opportunities for OVPAP to work proactively, identify issues and develop initiatives that provide effective ways to support schools and programs in efforts associated with assessment and accreditation.
• Keep current with trends in higher education and Columbia’s various schools, particularly on best practices related to educational effectiveness assessment.
• Collaborate with other University offices such as Provost Office, OGC, OPIR, and CTL, as needed.
• Maintain documentation of information sources for meeting reporting requirements.

Content Creation for Accreditation

• Collect, verify, and analyze information needed for accreditation reporting.
• Stay current with policies and procedures as well as their regular updates pertinent to institutional accreditation.
• Write, edit, proofread, and develop content for self-study reports, follow-up reports, Supplemental Information Reports, and others required by accreditation agency.
• Collaborate with OVPAP colleagues and others to develop and refine above content.
• Generate ad hoc reports in response to requests for information about the University and its schools from internal and external sources.
• Present information in a clear, concise, and understandable format.

Assessment of Educational Effectiveness

• Coordinate the development of a university-wide framework and process for evaluation of student learning and student outcomes.
• Communicate clearly and regularly with schools and programs about the framework/process and expectations
• Create an inventory of school-level and/or program-level educational assessments and accreditation practice.
• Collaborate with schools and programs to collect and share best practices as well as identify needed assistance that can be provided by the Provost Office
• Collaborate with CTL and other colleagues to development and share online resources to support program-level assessment.
• Work with online systems to collect and verify assessment information, including work on a new database to track assessment work and data by schools and programs.
• Prepares reports to analyze issues of current interest or concern to senior administrators both within and outside of the Provost Office.

Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, and 4-6 years of work experience in higher education administration, assessment and/or accreditation.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including demonstrated commitment to collaboration and communicating complex matters effectively to diverse audiences.
• Excellent research and writing skills, with demonstrated ability to distill complex information and practice into systematic content to meet assessment and accreditation needs
• Demonstrated success navigating a complex work environment, preferably in higher education. 
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and projects under short and changing deadlines, while ensuring quality.
• Must show a willingness to work independently, demonstrate initiative and resourcefulness, and have excellent organization skills and attention to detail.
• Must be able to exercise sound judgment, strategic thinking, discretion, and tact in a confidential and professional setting.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree highly preferred.
• Higher education experience is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with institutional accreditation preparation is an asset.

University Mission Statement

Columbia University is one of the world’s most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty, staff, and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the University to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.