Warren Wilson College
Position Description

POSITION TITLE: Dean of Service:
Dean of Service-Learning and Community Leadership Programs

DEPARTMENT: Service-Learning and Community Leadership

REPORTS TO: President

POSITION SUMMARY:
Assumes primary responsibility for planning and implementing the Service-Learning and Community Leadership Programs. Leads development of initiatives that: 1) enhance student involvement in service-learning and co-curricular service, and 2) encourage students to reflect on the causes of, and actions needed to alleviate, societal and environmental problems. Presents the purpose and practice of the Service-Learning Program to internal and external audiences. Works with the College President, Deans and Vice Presidents to integrate service into the Triad.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Leads a multi-faceted community service and learning office responsible for facilitating student growth and development, fostering curricular and faculty engagement, and contributing to community agendas through this work.
• Develops long-term and intentional partnerships with non-profit agencies, utilizes the strength of these partnerships as a base for co-curricular service, service-learning, and community-based research initiatives.
• Promotes student learning and development through community engagement by assisting students’ integrative learning across educational experiences, and preparing students to serve as conscientious future leaders and citizens.
• Integrates service-learning into curricular offerings and promotes community-engaged scholarship for faculty.
• Provides leadership for staff to deliver innovative, user-friendly, student-centered services to guide students in developing knowledge, skills, and self-knowledge leading to life choices congruent with their skills/competencies, interests, values, and the role they wish to play as contributing members of society.
• Recruits, selects, trains, develops, motivates, rewards, supervises, evaluates staff, and establishes salaries.
• Oversees the Service-Learning Advisory Committee and works closely with Committee Chair.
• Works closely with Service-Learning Director to develop educational components for 1st Year-Seminar.
• Works closely with the Community Leadership Director to recruit, orient, and mentor Bonner Community Leaders for the Service-Learning work crew.
• Oversees staff supervision of student work crew.
• Develops and manages Service-Learning and Bonner Scholar Program budgets.
• Serves as liaison between College and Bonner Foundation staff, coordinates efforts by Bonner Scholars Program Director to ensure compliance with Bonner standards.
• Produces Service-Learning Annual Report and analyzes data to guide Program direction.
• Provides informed commentary as expert on community service and learning. Provides professional leadership by active participation in professional associations, conference presentations, and publications as appropriate.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Office environment
• Weekend and evening hours
• Travel with student groups on week-long service trips

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Masters Degree preferred, plus 2 to 4 years of full-time experience in community engagement at the college level.
• Excellent communication, supervisory, and organizational skills; ability to create and coordinate programs on campus and with agency partners in the wider community.
• Strong interpersonal, collaborative and team-building skills.
• Demonstrated ability to reach out to surrounding communities in building coalitions and drawing on community resources for effective collaborations.
• Experience building networks and coalitions in an academic setting that mobilize resources for community based service-learning and co-curricular service.
• Demonstrated ethical principles and standards in leading others
• Skills and experience in an organization charged with advancing learning through community engagement.
• An understanding of how to build partnerships between campus and community organizations to the mutual benefit of both.
• An ability to articulate a philosophy of education that is grounded in theory, research findings, and best practices and puts students first in promoting their learning through engagement.
• A prevailing commitment to fostering social justice.
• Experience and interest in research appropriate to Program partnerships; capable of synthesizing multiple sources of information into informal lesson plans.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Publisher.