Executive Director of School of Nursing

The University of Tulsa, an independent, nondenominational university, invites nominations, applications, and expressions of interest for the position of Executive Director of the School of Nursing within the Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences. The Oxley College of Health Sciences was joined by the natural sciences departments at the university in the summer of 2023, thus reorganizing into the Oxley College of Health and Natural Sciences. The Executive Director will have the opportunity to lead one of the key Schools within this new college, guiding a dedicated, talented, and eager faculty and staff as well as enhancing the School’s internal and regional impact.
As the school’s strategic leader, the Executive Director will guide nursing education at the University into a new era of prominence and impact, transforming it into a leading nursing institution with expanded programming and greater regional influence. The Executive Director must be an inspiring and effective leader with proven success in catalyzing excellence at all levels of an organization, building and shaping academic and clinical programs; and nurturing productive relationships on campus and in the community. The Executive Director must be an articulate and persuasive communicator, a strategic allocator and manager of resources, and an effective advocate for the School of Nursing. Among key responsibilities, the Executive Director will be expected to:
Leadership

• Articulate a clear vision for the School that inspires the faculty, students, and administrators to work toward common goals.
• Catalyze an environment that attracts outstanding nursing students and prepares nurse graduates to succeed as nurse-leaders in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape that emphasizes quality outcomes, episodic care, and population health.
• Evolve nursing education to meet the needs of current and future students and their healthcare environments.
• Foster and demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels of the organization and in the community.
• Advise and partner with the Dean in establishing priorities for the School and work with the School’s leadership team to implement these priorities.
• Establish and begin to grow a comprehensive program of nursing research that includes faculty development, infrastructure, funding, and academic partnerships.
• Lead and support faculty and staff in maintaining and advancing excellence in academic programming.
• Establish the strategic direction for the School that ensures adaptability and financial viability in the current and future changing health care environment.
• Partner with clinical leaders to develop innovative clinical rotations to ensure students excel post-graduation.
• Promote the School as a force of change and progress in the community and region, and act as a spokesperson for the School and its mission.
• Establish priorities for, supervise, and participate in friend-raising and fundraising efforts.

Management

• Oversee the development and administration of annual and long-term operating, facilities, and research budgets.
• Actively support the recruitment, professional development, and retention of talented individuals to serve as professors, researchers, staff, and students.
• Build strong teams and delegate authority as appropriate.
• Improve processes and systems to raise the quality of the educational experience for all stakeholders.
• Ensure timeliness and accuracy of operating and academic reporting to the Board of Trustees.

The new Executive Director will value the dignity and importance of people from all backgrounds and will have demonstrated interest in mentorship and partnership. The Executive Director will have excellent communication and relationship building skills and will creatively pursue opportunities for interdisciplinary research, teaching, practice, and service. The Executive Director will bring a student-centered approach and must strongly value a commitment to undergraduate and graduate education. The Executive Director will articulate the School’s vision, strategy, and direction to prospective students and their families, faculty, alumni, advisory bodies, organizational and individual donors, and state and national organizations. The Executive Director must have a national reputation and successful record of program shaping and building. Additional qualifications are:

• Terminal degree in a field relevant to nursing, healthcare, public health, and related disciplines; advanced and undergraduate degrees in nursing strongly preferred.
• Awareness of the broad challenges facing the evolving nature of higher education nationally and globally, and an ability to discern opportunities in that environment for the School.
• Demonstrated experience developing new curricula and/ programs, strengthening and establishing new partnerships, and graduating highly-prepared nursing professionals.
• A proven team leader, effective communicator, and skilled administrator in higher education.
• Demonstrated ability and commitment to recruit, retain, support, promote, and mentor outstanding and diverse faculty and staff.
• Demonstrated experience and commitment to community engagement.
• Ability to secure and manage a financial portfolio of internal, research, and donor funds.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build effective partnerships and successful collaborations with faculty, alumni, and external partners in a large, complex, decentralized environment.
• Excellent written and oral skills.
• Integrity, warmth, and zeal for the mission of the School of Nursing.
• Ability to be licensed as a Registered Nurse in Oklahoma.

Minimal physical demands.

F159P

Yes

The University of Tulsa has retained Park Square Executive Search to assist in the search for the next Executive Director of the School of Nursing. The search will remain open until closed, and applications will be considered by the Search Committee applications as they are received. Nominations, inquiries and applications may be sent in confidence to:
Kyle Meingast, Partner
Jonathan Fortescue, Managing Partner
Clarice Helfand, Associate
1 617 401 2991
EDNursingTulsa@parksquare.com

The School of Nursing The University of Tulsa’s School of Nursing mission is to educate students to become accomplished nursing professionals who advance health through clinical practice, research, teaching, and the promotion of health equity. The School of Nursing at the University of Tulsa, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary and has a long tradition of excellence in nursing in the region, state and nation, offers multiple programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. Additionally, the school has both a 100% job placement record for the BSN program and a licensure pass record that exceeds both state and national rates.
The BSN degree prepares students for leadership roles in their organizations or for subsequent graduate programs. The pre-licensure option also prepares students to enter the nursing profession as a registered nurse. TU prioritizes clinical experience, providing students with five hands-on semesters in local hospitals and community agencies as opposed to the customary four.
In addition to its undergraduate program, the school also offers a Doctor of Nursing program to meet the health care needs of the community. The University of Tulsa is the only school in Oklahoma offering a nursing doctoral program. The DNP program prepares nurses to become nurse practitioners or for APRNs to advance their careers. There are three clinical options for fulltime BSN to DNP programs:

• Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner: The AG-ACNP curriculum prepares nurses to provide acute care and critical care for patients from adolescence to end of life. Nurses spend time in specialty rotations, acute and critical care environments, and with human patient simulations.
• Family Nurse Practitioner: The FNP program entails intensive preparation for nurses to provide comprehensive primary care with an interdisciplinary focus. They will spend clinical time in underserved population clinics, urgent care, and specialty clinic rotations arranged by faculty.
• Nurse Anesthesia: The NA program prepares nurses for advanced practice in comprehensive anesthesia care across the lifespan. Nurses receive both extensive coursework experience and clinical experience in specialty rotations.

The School also provides a Master’s to D.N.P. Completion program. This program is for advanced practice nurses to further their education and knowledge in translational research and evidencebased practice in their clinical settings.
The University of Tulsa additionally offers an array of online programs to students: a Master of Science in Nursing, an RN to BSN, an Accelerated BSN, and a AGACNP Certificate.
The School promotes personal learning through an on-campus skills laboratory, computer lab, and a high-fidelity human simulation center. These allow students the opportunity to practice what they have learned in a simulated real-world setting. In terms of clinical experience, Tulsa’s local hospitals (Hillcrest, St. John, and Saint Francis) have bed capacities ranging from 100 to 500 in addition to outpatient clinical settings.
The University of Tulsa
Founded in 1894, the University of Tulsa, a top-ranked private research institution, welcomes students from many different faiths and backgrounds, representing dozens of countries and 45 states. TU fosters a diverse campus life that facilitates the opportunity for students to develop close connections with faculty who are leaders in their fields. The University is in the Top 100 private research universities and ranked 79th among all best-value universities in the United States, and currently consists of 5 colleges and a graduate school, and several renowned interdisciplinary centers. TU enrolls 2,700 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students and offers 71 bachelor’s, 30 master’s and 16 doctoral degrees. TU’s focus on students is reflected in national accolades; the University is ranked as the Best University in the Region for Life & Career Success and the Most Student-Centered University in the Region. Financially, the University is on solid footing and benefits from an endowment of approximately $1.5 billion.
The University has been experiencing an exciting and transformational era beginning with the arrival in 2021 of their current President, Brad Carson, who has recruited a new and visionary leadership team, including George Justice who serves as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Both arrivals are concurrent with the adoption of the University’s five-year strategic plan. The plan leverages the University’s strengths as a highly regarded, small, private research institution where innovation is encouraged. TU prioritizes a level of student support that few institutions can offer and believes that all degrees are exponentially more valuable with a firm foundation in the liberal arts.
Beyond campus, TU is part of the vibrant regional Tulsa community, with strengths in arts and culture. The Arts District in downtown Tulsa consists of museums and restaurants as well as parks, including the nationally recognized Gathering Place, and historic music venues such as the Gilcrease and Philbrook. The region is a growing hub of entrepreneurial businesses, which is built on the strength of many existing national and international corporations. Oklahoma is also home to 39 federally recognized Native American tribes, and the city of Tulsa is within the tribal boundaries of three tribes (Cherokee Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Osage Nation) while also serving the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and other Oklahoma tribes.
The Oxley College of Health and Natural Science, founded in the summer 2023, joins the biology, chemistry, geosciences and physics departments with the nursing, kinesiology and rehabilitative sciences, and communication sciences and disorders departments. This structural realignment demonstrates TU’s deep commitment to the natural sciences and lays the groundwork for growth in human health sciences by facilitating novel programming that will leverage strong and clinically active health sciences departments and research focused natural sciences departments.
The departments of the previous Oxley College of Health Sciences offer programs that prepare students to be the next generation of health care providers. Programs offered include undergraduate- and graduate-level nursing, athletic training, exercise and sports science and speech-language pathology. Each program includes a significant amount of clinical experience enhancing knowledge gained in the classroom and skills labs to prepare students for positions in their field. The college also offers a certificate in Health Care Delivery Sciences for working professionals. These programs will continue to grow in the newly re-envisioned form of Oxley College, and benefit from closer collaboration with various faculty, especially within life sciences related fields, who will be joining the College with their natural sciences departments. Oxley College is also exploring the potential of expanding further into public health and medicine.
The newly formed Oxley College is understood to be a crucial component of the University’s goals of increasing research productivity and funding. It will accomplish this while also maintaining excellence in student education and outcomes and supporting the strong existing relationships between many of the health sciences departments and the local community

The University of Tulsa seeks to recruit and retain talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The University of Tulsa is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and encourages qualified candidates across all group demographics to apply. The University does not discriminate on the basis of personal status or group characteristic including, but not limited to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, ancestry, or marital status. The University of Tulsa is an Equal Opportunity Employer including Disability/ Veteran.