Vice President for Student Outcomes and Professional Development

Vice President for Student Outcomes and Professional Development

Colgate University

Hamilton, New York

THE SEARCH

Colgate University, an elite, thriving, highly selective liberal arts university located in Hamilton, New York, invites applications and nominations for the inaugural Vice President for Student Outcomes and Professional Development position.

Reporting directly to the President and serving as a member of the President’s Cabinet, this newly created vice president position will provide strategic direction, operational oversight, and institutional leadership across career services, employer relations, internships, pre-professional advising (with faculty partners), institutional bridge programs and third-party partnerships, and professional skills development for students.

The Vice President for Student Outcomes and Professional Development will lead a newly elevated university division dedicated to preparing students for purposeful lives and work beyond Colgate, partnering with national and international employers and professional schools, engaging with strategic partners to facilitate professional development opportunities for students, and preparing students for their work in an increasingly AI-shaped world.

The vice president will have an exciting opportunity to strategically elevate and institutionalize unified career functions and preparation across the university. The vice president will build and expand strategic employer, alumni, and professional-school partnerships, drive student skill development towards post-graduation careers, develop programs to help students engage with and understand AI tools, and strengthen internal collaboration with faculty and other campus partners to align the work of this new division with Colgate’s liberal arts mission.

Colgate University boasts substantial academic offerings, as well as small classes, a strong emphasis on faculty-student interaction in a residential community that values all forms of intellectual engagement. Colgate’s faculty members are leading teachers and scholars, committed to academic excellence in all its forms. Colgate’s approximately 3,000 highly motivated students achieve academically, athletically, and artistically, and are actively engaged in the world around them. Colgate is committed to fostering an inclusive community that embraces academic freedom and freedom of expression, which are central to the academic mission of the institution.

The university’s academic program is grounded in its Liberal Arts Core Curriculum, which exposes students to diverse fields of study and models intellectual and creative inquiry across the curriculum. Beyond the “core” undergraduates choose from 57 majors and more than 40 minors enabling them to work towards accomplishing each of the thirteen goals of a Colgate education.

The ideal vice president candidate will be a senior leader with extensive experience in career development, workforce development, and external engagement, with an understanding of and appreciation for the environment of a highly selective liberal arts college. The vice president will have demonstrated success in building employer partnerships and internship pipelines as well as experience leading teams and managing complex organizational change.

It is essential for the successful candidate to have a strong ability to work collaboratively with faculty and academic leadership, possess a deep understanding of evolving recruiting practices, and have established a network of employer and industry contacts. The successful candidate will have a record of building on existing strengths at an institution while also building new connections and capacities at an institution.

Colgate University has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in conducting this important search. Screening of complete applications will begin immediately and continue until the completion of the search process. For best consideration, full applications should be submitted by June 26, 2026. The salary range for this position is $250,000 - $275,000. Inquiries, nominations, referrals, and CVs with cover letters should be sent via the Isaacson, Miller website: 

Ernest Brooks, Partner

Kelly McLaughlin, Managing Associate

David Grimes, Senior Associate

Henry Nickerson, Search Coordinator

Isaacson, Miller

Colgate University recognizes that equal employment opportunity can only be achieved through demonstrated leadership. It is the policy of the university to recruit, employ, retain, promote, and train employees on the basis of skills and experience, capacity to do the job, and valid job qualifications without regard to any characteristics protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.

This document has been prepared based on the information provided by  Colgate University . The material presented in this leadership profile should be relied on for informational purposes only. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information, the original source documents and information provided by  Colgate University would supersede any conflicting information in this document.

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