Associate Vice President and Executive Director, Academic Enterprise - Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts | Arizona State University

The Opportunity

Arizona State University seeks an accomplished, entrepreneurial, and collaborative leader to serve as Associate Vice President of the Academic Enterprise and Executive Director, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts ( HIDA ) and ASU in Los Angeles . The role is part of a broader effort to expand ASU's reach, partnerships, and impact in California, with HIDA positioned to play a leading role through Los Angeles' creative industries.

Based in Los Angeles and working across Arizona State University's campuses, the Associate Vice President and Executive Director (AVP/ED) will lead the growth of the Herberger Institute's presence in one of the world's most important centers for design, fashion, film, gaming, architecture, media, entertainment, music, performance, and creative technology. The AVP/ED will provide the senior, on-the-ground leadership needed to bring greater coherence to HIDA's Los Angeles activity, aligning people, programs, resources, and external relationships around shared priorities and moving initiatives from idea to execution. The AVP/ED will build the partnerships, industry connections, community relationships, and organizational capacity needed to position HIDA, and through it ASU, as an increasingly consequential educational, creative, civic, and industry partner in Los Angeles and Southern California.

The AVP/ED will initially focus on strengthening HIDA's Los Angeles platform, with particular attention to fashion, game, and film. Building on strategies and relationships the Los Angeles team has already developed, the role will align academic, enrollment, marketing, career, student-experience, industry, and community efforts around a clear growth strategy and measurable priorities.

Drawing on ASU FIDM's established presence, museum, and industry relationships, responsible fashion provides an immediate platform for connecting creative disciplines with ASU's broader capabilities in sustainability, technology, business, engineering, materials, and entrepreneurship, at a moment when new California textile regulations are reshaping the industry. Game and Film provide additional avenues for deepening HIDA's engagement with Los Angeles' entertainment, media, gaming, and technology industries, and for reaching the many Los Angeles students who want a creative education but cannot access the region's most selective and expensive programs.

In its first 12 to 18 months, the role will focus on HIDA. Over time, the AVP/ED will build an integrated HIDA Los Angeles ecosystem that connects students and faculty with industry, expands ASU’s reach, strengthens experiential learning and career pathways, advances research and creative practice, and attracts corporate and philanthropic investment. Los Angeles will serve not simply as a location for HIDA programs, but as a platform for developing new models of industry collaboration and interdisciplinary innovation that can benefit the Institute and Arizona State University more broadly. As this foundation is established, and as additional ASU colleges launch programs in California, the AVP/ED will increasingly serve as a strategic connector for other ASU colleges and initiatives expanding in Los Angeles, helping ensure that new activity aligns with a broader ASU-in-Los Angeles strategy while individual colleges retain responsibility for their academic programs and execution. This work is already underway, and HIDA's success in Los Angeles is the foundation for it.

The AVP/ED will report to the  Senior Vice Provost and Dean of HIDA , with a dotted-line relationship and regular one-on-one meetings with ASU’s Executive Vice President and University Provost . The AVP/ED will serve as a member of the Herberger Institute's leadership team and work closely with the Associate Dean for HIDA Operations in Los Angeles, school directors, faculty, central enrollment and brand leaders, university leadership, and external partners working to advance ASU in Los Angeles. The successful candidate will be an entrepreneurial leader who sees potential, brings people and ideas together, builds durable partnerships, and translates ambitious ideas into measurable outcomes for students, the Institute, and the communities it serves. They will be energized by the opportunity to build something significant and enduring in Los Angeles, helping shape a platform that can grow in reach, relevance, and impact for years to come. This is a role for a leader with a clear point of view about Los Angeles, who combines strategic judgment with a strong orientation toward action, moves with urgency, and keeps initiatives moving forward in a complex environment.