Academic Success Coach

Location : Berea
Job Type: Full-Time
Division: Strategic Initiatives
Department: BF Administration/General
Opening Date: 06/16/2026
FLSA: Exempt
Salary Grade: 07
Labor Supervisor?: No


Please note that references provided at the time of application for staff positions will not be contacted until the applicant has been offered the position.

Description:


The Academic Success Coach , within the Office of Advising and Retention Strategy, serves as the primary liaison for students on academic warning and academic suspension as well as the main point of contact for faculty and staff academic alerts related to this population of students submitted primarily through Navigate Berea and other reporting systems. In this role, the Academic Success Coach provides timely outreach, coordination, and intervention support for students experiencing academic difficulty, while also serving as an academic advisor who meets individually with students to provide coaching, advising, student success planning, and structured interventions that support academic progress, persistence, and success. In collaboration with the Executive Director of Student Success, student success colleagues, and the Office of Academic Affairs, the Coach analyzes data from multiple sources, including Navigate Berea, grade reports, and student feedback systems, to develop and implement data-informed, holistic intervention strategies for an assigned caseload. The role also includes advising responsibilities to provide guidance to students on academic planning, transition, progress, and momentum from academic difficulty, while collaborating with campus partners across Student Life, Labor, and other student-facing areas to support programming that enhances engagement, retention, and persistence. Additionally, the Academic Success Coach serves as a Summit Guide within the First-Year Summit program and contributes to broader campus initiatives focused on student success, equity, and belonging, grounded in promising practices in student development and achievement.

Following long-standing tradition and practice at Berea College, this position includes responsibility for supervising, mentoring, and developing students in the College's integrated Work College Program. This supports student learning, career readiness, and the program's learning goals and outcomes. The Work College Program provides a developmental framework that guides student learning while creating a structured mentorship opportunity, with role-specific training that equips faculty and staff mentors to support student development. Faculty and staff mentors play an essential part in helping students connect their work-learning-service experiences with broader academic, professional, and personal development. For faculty, this aligns with Berea's tenure and promotion criteria.

Your Key Responsibilities:


To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Regular and predictable attendance is essential. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Academic Warning and Academic Suspension: Serve as the primary liaison for students on academic warning and academic suspension to help them develop success plans and coach them toward success.
• Instruction: Serve as a Summit Guide for at least one cohort of the First-Year Summit, including in-session instruction as well as advising and support of cohort students as needed.
• Advising : Provide proactive and appreciative one-on-one advising for assigned caseload, academic coaching, and intervention services tailored to students' academic standing, learning needs, and goals, including course mapping, registration assistance, and degree audits.
• Intervention: Utilize Navigate Berea (EAB), Roster Checks, Progress Reports, grade trends, and other relevant institutional data to identify students at risk. Implement outreach and support plans aligned with institutional data and academic progress indicators by determining which students or student groups may need additional support.
• Navigate Berea: Utilize Navigate Berea (EAB) to respond to student alerts, and conduct progress reports and mid-term interventions.
• Workshops, Engagement, and Communication: Plan, coordinate, and/or deliver academic success activities, programs and instruction, and develop partnerships with faculty, staff, and programs to increase opportunities for student academic success and progress across campus, including, but not limited to, Registration, Course Planning, and Curriculum workshops.
• Assessment & Continuous Improvement : Use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of academic interventions, inform decision-making, and recommend program enhancements.
• Committee Service: Serve on additional committees and other groups related to student academic progress and success as assigned.
• Records: Maintain accurate and confidential student records and track intervention outcomes in compliance with FERPA.

Other roles/duties will be assigned as necessary to assist the College in the attainment of the goals set forth and the enhancement of a positive, respectful learning environment for all staff, faculty and students.

What You'll Bring:

Education required to ensure success in this position:

• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred

Experience required to ensure success in this position:

• At least 4 years of experience planning and leading student academic success programming in higher education.
• At least 4 years of experience working with first-generation college students with a limited income.
• Higher education or high school classroom instruction experience preferred.

Special skills, knowledge and abilities:

• A deep and genuine commitment to working directly with students to facilitate their development, provide educational opportunities and foster academic engagement and success to motivate students to meet their full potential.
• Knowledge of student development theories and promising practices related to providing academic support to students from limited income and to first-generation college students, including serving as a Summit Guide to support the First-Year Summit program.
• Strong familiarity with emerging enrollment software and technologies, such as EAB, related to student tracking and interventions.
• Ability to quickly learn and implement Berea's academic policies related to academic progress and degree completion.
• Ability to review and analyze data to target student interventions and communications.
• Strong written and oral communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty and staff across the institution with an understanding of the perceptions and needs of these areas.
• A willingness to work occasional evening and weekend hours for student-facing programming.
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality and comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

License, certification, or registration necessary:

• Valid Driver's License
• Required background checks

Physical requirements:

• Ability to navigate campus grounds and buildings independently
• Ability to travel independently
• Ability to lift up to 20lbs for student programming and events

Environmental conditions:

• Professional office environment with interruptions and noise due to frequent visitors, students, staff, and faculty
• Some travel is required for meetings, conferences, etc.

Ability to operate the following vehicles or equipment:

• Standard office equipment: computer, fax, phone, etc.

Founded in 1855, Berea College is nationally recognized as the first coeducational and interracial college in the South. Berea has a longstanding commitment to interracial education and is one of the most racially diverse private liberal arts colleges in the United States. With an emphasis on service to Appalachia and beyond, Berea enrolls more than 1,500 students from 46 states and U.S. territories and more than 70 countries. Berea College admits students who are unable to afford tuition and provides all of them with a no-tuition promise. Berea's students excel in the College's supportive yet demanding academic environment, and most are the first in their families to attend college. As one of only ten federally recognized Work Colleges, all Berea students are expected to work 10-12 hours weekly in various positions across campus. Berea College is also the only institution in Kentucky to receive the 5-Star Rating from Money Magazine, 2025. Washington Monthly has named Berea College the #1 Best College in the nation in its 2025 College Guide. Berea College appears in their rankings as #1 College (overall): Best College for your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars, #1 Best-in Class College, #1 Liberal Arts College and #1 Best Bang for the Buck Southern College.

Located where the Bluegrass Region meets the Cumberland Mountains, the town of Berea (pop. 16,000) lies forty miles south of Lexington and is approximately two hours from Cincinnati, Louisville, and Knoxville. More information about Berea College is available at


Berea College, in light of its mission in the tradition of impartial love and social equality, welcomes all people of the earth to learn and work here.
Berea College is always looking for talented, self-motivated individuals to join our team. If you think you are ready to be a part of an exciting team, then we encourage you to continue with this applicant friendly, online job application!
Berea College is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, disability, or veteran status.
Our Benefits:
Berea College offers a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees and their families including health care, dental, vision, retirement, health savings accounts, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability and an Employee Assistance Program. The benefit package also includes access to the for children of College Staff, ages 6 weeks to 6 years, Membership, Staff Development Funds and Tuition Reimbursement.


Eligible staff employees also receive paid holidays, vacation, and sick leave.

Part-time employees who work an average of 24 hours per week over the course of a year, receive benefits on a pro-rated basis.

To learn more details, visit our benefits page at


Our Unique Culture:
Berea College strives to be a place where people with various Christian interpretations, different religious traditions, and no religious traditions work together in support of


Over the past century, various leaders of the College have applied the College's inclusive scriptural foundation and spirit to their expanding world and welcomed those whose beliefs were consistent with the Christian gospel of impartial love. Therefore, Berea College today affirms its inclusive Christian tradition even as it respects the traditions of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, as well as other faiths, and those holding no religious beliefs. We strive not to ignore our differences, but rather seek to understand each other honestly and respectfully, and together create a climate where anyone can openly discuss what they believe without fear of sanction. To that end, all persons who are willing to share in the spirit and the work of the Great Commitments as shaped by its preamble are welcome to study, to teach, and to work at Berea

Labor Supervision:
In support of Berea College's great commitments, staff and faculty serve as labor supervisors. Our fourth great commitment, The Dignity of Labor, promotes learning and serving in community through the student Labor Program, honoring the dignity and utility of all work, mental and manual, and taking pride in work well done. Student Labor Supervision includes scheduling, assigning, and approving student work, developing students' workplace acumen, and providing tangible work experience. To learn more about the labor program office please see the following link