Sr. Director of Strategic Enrollment Management chez Vanderbilt University

The Senior Director of Strategic Enrollment Management is a key leadership role within Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. This position is responsible for developing and executing innovative, data-driven strategies for recruitment, admissions, and financial aid across the college’s professional and graduate programs, both on campus and online. The Senior Director will have the primary responsibility in attracting and enrolling highly qualified students into the college’s current 23 professional master’s and doctoral programs (M.Ed. and Ed.D.) including any new programs launched, and a secondary responsibility in supporting recruitment efforts in the Ph.D. programs. The Senior Director will leverage analytics to model, interpret, and project enrollment trends that inform strategic decision-making across multiple professional programs. The Senior Director provides overall leadership and coordination for all enrollment management activities, including marketing, recruitment, admissions, and financial aid.

Reporting to the Assistant Dean for Strategic Enrollment Management in Peabody College of education and human development, this role works closely with key Dean’s office and campus partners, including Peabody’s Professional and Academic Services, Admissions and Enrollment and Marketing teams, and the University Enrollment Affairs (UEA) team. The role is highly collaborative and is expected to meet with the Vice Provost of Enrollment Affairs and the UEA leadership team consisting of the Director of Analytics and Enrollment Strategy, Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, Office of Student Accounts, Data and Strategic

Analytics (DSA), Process and Solution Implementations (PSI), University Registrar’s Office (URO), and others as appropriate to ensure the accessibility and quality of the data supporting decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Director serves as the expert in enrollment management for multiple on campus and online professional master’s and EdD programs in Peabody College, with a strategic understanding of how enrollment analytics support student recruitment, success, retention, and tuition revenue. Key responsibilities include:

• Develop and implement data-driven strategies to manage and project enrollments across professional programs with an emphasis on enrollment growth.

• Support the development and launch of new professional master’s programs through

detailed market analysis, price analysis, and marketing and recruiting strategic planning.

• Provide timely data and analysis to support college leadership in strategic decision- making and continuous process improvement.

• Analyze enrollment trends, build forecasting models, and evaluate recruitment outcomes through regular and ad hoc reporting.

The Senior Director is charged with advancing Peabody College of education and human Development to the next level of strategic enrollment planning through data-informed analytics and strategic planning.

About Vanderbilt’s Peabody College

Peabody College is a world-class college of education and human development consistently ranked among the top 10 graduate schools of education in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Its mission is to enhance the human condition by creating knowledge about learning and development in their social contexts, by translating discoveries into more effective practice and policy, and by preparing leaders who will generate positive change throughout the nation and the world. The college’s five departments include Human and Organizational Development (HOD), Leadership, Policy and Organizations (LPO), Psychology and Human Development (PHD), Special Education (SPED), and Teaching and Learning (DTL). Vanderbilt degrees offered by Peabody include the bachelor of science, master of education, master of public policy, master of science, doctor of education, and doctor of philosophy. Peabody serves more than 2,800 students, both on campus and online, with a full- and part-time faculty of 270.

In addition, the college is developing the Peabody Leadership Institute, which will launch new virtual, hybrid, and short-term non-degree certificates and programs that meet an essential need in the professional education ecosystem. These learning opportunities have the potential to connect thousands of educators and other leaders across broad sectors with Peabody College’s extraordinary faculty, ultimately enhancing their professional growth. The goal of this new institute is to build it into a sustainable and impactful unit that is seamlessly woven into the fabric of the college and the university.

About the Work Unit

The Office of Graduate and Professional Admissions work collaboratively within the Dean’s Office with colleagues, academic leaders, faculty, campus partners, and external stakeholders to expand Peabody’s impact and reach and to maximize recruitment of well-qualified students and learners for degree programs and lifelong non-degree professional education and credentials.

Key Functions and Expected Performance

• With key partners, executes the development of strategic enrollment goals for academic profile, net revenue, retention and student success and approaches to student financial assistance, and creates and executes an enrollment plan to achieve those goals.

• Stays abreast of current marketing and recruitment trends, yield strategies, and general research related to admissions and financial aid. Translates this research into meaningful information for Vanderbilt’s Peabody College.

• Actively builds new sources of potential students domestically and internationally and is responsible for increasing applications and enrollments for both on campus and online programs.

• Actively recruits students while also taking full responsibility for overseeing and coordinating recruitment events and activities, both on campus, and online.

• Travel to represent Peabody College at recruitment fairs, academic conferences, and partner institutions, both domestically and internationally, to attract prospective students and build new institutional relationships.

• Creates enrollment models, using predictive analysis and descriptive statistics, and translates these into recommendations for action.

• Ensures that colleagues have relevant, structured, clean data to inform enrollment strategy.

• Serves as the lead for developing enrollment metrics.

• Understands how various financial aid strategies can be used to leverage enrollment.

• Understands how the Slate platform can be used to further the recruitment, marketing, selection, and yield goals of Peabody College.

• Analyzes indicators of market conditions, understanding the factors affecting different programs, levels, and types of students.

• Collaborates with faculty and department/program staff to establish and achieve enrollment goals.

• Oversees and manages budget for the Admissions and Enrollment Office, inclusive of tuition, financial aid, and scholarships for the professional programs, in addition to operating expenses.

• Builds, executes, and updates a recruitment marketing plan in conjunction with Vanderbilt’s Peabody College communications.

• Leads and manages the relationship with relevant marketing vendors.

Supervisory Relationships

This position will have supervisory relationship over the admissions and marketing teams.

Education and Certifications

• A Master’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education is necessary.

• A Master’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education in higher education administration, business, public policy, or a related field is preferred.

Job responsibilities listed herein are intended to be a thorough representation of the duties, responsibilities, expectations, and qualifications for this specific role at the time of hire but should not be considered all-encompassing as actual responsibilities may evolve to include additional duties as assigned based on organizational and operational needs.

Experience and Skills

• A minimum of eight years of higher education or enrollment management or admissions (any combination) experience is necessary.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills is necessary.

• Professional experience in recruiting and admissions of professional and graduate students in education is preferred.

• Experience in higher education administration is necessary.

• Leadership experience in organizational and fiscal management including planning, developing, and evaluating programs and personnel is necessary

• Exceptional analytical and data skills is required