Job Description

Working Title: Associate Dean for Strategic Enrollment Management and Analytics (JMU Only)

State Role Title: N/A

Position Type: Instructional / Teaching Faculty

Position Status: Full-Time

FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for Overtime

College/Division: The Graduate School

Department: 100140 - Graduate School

Pay Band: N/A

Pay Rate: Commensurate with Experience

Specify Range or Amount:

Is this a JMU only position? Yes. This is a JMU only recruitment, only current JMU employees are eligible to apply.

Is this a grant-funded position? No

Is this a Conflict of Interest designated position? No

Beginning Review Date: 12/07/2026

About JMU:

Mission

We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives.

Vision

To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world.

Who We Are

Situated in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the city of Harrisonburg is a vibrant community with a population of approximately 52,000. Harrisonburg is conveniently located approximately 120 miles from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA.

JMU is a selective, public institution with a growing national reputation for offering experiences that lead to an outstanding education and supportive environment for students, faculty and staff. The student body includes approximately 21,000 undergraduate and 1,800 graduate students, with over 1,000 full-time instructional faculty.

JMU offers thriving programs in the liberal arts, science and technology, and professional disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. JMU has achieved national recognition for the high quality of its academic programs, focus on maintaining strong student/faculty interaction, and innovative faculty research.

General Information:

James Madison University invites applications for Associate Dean for Strategic Enrollment Management and Analytics in The Graduate School. Reporting to the Dean, the Associate Dean is a member of the Graduate School's senior leadership team responsible for advancing data-informed graduate education strategy and providing leadership for key graduate enrollment functions. This is a 12-month, tenure track Instructional Faculty appointment at the rank of Associate Professor reporting to the Dean of The Graduate School.

The Associate Dean provides strategic and operational leadership in graduate enrollment management, institutional analytics, graduate marketing and recruitment, and academic program portfolio analysis and development. The position supervises professional staff and functions associated with recruitment, admissions, digital marketing, matriculation, and domicile determinations, while collaborating with academic colleges, graduate program directors, and university partners to improve graduate enrollment outcomes, strengthen program quality and sustainability, and support evidence-based decision-making.

The successful candidate will combine a strong understanding of graduate education with sophisticated analytical capabilities, strategic judgment, demonstrated administrative leadership, and experience in graduate enrollment management and academic program development and leadership.

The Associate Dean will contribute to The Graduate School's strategic priorities, including relevant components of JMU’s strategic plan, the Graduate School's new strategic plan through institutional analysis, identification of opportunities, strategic planning, and assessment of outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Associate Dean advances the Graduate School's strategic enrollment and academic program priorities through sophisticated analytics, market intelligence, collaborative planning, and effective management of graduate recruitment and admissions functions. The position combines strategic analysis and innovation with direct responsibility for assigned enrollment operations and professional staff.

Major responsibilities include:

• Graduate Strategy and Planning: Collaborate with the Dean to advance Graduate School strategic priorities, including relevant elements of the GRAD Promise; conduct environmental scans, benchmarking, and strategic analyses to identify emerging opportunities and challenges.
• Strategic Enrollment Management: Lead graduate enrollment planning and develop data-informed strategies across graduate programs, including domestic and international recruitment, admissions, matriculation, yield, and enrollment forecasting. Oversee assigned enrollment functions to ensure effective, consistent, and student-centered practices.
• Graduate Marketing and Digital Recruitment: Direct graduate marketing and recruitment strategies using market research, digital analytics, enrollment funnel analysis, and measures of campaign effectiveness and return on investment.
• Graduate Analytics and Decision Support: Apply advanced quantitative methods, predictive modeling, and institutional data analysis to evaluate enrollment trends, program performance, institutional capacity, and strategic opportunities. Collaborate with Institutional Research and other partners to develop dashboards, forecasts, and decision-support tools.
• Graduate Program Innovation and Portfolio Development: Analyze market demand, institutional strengths, competitive positioning, and program sustainability to identify opportunities for new and redesigned graduate degrees and certificates. Collaborate with academic units on program feasibility, development, approval, implementation, and evaluation across online, hybrid, and campus-based formats.
• Leadership and Supervision: Direct and supervise Graduate School recruitment, marketing, admissions, transcript review, matriculation, and domicile functions, including assigned professional staff. Establish operational priorities, performance expectations, and accountability measures; support staff development and ensure compliance with university policies and Commonwealth requirements.
• Institutional Collaboration: Work with academic colleges, graduate program directors, faculty, and university administrative partners to strengthen graduate education planning, communicate analytical findings, and support informed decision-making.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications

• Earned Ph.D. or equivalent research doctorate from an accredited institution.
• Significant leadership experience in graduate education, graduate enrollment management, or related academic administration.
• Demonstrated experience developing, launching, evaluating, or substantially redesigning graduate academic programs, and familiarity with curriculum development and approval processes.
• Demonstrated expertise in quantitative analysis, enrollment forecasting, and institutional analytics, including analysis of complex datasets and application of findings to strategic decision-making.
• Demonstrated knowledge of graduate enrollment management, including recruitment, admissions, matriculation, and yield across campus-based and online programs.
• Demonstrated experience supervising professional staff and managing administrative functions, including performance management and accountability.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across academic and administrative units in complex institutional environments.
• Excellent written, oral, analytical, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex analytical findings to varied audiences.
• The successful candidate must demonstrate the analytical capacity to evaluate complex graduate education challenges, the leadership ability to manage enrollment functions effectively, and the strategic judgment to translate findings into enrollment strategies, program development opportunities, and informed institutional decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with graduate enrollment management in higher education, including international recruitment, admissions operations, and domicile or residency determinations.
• Experience with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, digital marketing platforms, graduate recruitment technologies, and enrollment analytics.
• Advanced experience with predictive analytics, statistical modeling, institutional research, data visualization, or decision-support systems, including proficiency with tools such as R, STATA, Python, SQL, Tableau, Power BI, or comparable platforms.
• Experience developing graduate enrollment financial models, including tuition revenue projections, enrollment scenarios, program capacity, and financial sustainability analyses.
• Experience conducting graduate program market assessments, feasibility studies, competitor analyses, and academic program portfolio reviews.
• Experience developing innovative graduate academic programs, including interdisciplinary, cross-college, online, hybrid, accelerated, or externally partnered programs.
• Knowledge of emerging trends and practices in graduate education, including enrollment management, digital recruitment, international education, online learning, and workforce demand.
• Demonstrated experience using institutional data and market intelligence to inform graduate enrollment growth, academic program innovation, and strategic decision-making.

Additional Posting Information:

Applicants should complete the JMU online employment application and submit:

A cover letter describing the candidate's interest in the position and relevant leadership experience.

Curriculum vitae.

A statement, not to exceed three pages, describing the candidate's experience using data, enrollment strategy, and program development to advance graduate education (uploaded under "Other Document #1").

Contact information for three professional references.

JMU’s Dual Career and Community Resources Program is available for candidates that will be relocating to the area. For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2OTF1NG.

Conditions of Employment:

Employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.

E-Verify Notice: After accepting employment, new hires are required to complete an I-9 form and present documentation of their identity and eligibility to work in the United States. James Madison University uses the E-Verify system to confirm identity and work authorization.

EEO Statement:

James Madison University is committed to creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive work and educational community that is free of all forms of discrimination. This institution does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, parental status, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.

We promote access, inclusion and diversity for all students, faculty, staff, constituents and programs, believing that these qualities are foundational components of an outstanding education in keeping with our mission. The university is interested in candidates whose experience and qualifications support an ongoing commitment to this core quality.

Anyone having questions concerning discrimination should contact the Office for Equal Opportunity: (540) 568-6991.

Reasonable Accommodation:

If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance searching or applying for jobs please contact us at (540) 568-3597 or jobs@jmu.edu. You may also visit the JMU Human Resource Office, located at 752 Ott Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 and we will be happy to assist you.