Director and Professor, School of Environment and Natural Resources
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University
Applications and nominations are invited for the position of Director of the School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR) in the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University.
Responsibilities. The Director administratively leads a comprehensive and diverse program of research, teaching, and extension/outreach. We are particularly interested in applications from individuals with diverse life experiences and whose record/potential indicates the ability to successfully foster effective, collegial, cooperative, and productive relationships among students, staff, and faculty within the School and with other departments, programs and stakeholders in the College, at the University and beyond. In addition, the Director is expected to work with other unit leaders and administrators to advance the vision and missions of the School to optimize resource needs of the School and promote the School and College with tribal, local, state, national, and international organizations. The Director is the Tenure Initiating Unit (TIU) Head for SENR. The Director reports jointly to the Vice President for Agricultural Administration/Dean of CFAES and the CFAES Senior Associate Dean/Director of Faculty and Staff Affairs.
The School of Environment and Natural Resources. The School is dedicated to applying science to better understand and address pressing environmental and natural resource management problems. Our programs are led and delivered by faculty and staff with expertise in various aspects of aquatic ecology and water resources, environmental social sciences, forestry, rural sociology, soil science, and wildlife ecology. The School offers 5 bachelor’s degree majors serving over 800 undergraduate students: Environment, Economy, Development and Sustainability; Environmental Policy and Decision Making; Environmental Science; Natural Resource Management; and Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife. The School strives to prepare students for professional careers at the intersection of fields such as sustainable resource management and environmental policy; across a broad domain including research, education, and communication.
Graduate programs serve over 140 combined students in a certificate program, a Master of Science program, a professional practice Master of Environment and Natural Resources, or a Ph.D. program. The School is actively engaged in serving numerous external stakeholders through extension and outreach efforts. Additional details of these programs can be found at: https://senr.osu.edu/about-us/extension-resources-directory. The School’s active research portfolio is a mix of applied and basic research across a wide range of disciplines, including biophysical sciences (soil science, forestry, fisheries, aquatic sciences, wildlife, and ecosystem restoration) and social sciences (sociology, political science, psychology, decision-making and risk
sciences). Our research attracts support from federal and state agencies, private industry, and foundations, with total research expenditures exceeding $4 million annually. More details can be found at: https://senr.osu.edu/research/research-program-areas. The School’s over 40 faculty and 100 staff members are distributed across both the Columbus and CFAES Wooster campuses and expands to Stone Lab island campus on Lake Erie. The Director will be based on the Columbus campus with expectations to travel to locations of the School. SENR is committed to fostering diverse, equitable, and unconditionally inclusive culture in thought and action. Additional information, including the current strategic plan, is available at the department’s website, https://senr.osu.edu/about-us.
Qualifications. Candidates must: hold an earned doctorate in a field connected to one of the disciplines of the School; be eligible for appointment as a tenured full professor in any of the disciplinary areas in SENR; exhibit ability to administer and manage fiscal and human resources of a large multidisciplinary academic unit; demonstrate leadership qualities including forward thinking and the ability to inspire impactful scholarship; have experience developing academic and extension/outreach programs with an entrepreneurial approach; be committed to Ohio State’s Shared Values, which includes diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly with a demonstrated ability to work with, recruit, and retain diverse faculty, staff, students and to engage with a diverse portfolio of stakeholders; have a demonstrated ability to provide leadership spanning disciplinary boundaries by developing and maintaining productive working relationships among the disciplinary areas within the School and with other department chairs and school directors, alumni, University personnel, state and federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders.
Application Procedure: Review of applications will begin November 17, 2023 and continue until a qualified candidate is identified. Nominations of qualified individuals are invited at any time. Qualified persons are requested to submit the following: 1) a letter of application; 2) a statement of the applicant’s vision for the School and administrative philosophy, which should address leadership experiences and qualifications (specifically addressing abilities to bolster faculty eminence, teaching excellence and impactful engaged scholarship/outreach/Extension); 3) a complete curriculum vitae 4) names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses, of three references and 5) a statement of demonstrated efforts that reflect Ohio State’s Shared Values and that might further advance our mission and institutional excellence. Initial nominations and inquiries will be kept confidential. In addition to completing online application forms, all above listed materials will be uploaded as a single PDF at https://osujoblinks.com/hhve Active OSU employees click on the box titled, “Current OSU Employees and Enrolled Students;” externals on the box titled, “All Non-OSU Employees.”
Questions and nominations should be directed to:
Dr. Jamie Strange, Chair of the Search Committee
Professor and Chair, Department of Entomology
Telephone: +1 614-292-9325
strange.54@osu.edu
