"Executive Vice President and Provost"

Job Details

Executive Vice President and Provost

The Opportunity

The University of Virginia, one of the nation’s leading public institutions, invites applications for its next Executive Vice President and Provost (Provost). UVA seeks a strategic thinker with a passion for achieving excellence in both education and academic research. We are looking for a talented leader who makes decisions, frequently in collaboration with other university leaders, that reflect an ability both to develop and to execute initiatives guided by a clear and compelling vision consistent with institutional goals.

Reporting to the President, the Provost is the academic leader of the University and partners with the President and senior leaders to advance academic priorities, preserve and elevate the stature of the University, provide guidance and support on University policy, and execute on a broad and diverse portfolio of discrete projects and initiatives. As chief academic officer, the Provost is responsible for ensuring educational quality and fostering an environment for student success. The Provost at UVA will build on the University's strong, highly valued student experience, as well as its impressive retention and graduation rates.

The Provost works closely with the Deans of UVA’s 12 Schools to support their objectives and operations related to faculty affairs, research, scholarship, and teaching, and facilitates collaborative efforts between the schools to support institutional priorities. UVA has recruited a talented and ambitious group of deans in recent years: eight of the twelve school deans started their roles between 2020 and 2025.

The Provost also collaborates with the senior leadership team to sustain and promote high levels of research; to strengthen and expand the research enterprise, given contemporary compliance requirements; and to broaden research funding, while also investing in targeted growth areas. UVA has an excellent and growing record of translating research and transforming faculty discoveries into solutions that benefit society, and the Provost has an important role in facilitating this work.

The next Provost joins the University at a moment of opportunity. The University has adopted the 2030 Strategic Plan, which provides a roadmap for the future of UVA as it enters its third century. The Provost’s work will include advancing and refining the Strategic Plan, which includes the Grand Challenges, encompassing Democracy, Environmental Resilience and Sustainability, Precision Medicine/Health, Brain and Neuroscience, and Digital Technology and Society. The Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology was recently established as a translational research center designed to more quickly bring breakthroughs in medical research to patients who need it. The LaCross Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence was recently established to advance UVA’s impact in this critical field. A new School of Data Science and a major in data science were recently launched. The National Security Data and Policy Institute addresses the nation’s global challenges. The Karsh Institute for Democracy studies and promotes constitutional self-government.  The University’s main library has been recently renovated into a world-class facility. And planning is underway for a new performing arts center.

The Role and Responsibilities

• The Provost will demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing public education while upholding the essential principles of shared governance. The Provost is responsible for teaching, scholarship, and research at UVA’s 12 schools—as well as at its libraries, art museums, centers and institutes, and foreign study programs—overseeing all academic affairs and the recruitment and retention of faculty.
• Integral to the University of Virginia’s identity is a deeply held belief in the importance of an excellent undergraduate education leading to professional and personal success. The Provost ensures that research complements teaching, generating new knowledge that supports instruction at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels, so that students can benefit fully from their education at a leading research university.

The Provost also works closely with the Executive Vice President for Health Affairs (EVPHA) and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. The Provost must have an appreciation for working with an integrated academic health system with a world-class medical center and have significant financial acumen. The School of Medicine Dean and School of Nursing Dean have a dual report to the Provost and EVPHA.

The following will be key priorities for the next Provost:

Partner to President

The Provost is second in rank to the President and a trusted partner and advisor, who will preside over meetings, attend events and deliver remarks as the University’s representative, and act in place of the President as necessary, including in the event of crisis.

Leadership and Academic Vision

The Provost works with the President, Deans, Executive Vice Presidents, Vice Provosts and others to carry out a strategic vision that will continue to shape the University and solidify UVA as one of the world’s top institutions of higher education. The Provost recruits the Deans and supports both their individual and School success, galvanizing support for the Schools to work together on efforts that advance institutional priorities when needed.

The Provost is responsible for overseeing the planning, quality, and implementation of education for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at UVA. This will require a comprehensive and inclusive approach that merges academic and student affairs to foster the intellectual, personal, and professional growth of every student. The Provost oversees UVA’s curriculum, academic planning and program review, and develops and implements strategic policies and practices that define and pursue future academic priorities. These efforts include working in partnership with the schools and the faculty on initiatives that enhance the student experience.

The Office of the Provost encompasses offices and units responsible for the academic mission of the university. The Provost leads a highly experienced and talented team that includes a Deputy Provost, Vice Provosts, Vice President for Research, senior advisors, and senior administrative staff to oversee and support its many responsibilities and initiatives across the University.

Faculty Excellence

The Provost supports the recruitment and retention of an outstanding faculty, overseeing the process by which faculty members and their departments or schools prepare for tenure and promotion reviews and chairing the final review committee. The Provost publishes and enforces University standards for faculty conduct, including ethics in instruction and research, and compliance with relevant laws, requiring that the Deans do so as well. The Provost consults with the Faculty Senate and relevant employee councils about matters of concern to faculty and academic staff.

Research Excellence

Providing oversight for sponsored research awards of more than $550 million, the Provost provides oversight to research and scholarship activities across the University to promote a culture of intensive scholarly output and to elevate UVA’s stature, impact, and funding as an AAU and R1 institution. The Provost seeks to improve the quality and significance of research endeavors across grounds alongside the Vice President for Research.

Chief Academic Budget Officer

The Provost manages a budget of approximately $2.8 billion. The Provost supports UVA's financial strength and resilience by ensuring strong enrollment, growing resources, and fostering external partnerships. The Provost supports, advocates for, and enables the success of the Deans and the academic and enrollment management units, as well as UVA's diverse body of students.

Position Details

Ideal Experience and Characteristics

As the Provost is the University’s chief academic officer, a doctorate or equivalent terminal degree, a record of distinguished scholarship, research, and teaching excellence requisite for a tenured appointment as a full professor at the University of Virginia, is a requirement.

UVA seeks an experienced academic leader with exceptional strategic and operational ability complemented by advanced management expertise.

Additional experience ideally includes:

• Proven success leading within a complex organization
• Demonstrated commitment to interdisciplinary research
• Proven success recruiting, developing, and retaining high-caliber leaders, faculty, and staff
• A track record of measurable success in research growth, talent acquisition, financial management, and student achievement leading an academic unit of significant scope and stature
• Strong financial management skills exemplified by a comprehensive understanding of university financial models, planning, and reporting and the relationships between academic priorities and budgeting
• Ability to grow resources and efficiently steward existing resources
• An understanding of the culture of a top-tier, comprehensive public research university with an academic medical center and top athletics program
• Experience working with governing boards and the shared governance frameworks of universities

Characteristics of the successful candidate will include:

• Servant leadership that is collaborative and courageous
• Unwavering integrity, strong moral compass, and humility
• Drive and energy to innovate, improve, and execute
• Commitment to make informed, strategic, compassionate, and tough decisions
• Calm under pressure, excellent judgment, highly developed emotional intelligence, and crisis management capability
• Broad intellectual and global orientation; respect for the wide-ranging interests and concerns of all constituents of the University, and ability to establish productive relationships with people from all perspectives and all walks of life
• Genuine enthusiasm for the University of Virginia, its history, and its mission
• Strategic vision and the ability to translate that vision into pragmatic and impactful actions and initiatives

Link to posting: https://executivesearch.virginia.edu/searches/executive-vice-president-and-provost-0

*This provost position profile has drawn heavily (and benefitted) from the profile developed and published during the provost search and listening sessions carried out earlier this year.  Updates include factual data and context from the end of the academic year 2025 and beginning of academic year 2026.