Vice President for Enrollment Management

Job Details

Location: Hickory, North Carolina

Position Overview

Lenoir-Rhyne University seeks a bold, data-informed, and growth-oriented leader to serve as Vice President for Enrollment Management (VPEM). Reporting directly to the President and serving as a member of the President’s Cabinet, the VPEM will provide strategic leadership for all enrollment-related functions, including undergraduate, graduate, and non-credit / continuing education recruitment, admission, financial aid, enrollment services, enrollment analytics, and market expansion initiatives.

A central priority of this role is driving enrollment growth and brand presence across the Carolinas as well as across the Southeast. The VPEM will play a critical role in positioning the university for sustainable growth through market-responsive programming, strategic partnerships, improving student retention and graduation rates, and a seamless experience from recruitment through degree completion.

Key Responsibilities

Enrollment Growth & Market Expansion

• Develop and execute a comprehensive enrollment growth strategy aligned with institutional priorities
• Lead market analysis, demand assessment, and competitive positioning to inform recruitment strategy and new program growth in Asheville.
• Partner with academic leadership to align enrollment strategy with program capacity, workforce demand, and regional employer needs.
• Cultivate partnerships with healthcare systems, employers, community colleges, and civic organizations to strengthen recruitment pipelines

Recruitment & Admission Strategy

• Provide strategic oversight of all recruitment and admission operations across undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.
• Strengthen recruitment pipelines for undergraduate, graduate, adult, transfer, online and professional students as well as non-degree, certificate and continuing education students, particularly in growth markets.
• Ensure a cohesive, student-centered enrollment experience across all entry points and modalities.
• Partner with Athletics to ensure roster goals and revenue targets are met.
• Lead enrollment planning for new program launches and market entry initiatives.

Financial Aid & Enrollment Economics

• Oversee financial aid strategy, including merit- and need-based aid, scholarships, and pricing strategy to support enrollment growth and net tuition revenue.
• Advance affordability and access initiatives while balancing institutional sustainability.
• Ensure compliance with all federal, state, and institutional financial aid regulations.

Registrar & Enrollment Operations

• Provide executive oversight of the Registrar’s Office, ensuring accurate, efficient, and student-centered academic records, registration, and degree progress services.
• Align registrar operations with enrollment, retention, and student success goals.
• Ensure compliance with academic policies, accreditation standards, and regulatory requirements related to student records and reporting.
• Promote process improvement and technology optimization across enrollment operations.

Marketing, Data & Analytics

• Collaborate closely with marketing and communications leadership to align brand strategy, messaging, and recruitment campaigns
• Use data analytics, CRM systems, and predictive modeling to inform recruitment strategy, yield management, pricing, and retention.

Leadership & Culture

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing enrollment management team across admission, financial aid, and the registrar.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Monitor key enrollment indicators and provide regular data-based reporting to the President, Cabinet, and Board of Trustees.
• Provide administrative support to the Board of Trustees committee on Enrollment and Athletics
• Champion a student-first, service-oriented approach that reflects Lenoir-Rhyne’s mission and values.

External Engagement

• Serve as a visible ambassador for Lenoir-Rhyne locally, regionally and nationally
• Represent the university with school counselors, community partners, consortia, and national enrollment organizations.
• Stay current on national enrollment trends, demographic shifts, and policy changes affecting higher education.

Personal Attributes

The successful candidate will be:

• Growth-oriented, entrepreneurial, and strategic
• Data-driven and operationally disciplined
• Competitive, driven and focused on attaining and exceeding goals
• Collaborative, credible, and relationship-focused
• Student-centered and mission-aligned
• Comfortable leading change in a competitive enrollment environment

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• At least 7 years in senior-level experience in enrollment management or a closely related area.
• Demonstrated success driving enrollment growth, market expansion, and net tuition revenue.
• Strong understanding of enrollment economics, financial aid strategy, and registrar functions.
• Proven ability to lead complex operations and cross-functional teams.
• Strong data-analysis skill and data visualization and reporting experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or doctoral degree
• Experience leading enrollment across undergraduate, graduate, and non-degree / continuing education programs.
• Familiarity with private, mission-driven institutions and regional market expansion strategies.
• Experience launching programs or expanding institutional presence in new or emerging markets.
• Experience overseeing or partnering closely with a registrar’s office.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Lenoir-Rhyne University promotes a welcoming campus environment that is integral to the university's commitment to excellence in engagement and education. We are particularly interested in candidates who have demonstrated experience nurturing a welcoming community, working with faculty, staff and/or students from all walks of life and/or incorporating varied perspectives and traditions in their current or previous positions. This commitment is rooted in our Lutheran tradition of fostering wisdom, nurturing vocation and preparing students for lives of purpose while serving the common good.

About Lenoir-Rhyne University

Lenoir-Rhyne University is a co-educational, private, comprehensive liberal arts institution founded in 1891, with its traditional campus located in Hickory, North Carolina, a city of more than 40,000. The university has additional graduate centers in Asheville, N.C., and Columbia, S.C. Situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Lenoir-Rhyne is less than an hour’s drive from Charlotte, and the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of about 365,000. The university now offers more than 45 undergraduate and 20 graduate degree programs to approximately 2,400 students. Lenoir-Rhyne University seeks to liberate mind and spirit, clarify personal faith, foster physical wholeness, build community, and promote responsible leadership for service to the world. Affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Lenoir-Rhyne is open to people from all religious and non-religious backgrounds.