CCHS - Founding Program Director Occupational Therapy Associate/Full Professor – Tenure/Tenure Track

Department/Organization
208101 - Dean's Office-CCHS

Rank
Associate/Full Professor

Position Summary
The University of Alabama invites applications and nominations for the Founding Program Director of its new Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program. Pending approval by The Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama, the OTD program will fill a distinct need for care and tap into a pipeline of interested and qualified students. We seek an entrepreneurial and visionary student-centered leader, practitioner, and scholar to build a nationally distinctive program aligned with CCHS' founding mission that expands access to high-quality occupational therapy for areas of need, including rural communities across Alabama and the Southeast. The Founding Program Director will build the program from the ground up, leading all aspects of program development, accreditation, operations, and strategic growth, and providing input on facilities. CCHS is vibrant and growing with academic program offerings in Rural Community Health, Population Health Sciences, Translational Science and Medicine, and several programs on the horizon. CCHS is home to a nationally renowned Sports Medicine Clinic and Sports Medicine Fellowship for Family Medicine Physicians. CCHS also houses Family Medicine and Psychiatry Residency Programs and Family Medicine Residency Fellowships in Geriatrics, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry, and Emergency Medicine. The University Medical Center (UMC) within CCHS is a network of multidisciplinary clinics and hospitalists serving communities across West Alabama with approximately 300,000 patient encounters annually. Appointments to the faculty of The University of Alabama are based on the personnel requirements of the University’s academic programs and on the goal of achieving and maintaining excellence in its teaching, research, and service/academic citizenship activities.

Detailed Position Information
Founding Program Director, Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) - Associate or Full Professor (tenure-track/tenured or clinical track), commensurate with qualifications or exceptional candidates at advanced Assistant Professor rank.

Leadership & Administration
• Establish and articulate the OTD program’s mission, goals, and strategic plan with a strong focus on areas of need in the state, including rural regions.
• Recruit, hire, mentor, and evaluate core and associated faculty and staff; foster a collaborative and innovative culture of excellence in teaching, practice, research, and service.
• Oversee budget planning and fiscal management; allocate resources to support academic quality and student success.
• Ensure effective internal and external communication with UA leadership, faculty, students, clinical partners, alumni, and community stakeholders.
• Direct supervisory responsibilities for faculty and staff in the unit.
• Oversee student recruitment, retention, and success efforts.
Accreditation & Compliance
• Lead all activities to achieve and maintain ACOTE accreditation (self-study, assessment system, outcomes reporting, site-visit preparation, and continuous quality improvement).
• Ensure ongoing compliance with ACOTE Standards and Required Elements, institutional policies, and applicable state regulations.
Curriculum, Assessment & Student Success
• Design and implement a competency-based OTD curriculum that integrates rural/community-based clinical education and interprofessional practice.
• Build and sustain a robust clinical education network, with emphasis on areas of need, including rural settings across Alabama.
• Implement program evaluation and outcomes assessment (student learning, licensure, graduation, employment) and use results for continuous improvement.
External Engagement & Scholarship
• Cultivate partnerships with healthcare systems, community clinics, and rural providers to support clinical placements, service-learning, and pathway initiatives.
• Support faculty and student scholarship and seek extramural funding where appropriate.
• Represent the program at state, regional, and national meetings; advance the visibility and reputation of UA’s OTD program.

Minimum Qualifications
• Initially certified occupational therapist with an active, unencumbered OT license in a U.S. jurisdiction and eligibility for Alabama licensure.
• Doctoral Degree from a US Department of Education recognized institution (OTD, PhD, or equivalent).
• Minimum eight (8) years of OT experience that must include:
o Clinical practice
o Academic administrative experience (e.g., program planning and implementation, personnel management, evaluation, and budgeting)
o Scholarship of application or teaching and learning
o Understanding the role of the occupational therapy assistant
o Four (4) years of experience as a faculty member with teaching, responsibilities at the postbaccalaureate level.
• Qualifications commensurate with Associate or Full Professor (tenure-track/tenured or clinical track), or exceptional candidates at advanced Assistant Professor rank.

Preferred Qualifications
• Sustained leadership in rural health, community-engaged practice, or service with rural populations (e.g., building rural clinical partnerships, rural pathway programs, or distributed clinical education). • Success leading teams through initial ACOTE accreditation or substantial accreditation milestones. • Experience creating, launching, or scaling new academic programs (faculty hiring, facilities planning, simulation, technology infrastructure). • Documented professional development/education in educational theory and methodology, instructional design, student evaluation, and program/outcome assessment. • Experience with program evaluation, curriculum development, and accreditation processes; working knowledge of ACOTE expectations and timelines. • Evidence of interprofessional education/practice and collaborative partnerships with health systems and community organizations. • Experience with grant writing, external funding, and/or practice-based research; familiarity with value-based and population-health models relevant to rural care. • Active engagement in AOTA or related professional organizations. • Mission-driven leadership. • Strategic thinker who is organized, collaborative, and outcomes-oriented, with excellent communication skills. • Relationship-builder who can galvanize clinical partners statewide to expand rural training sites and graduate a workforce responsive to Alabama’s needs.

About the University
The University of Alabama is located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, named one of Travel + Leisure’s 25 Best College Towns and Cities in the U.S. As one of the nation’s premier universities, UA offers bachelor’s, master's and doctoral degrees in nearly 200 fields of study. With more than 1,400 acres of tree-lined academic core campus and over 300 state-of-the art facilities, UA has been ranked among the most beautiful and most impressive college campuses in the South, in the state of Alabama and in the nation.

In Fall 2023, the Capstone set a new enrollment record with more than 39,000 students, including more than 8,200 in the freshman class. The current enrollment includes students from every county in Alabama, every state in the nation and 92 countries around the world. More than 1,100 National Merit Scholars are currently enrolled, making UA one of the largest enrolling institutions of the scholars in the country.

UA was recently recognized as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. students for the seventh time in nine years, as well as a Top Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Scholars for the first time. UA is one of only 12 universities in the nation to receive both honors.

For reasons like this, the University made Forbes list of America’s Top Colleges for 2023 and Time magazine’s list of Top 50 Best Colleges for Future Leaders. It also made Princeton Review’s list of Top Value Colleges.

UA is also designated among the top doctoral research universities in the United States in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. One of the fastest growing major research institutions in the nation, UA saw a 21% increase in sponsored awards in the 2023 fiscal year.

Since 2015, UA has invested over $1.1 billion in the physical campus, adding more than 2.55 million gross square feet of space, over 150 new research-intensive faculty, signature research areas (e.g., “The Alabama Research Institutes”), and a growing number of partnerships with industry and with state and federal agencies.

The University employs nearly 2,100 faculty and over 4,500 staff, with 52 UA researchers included in the National Academy of Inventors. An additional 40 current faculty have received the NSF CAREER Award, the nation’s most prestigious recognition of top performing young scientists in disciplines ranging from nanoscience and engineering to biological sciences.