Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America’s Best Large Employers in 2023.

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The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs

Job Profile Title

Director E, Academic Affairs

Job Description Summary

The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (Penn Carey Law) is shaping the next era of legal education, and it seeks a senior-level, entrepreneurial leader who will help build that future. Around the world, demand for legal knowledge is growing on multiple fronts. Lawyers need continuing education that keeps pace with a rapidly changing profession, and they look to trusted institutions to build these programs. At the same time, business executives, compliance officers, technologists, and policymakers increasingly need fluency in the law, and they are seeking it in new formats, on new timelines, and from institutions they trust. Penn Carey Law is recruiting a senior leader to design and grow the programs that will serve this expanding global audience, carrying the reach of a world-class legal education far beyond the traditional classroom.

Penn Carey Law has retained Criterion Search Group, Inc., an executive search firm specializing in mission-driven leadership, to conduct this national search. Confidential inquiries should be directed to Criterion Search Group at [email protected].

• The Opportunity:
• Penn Carey Law has the faculty depth, the brand, and the programmatic infrastructure to lead in serving the legal education market. It also enters this work at an opportune moment: through Penn Learning for Life, the University is investing in shared capabilities and streamlined support for program design and delivery, and it is building connections across the schools’ pre-college, professional, and executive offerings. This leader will be positioned to draw on that investment and to build collaborations with sister schools across the University, including the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Perelman School of Medicine, whose professional and online education operations are already running at scale. What Penn Carey Law needs now is a builder: someone who will make the most of University resources where they exist and create what the Law School needs where they do not.

The school seeks a senior leader to establish its next major avenue of growth by extending Penn Carey Law’s teaching to professionals, organizations, and learners around the world, beyond the traditional JD pipeline. This leader will take ownership of an existing portfolio: the Master in Law (ML) degree, continuing legal education, a substantial online course catalog, the pre-college summer academy, executive education, and customized programs. The opportunity is to expand their reach, reputation, and revenue, and, crucially, to help invent what comes next.

This is a start-up role with exceptional support from school leadership. The Dean, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs and Innovation, and Chief Financial Officer will be active partners, helping to navigate the University and support key relationships. The role will also collaborate frequently with the Dean’s senior leadership team. The ideal candidate will combine strategic vision, entrepreneurial instinct, and operational follow-through, and will be genuinely excited to build something new.

• Position Overview:
• Reporting to the Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs and Innovation, the senior faculty leader who serves as the Dean’s principal architect of the school’s academic strategy, and with regular direct engagement with the Dean, this position serves as Penn Carey Law’s primary strategic and operational leader for educational innovation and growth. The successful candidate will be a thought partner to the Dean and Deputy Dean on innovation, revenue diversification, and new directions in legal education. The role leads two established teams (the Master in Law staff and the Legal Education Programs staff) and works closely with faculty, administrative colleagues, and cross-university partners. The JD program and the school’s existing graduate degree programs for lawyers (LLM, LLCM, and SJD) sit outside this portfolio, though the school anticipates close collaboration on new program formats as the portfolio evolves. The early emphasis will be on market assessment, organizational capacity, partnerships, and near-term revenue growth.

Job Description

Job Description

• •Develop and lead the growth strategy
• •Develop and execute a multi-year vision for the school’s ML and non-degree program portfolio: scaling what exists and creating program categories the school does not yet operate.
• •Identify and pursue emerging domestic and international markets for legal and law-adjacent education, including regulated industries, technology, healthcare, financial services, and government.
• •Shape a tiered, premium portfolio: open-enrollment programs for senior professionals, offerings built for groups of employers with shared needs, and fully customized single-organization engagements.
• •Draw on Penn’s cross-university resources and shared infrastructure for scale and efficiency in program design and delivery.

• •Drive revenue
• •In collaboration with the Chief Financial Officer, set and achieve meaningful financial targets across the portfolio, with year-over-year growth in program net revenue as the primary measure of success.
• •Validate market demand before resources are committed, applying pricing floors and minimum enrollment thresholds to every new launch.
• •Develop and monitor performance metrics for all programs, working closely with Business Affairs on planning, reporting, and resource allocation.

• •Build institutional partnerships
• •Cultivate relationships with corporations, law firms, healthcare systems, government agencies, and professional associations in the U.S. and abroad, engaging decision-makers directly in support of program development.
• •Represent Penn Carey Law externally as a spokesperson and advocate for its professional education mission.
• •Ensure the external partnership strategy is well-coordinated across the school.
• •Pursue joint offerings with the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Perelman School of Medicine, and other sister schools where the market supports them.

• •Lead the existing portfolio
• •Sharpen the ML program’s strategic direction in a shifting market for law-adjacent master’s degrees, including its market positioning, pricing, and whether and how to extend the degree into online or hybrid formats.
• •Build on the online course catalog, a significant content asset with a faculty recruiting pipeline, while leading platf