Director of Clinical Affairs

SUMMARY:

The Director of Clinical Affairs is an Entrepreneurial role leading clinical strategy, expansion, and clinical partnerships to ensure optimal clinical experiences across healthcare for graduate medical education. The role oversees the clinical expansion of the graduate clinical programs within the College of Health Professions to secure, cultivate, and bridge the gap between clinical sites and the university, facilitating smooth operations, and ensuring all graduate medical education high quality standards are maintained. The Director must have executive communication/presentation skills to communicate and present at the executive C-suite level with proficiency in stakeholder buy-in, strong cross-functional communication, and organizational navigation.

This position requires the incumbent to travel among clinical facilities and campuses to conduct meetings with preceptors and health system administrators. These meetings aim to strengthen partnerships between the university and healthcare systems, improve communication channels, and secure additional clinical sites for current programs, program expansions, and new program launches.

The incumbent must assure that the South University philosophy is considered in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of this position, which includes quality services to clients; development, growth, involvement, and recognition of employees; sound economic principles; and maintenance of an environment which is conducive to innovation, positive thinking, and expansion.

KEY JOB ELEMENTS:

• Add clinical sites to support graduate medical programs in the targeted medical disciplines within the College of Health Professions to meet budgeted growth in existing, transplant, and new programs.
• Leads university executive clinical communication/presentations and clinical activities with health system administrators and C-suite teams in the assigned region.
• Build and foster relationships with key clinical site stakeholders in the assigned region, targeting areas of clinical shortage.
• Influence clinical program strategic planning for approved clinical site expansions, negotiating contracts, budgeting, and ensuring clinical milestone achievements.
• Work with graduate medical programs in the College of Health Professions to design and execute clinical recruitment strategies to maintain clinical contracts and student placements.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to graduate medical programs about current market trends for required clinical sites across the nation.
• Review clinical cases and incidents with clinical partners and serve as a liaison with health system administrators.
• Partner with non-academic departments to ensure that clinical experiences are properly planned for, scheduled, and conducted.
• Partner with Career Services to enhance student job placement opportunities at clinical partner organizations.
• Partner with Development and Fundraising to enhance gift income from clinical partner organizations.
• Provide effective input for promotional marketing strategies to support clinical site acquisition and operations.
• Engages in service, community and campus relations, and scholarly activities as appropriate to the role.
• Other duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Terminal Degree in a healthcare discipline within the College of Health Professions is preferred.
• Minimum of a master's degree in a Clinical Program, Healthcare Administration or Business Administration is required.
• Management experience in a healthcare system role is required.
• Clinical experience with Anesthesiologist Assistants and Physician Assistants is preferred.

• Current professional licensure and/or certification in the applicable state and healthcare discipline as applicable is preferred.
• Experience in C-suite executive presentations and hospital administration preferred.
• Valid state driver’s license.

• Vehicle required for travel along with valid insurance.

• Must have mastery of communication and presentation skills to effectively engage, influence, and present to C-suite executives and health system administrators with demonstrated ability to secure stakeholder buy-in

• Exceptional ability to build, cultivate, and maintain strategic relationships with key clinical stakeholders, including hospital administrators, preceptors, and healthcare system leaders across all organizational levels
• Expertise in negotiating clinical affiliation agreements, managing budgets, and influencing clinical program strategic planning to ensure milestone achievements and sustainable partnerships
• Advanced understanding of healthcare system operations, organizational structures, and clinical education requirements across graduate medical programs, particularly in Anesthesiologist Assistant and Physician Assistant disciplines

• Strong interpersonal skills with student and staff populations.
• Superior organization, prioritization, and self-motivation skills.

• Strong computer skills, including MS Office Suite.

ENVIRONMENT:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The term "qualified individual with a disability" means an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the position. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate professionally in person, over the telephone, through email and other electronic means, move about the office or school, handle various types of media and equipment, and visually or otherwise identify, observe and assess. The employee is occasionally required to lift up to 10 pounds unless otherwise specified in the job description. The individual must be able to travel out of the local area with an occasional overnight stay to participate in a variety of conferences and meetings.

South University is an Equal Opportunity Employer and embraces diversity as a critical step in ensuring employee, student and graduate success. We are committed to building and developing a diverse environment where a variety of ideas, cultures and perspectives can thrive.

JobFamily

All Positions

PayType

Salary

EducationLevel

Master’s Degree

TravelRequired

True

TravelPercentage

80

TelecommutePercentage

100