Academic Director

**Academic Director**

Verto is on a mission to provide the best possible start to college. We start by making travel and experiential education a core part of every participant's Freshman year. Our participants begin college overseas in one of 5 Verto locations, before seamlessly transferring to one of over 70 partner universities in the United States. While completing 1 or 2 experiences with Verto, participants become more mature, empathetic global citizens who have a greater sense of purpose and direction for their lives.

At Verto, we're creating a different model. We're driving the costs down and acceptance rates up. We connect participants to the world and give them a chance to discover who they are before making them choose a major. We're out to build a transformational company that makes higher education more accessible and impactful. We are backed by First Round Capital and other top VCs.

**At Verto Education we value voices of all backgrounds and experiences. We know that creating a diverse environment takes dedication and intentional hiring practices. We are cognizant of the gap between our current state and our commitments. In order to bridge that gap, we have to humbly evaluate where we are today.**

The Academic Director oversees the coordination, quality, planning, and delivery of all components of educational programming onsite. This position provides day-to-day academic leadership, and oversees the learning environment to ensure it is a rigorous, engaging, and supportive experience that fosters participant academic success. The Academic Director ensures that academic programming and staff are in compliance with Verto's School(s) of Record academic protocols, all of Verto's policies and practices, and overall standards of academic excellence for teaching and learning.

The Academic Director directly reports to the Program Director for day-to-day academic program management and the implementation of academic affairs onsite. The Academic Director has a secondary reporting line to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, and collaborates closely with the Academic Affairs Headquarters team on all matters related to strategic planning and academic development, academic operations, staff affairs, and participant academic success and advising. The Academic Director is responsible for creating and maintaining a positive and transformative learning environment in partnership with key stakeholders across the organization.

**ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**

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Academic Leadership_**
- Implement the Verto curriculum, academic standards and policies in compliance with Verto and SoR requirements and employ education and study abroad industry good practices and innovation.
- Oversee the design and delivery of key components of academic programming, including courses, experiential learning, academic excursions, co-curricular activities, etc.
- Engage in longer-term strategic academic planning, identifying local resources and strengths that are in alignment with Verto's mission, vision and goals.
- Manage the day to day academic program, addressing staff and participant academic needs in cooperation with the Center Director and the Academic Affairs (AA) team at Verto Headquarters (HQ).
- Develop and manage partnerships with local academic institutions, associations, and professionals as appropriate for academic development and organizational needs, including responding to Verto university partner requests.
- Supervise local staff and lead staff affairs onsite including staff recruitment, hiring, credentialing, and training in coordination with Verto HQ. Support staff professional development and longer term initiatives around staff engagement and retention in partnership with AA HQ.
- Evaluate staff regularly, following established protocols from AA HQ and School(s) of Record, which include course observations, staff and course evaluations, create staff files and review approaches to teaching and learning.
- Provide leadership to facilitate transformational experiential learning and support the implementation of organizational initiatives, such as Verto Discovery, to maximize effectiveness and innovate pedagogical best practices for experiential teaching and learning.
- Monitor teaching and learning, address academic needs proactively, and support staff, academic success staff, and participants to create and sustain positive and engaging learning environments.
- Provide leadership to address academic complaints, grievances and appeals in coordination with the Academic Success staff and AA HQ. Make recommendations as appropriate for participant withdrawals and dismissals as necessary.
- Communicate concerns, needs, requests for support, escalated staff or participant issues as appropriate to the Center/Program Director and AA Vice President for timely resolution.

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Academic Success and P_**_articipant _**_Support_**
- Work with staff to implement and monitor ongoing participant academic accommodations and e