Chief College Pathways and K-12 Partnerships Officer

Job Title
Chief College Pathways and K-12 Partnerships Officer

Agency
Texas A&M University - Kingsville

Department
Vice President for Student Success

Proposed Minimum Salary
Commensurate

Job Location
Kingsville, Texas

Job Type
Staff

Job Description
Position Overview

The Chief College Pathways and K-12 Partnerships Officer provides strategic leadership for Texas A&M University-Kingsville's efforts to expand and strengthen postsecondary opportunities for secondary students throughout South Texas and the University's broader service region.

Reporting to the Vice President for Student Success, the Chief provides administrative leadership and oversight for Dual Credit and serves as the University's senior relationship manager for school district partnerships related to Dual Credit, Early College High Schools (ECHS), Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH), academic pathways, Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, workforce-aligned credentials, and other innovative secondary-to-postsecondary initiatives.

This position supervises the Director of Dual Credit and works collaboratively with academic colleges, Enrollment Management, Academic Affairs, Student Success, school districts, education service centers, workforce and industry partners, and other stakeholders to develop intentional academic and career pathways that increase college access, accelerate credential attainment, reduce time and cost to degree, and create seamless transitions from high school to Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

This position serves as an external-facing institutional leader responsible for developing relationships with superintendents, district administrators, principals, counselors, CTE leaders, and other educational and community partners throughout the region. They will identify opportunities for strategic growth, develop new partnerships, coordinate institutional resources, and ensure that high school programs advance the University's enrollment, student success, workforce development, and regional engagement priorities.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Program Development

• Provide strategic vision and administrative leadership for the University's portfolio of high school and pre-college partnership programs.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive regional strategy for expanding Dual Credit, ECHS, P-TECH, academic, CTE, workforce, and other college pathway opportunities.
• Establish short- and long-term goals for growth, student participation, geographic reach, pathway development, credential attainment, matriculation, persistence, and completion.
• Identify emerging opportunities for secondary-to-postsecondary partnerships based on student demand, workforce needs, institutional capacity, and regional priorities.
• Develop scalable models that allow TAMUK to serve school districts of varying sizes, including rural and geographically isolated communities.
• Ensure that program expansion remains intentional and aligned with academic quality, student success, institutional capacity, and University priorities.

School District and Regional Partnerships

• Serve as a primary senior-level University representative to superintendents, central office administrators, principals, counselors, CTE directors, and other K-12 leaders regarding high school and college pathway partnerships.
• Maintain an active presence throughout TAMUK's service region through regular meetings, district visits, regional convenings, superintendent engagement, and other partnership-development activities.
• Build trusted, long-term relationships with existing partners while actively developing relationships with prospective school districts, charter schools, private schools, education service centers, and other organizations.
• Conduct strategic discussions with districts to identify student and community needs and develop customized partnership solutions.
• Lead or support the development and renewal of agreements associated with Dual Credit, ECHS, P-TECH, CTE, and related programs.
• Represent TAMUK at regional and statewide meetings, conferences, educational forums, and community events related to college access, college readiness, workforce development, and secondary-postsecondary partnerships.

Intentional Academic and Career Pathways

• Work with academic colleges and departments to develop coherent pathways that connect high school coursework with certificates, undergraduate degrees, graduate opportunities, and careers.
• Promote purposeful Dual Credit course-taking so that students earn credits that advance them toward a defined academic or career goal.
• Develop pathways that may allow students to progress from Dual Credit into bachelor's degrees, accelerated degree programs, 4+1 opportunities, graduate education, or workforce credentials.
• Partner with academic leadership to expand CTE and workforce-aligned pathways in areas that respond to regional and state workforce needs.
• Explore opportunities to embed industry-recognized certifications, workforce credentials, and other career-connected learning experiences within high school partnerships.
• Coordinate with advising and academic units to improve degree applicability and minimize unnecessary or excess credit accumulation.

Early College High School and P-TECH Development

• Lead TAMUK's institutional strategy for developing and expanding Early College High School and P-TECH partnerships.
• Work directly with interested school districts to assess readiness, identify academic programs, develop implementation plans, and coordinate institutional participation.
• Convene appropriate academic, enrollment, advising, workforce, and administrative stakeholders in support of new ECHS and P-TECH initiatives.
• Ensure that pathways are structured to provide students with meaningful progress toward degrees, credentials of value, or workforce opportunities.
• Build partnerships with employers and workforce organizations when appropriate to strengthen career-connected and P-TECH programming.

Dual Credit Leadership and Oversight

• Provide administrative oversight and strategic direction for the Office of Dual Credit.
• Supervise and evaluate the Director of Dual Credit and support the Director in establishing annual priorities and performance expectations for the department.
• Ensure high-quality and consistent service to partner school districts, students, families, faculty, and counselors.
• Work with the Director to identify operational barriers and continuously improve application, registration, advising, communication, onboarding, and student-support processes.
• Monitor program capacity and identify infrastructure, staffing, technology, faculty, and resource needs necessary to support responsible growth.
• Support compliance with applicable University policies and state, system, accreditation, and regulatory requirements.

Faculty Capacity and Educator Credentialing

• Collaborate with Academic Affairs, academic colleges, graduate programs, and school districts to address faculty capacity necessary for Dual Credit expansion.
• Develop strategies to identify and credential qualified high school instructors to teach college-level coursework.
• Support pathways for educators who need additional graduate coursework or content-specific graduate hours to become eligible to teach Dual Credit courses.
• Explore cohort-based and partnership models that allow TAMUK to increase regional Dual Credit faculty capacity while also supporting educator professional development.
• Work with academic leadership to ensure that faculty credentialing decisions remain the responsibility of appropriate academic departments and University officials.

Cross-University Collaboration

• Build strong working relationships across Academic Affairs, Enrollment Management, Student Success, Financial Aid, Registrar, Admissions, academic colleges, institutional research, workforce programs, and other relevant offices.
• Develop clear roles and processes that create a seamless experience for students and school district partners.
• Partner with Enrollment Management to develop strategies for converting Dual Credit and other high school program participants into degree-seeking TAMUK students.
• Collaborate with Student Success to ensure students participating in high school programs have access to appropriate advising, academic support, career exploration, and college-transition resources.
• Work with academic leadership to ensure that proposed partnerships align with faculty capacity, curriculum, accreditation, and academic standards.

Data, Assessment, and Strategic Growth

• Establish and monitor key performance indicators for TAMUK's high school programs.
• Regularly assess participation, enrollment, credit accumulation, course success, pathway completion, geographic reach, district participation, student matriculation, persistence, and other indicators of program effectiveness.
• Develop dashboards, reports, and presentations that communicate program performance and opportunities for improvement.
• Use institutional, regional, demographic, workforce, and partner data to identify opportunities for strategic expansion.
• Establish annual growth goals and regularly report progress to University leadership.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of partnerships and recommend continuation, expansion, redesign, or other changes when appropriate.

Student Success and College Transition

• Ensure that high school programs are designed not simply to generate college credit but to contribute meaningfully to long-term student success.
• Develop strategies that connect Dual Credit, ECHS, P-TECH, and other participants with TAMUK academic advising, career exploration, student support, and college transition resources.
• Work with University partners to create intentional transition strategies for students who matriculate to TAMUK following high school graduation.
• Identify opportunities to recognize milestones and create a stronger sense of connection between high school program participants and the University.
• Promote strategies that reduce barriers to college participation and completion for rural, first-generation, economically disadvantaged, and historically underserved students.

Leadership and Administration

• Provide leadership, mentorship, and professional development to staff within the assigned portfolio.
• Develop annual departmental objectives and ensure alignment with Division and University strategic priorities.
• Assist with development and management of budgets associated with high school programs and strategic initiatives.
• Identify external funding, philanthropic, grant, and partnership opportunities that can support program expansion.
• Develop recommendations for staffing, infrastructure, technology, and other resources necessary for future growth.
• Perform other duties and special projects as assigned.

Required Qualifications

Required Education

Master's degree in a related field.

Required Experience

Eight (8) years of professional experience in higher education, K-12 education, educational partnerships, enrollment, student success, academic affairs, workforce development, or a closely related area.

Other Requirements and Factors

• This position is security sensitive
• This position will require export-control authorization prior to starting employment.
• This position requires compliance with state and federal laws/codes and Texas A&M University System/TAMUK policies, regulations, rules, and procedures
• All tasks and job responsibilities must be performed safely without injury to self or others in compliance with System and University safety requirements
• This position will require export-control authorization prior to starting employment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience administering Dual Credit, Early College High School, P-TECH, CTE, or other secondary-postsecondary partnership programs.
• Experience working with Texas public school districts and Texas higher education institutions.
• Knowledge of Texas higher education, TEA, THECB, and relevant regulatory requirements associated with secondary-postsecondary partnerships.
• Experience developing academic pathways, articulation agreements, workforce programs, or industry-aligned credentials.
• Experience working with rural, first-generation, economically disadvantaged, or historically underserved student populations.
• Experience using data to evaluate program effectiveness and guide strategic expansion.
• Demonstrated experience securing grants, external funding, or partnership resources.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to think strategically while translating vision into operational plans and measurable outcomes.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeho