DescriptionThe Director, Clinical and Community Partnerships provides strategic leadership, operational oversight, and external relationship management for the development, coordination, and sustainment of clinical and community partnerships that support experiential education across all College-level health professions programs. This role is responsible for building and stewarding a robust, diversified network of hospitals, health systems, ambulatory clinics, public health agencies, and community-based organizations to ensure sufficient, high-quality clinical, fieldwork, and community placements that meet accreditation, workforce, and programmatic needs.
Serving as the College's primary liaison to external practice partners, the Director aligns partnership strategy with institutional growth, enrollment targets, and emerging workforce demands. The position requires sophisticated relationship management, contract negotiation, healthcare systems knowledge, and cross-functional collaboration with academic leadership, faculty, compliance, and operations teams.
Position Duties- Develop and execute a comprehensive clinical and community partnership strategy aligned with the College's academic portfolio, enrollment growth, and workforce priorities.
- Forecast clinical placement capacity needs across all programs and proactively expand partnership pipelines.
- Identify emerging healthcare delivery trends, community health needs, and new partnership opportunities.
- Advise the Dean and program leadership on clinical infrastructure, risk, and capacity planning.
- Establish, cultivate, and maintain senior-level relationships with hospitals, health systems, private practices, public health departments, FQHCs, schools, long-term care facilities, and community-based organizations.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for clinical affiliates and community partners.
- Negotiate and execute affiliation agreements, MOUs, and related contracts in coordination with legal and compliance offices.
- Develop multi-program and system-level agreements to maximize placement efficiency and reduce redundancy.
- Ensure high partner satisfaction through responsive communication, performance monitoring, and issue resolution.
- Collaborate with program directors and clinical education teams to match students with appropriate experiential learning sites and optimize processes for placement.
- Standardize policies, procedures, and documentation across programs to ensure operational consistency.
- Implement technology platforms or tools to track placements, contracts, and capacity utilization.
- Monitor placement quality, student outcomes, and site performance metrics.
- Ensure all partnerships meet regulatory, accreditation, and institutional requirements.
- Maintain current records for contracts, liability coverage, onboarding documentation, and site credentials.
- Support program accreditation reviews by providing documentation and evidence related to clinical capacity and quality.
- Coordinate with risk management on incident response and mitigation protocols.
- Track and analyze clinical placement capacity, utilization, partner performance, and student outcomes.
- Provide regular reports and dashboards to College leadership.
- Use data to inform expansion strategies and operational improvements.
- Benchmark against peer institutions and industry best practices.
- Recruit, supervise, and develop clinical placement and partnership staff as applicable.
- Manage budgets associated with partnership development and clinical operations.
- Oversee vendor relationships and placement management systems.
- Performs other such duties as may be assigned from time to time.
Position Qualifications- Master's degree in health administration, public health, healthcare management, or related field (doctorate preferred).
- At least three years of progressively responsible leadership experience in clinical education administration, healthcare partnerships, or academic health systems.
- Demonstrated experience negotiating healthcare affiliation agreements and managing complex external partnerships.
- Knowledge of clinical education requirements across health professions programs.
- Strong understanding of healthcare delivery systems, regulatory environments, and accreditation standards.
- Excellent executive-level communication, relationship-building, and negotiation skills.
- Experience managing staff, budgets, and cross-functional initiatives.
- Experience in an academic health sciences or health professions college environment preferred.
- Multi-program placement management experience (e.g., nursing, allied health, public health, rehabilitation sciences) preferred.
- Familiarity with clinical placement management software (e.g., EXXAT, Core) or systems preferred.
- Experience working with community health organizations and underserved populations preferred.
- Core Competencies: Strategic thinking and systems planning, Healthcare partnership development, Contract negotiation and compliance oversight, Operational execution and process improvement, Stakeholder engagement and influence, Data-informed decision-making, and Change management.
Work HoursMonday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., with additional hours as needed; some remote work may be permissible.
