Part-time Academic Director, Health Informatics

Position Description

The Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies (SPS) is seeking an exceptional and dynamic faculty leader to serve as the Academic Director of the Health Informatics program, starting January 1, 2027. This part-time position is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

About the School of Professional Studies

The mission of the SPS is to accelerate the professional growth of adult learners across their careers and support the talent development needs of organizations. We believe this is best achieved through the strategic partnership of industry expertise and academic excellence, embodying principles of accessibility, flexibility, and a strong market orientation. All of our programs are designed for professionals who can apply acquired skills directly to their careers and reflect best and emerging practices from the field combined with rigorous, research-based knowledge from academia.

The School of Professional Studies is uniquely situated within The Pearl, Charlotte’s first-of-its-kind health innovation district. As the home of Wake Forest University’s Charlotte expansion and the North American headquarters of the global surgical training institute IRCAD, The Pearl serves as a vibrant ecosystem where world-class research, clinical translation, and corporate innovation collide. Our location within the district—and our strategic partnership with Advocate Health, one of the nation's largest health systems—can provide our faculty and students with unparalleled access to a network of health tech pioneers and research leaders. For an Academic Director, this means the opportunity to lead a program at the 'technological frontier,' where academic excellence is directly integrated into the blueprint for healthcare transformation.

About the Program

The Master of Health Informatics program delivers a holistic curriculum designed to enable graduates to improve healthcare services and patient outcomes through technical and leadership mastery. Wake Forest’s program is especially distinctive in its emphasis on using analytics to reduce health disparities and improve equity, ensuring that every individual has a fair and just opportunity for good health. The curriculum bridges the gap between clinical expertise and emerging technology, covering the design and modeling of database applications, regulatory controls, and privacy and security. Graduates are prepared for evolving roles as strategic visionary leaders through tangible, marketable applied projects that integrate AI-driven system thinking, digital health technologies, and data governance. This program transforms professionals into innovative leaders capable of executing adaptive strategies that optimize healthcare delivery while maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety. The Master of Health Informatics program as an Approved Educational Partner (AEP) and an Associate Organizational Affiliate (AOA) with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The Academic Director's Role

This is a unique opportunity to join an innovative school that's shaping the future of professional education, built on the quality and excellence of our university. As an influential, market-connected leader and key subject-matter expert, the Academic Director will be responsible for providing academic oversight and strategic direction for our graduate Health Informatics degree program. The director will be joining a creative, mission-centered, and highly collaborative team of faculty and staff who support this program and its students.

The director will nurture a culture of innovation and collaboration that centers on the success of our students and community partners. The director will be expected to guide the program's strategic positioning, guarantee its market leadership, and continuously enhance its impact by ensuring the quality and relevance of the program curriculum, monitoring outcomes and seeking input from students, faculty, advisors, and other stakeholders.

As the leader of a team of practitioner-scholars, the academic director will engage with program faculty and nurture close connections with industry leaders, leveraging a deep understanding of emerging trends and best practices. This includes leading a Program Advisory Board to advance the program and provide mentorship to students, as well as engaging deeply with health leaders and professionals in the Charlotte region to advance program goals, enhance student success, and positively impact our community.

The candidate will be ranked as a professor of the practice (non-tenure track) and may also teach courses in the health informatics program.

Qualifications

• A Master’s degree or higher in health informatics or a closely related field.
• Significant leadership experience in health technology and informatics, with a proven ability to leverage data analytics and AI for strategic decision-making.
• Prior experience teaching online at the graduate level is required, with evidence of teaching effectiveness.
• Prior academic leadership or business managerial experience is preferred.

Note: This position is one of two academic leadership searches within our Health cluster (Health Administration and Health Informatics). The School remains open to a joint full-time leadership role for a candidate possessing the necessary expertise to oversee both programs concurrently. This combined leadership position offers a unique opportunity to build synergies between health operations and data-driven innovation. If you possess the qualifications for both roles, we encourage you to express your interest in a combined leadership position within your application.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Equal Opportunity Statement

The University is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all qualified candidates to apply without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, disability and military or veteran status.

Accommodations for Applicants

If you are an individual with a disability and need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please contact AskHR@wfu.edu or (336) 758-4700.

Organization

Wake Forest University, formed in 1834, has experienced decades of growth and innovation. WFU is a distinctive university that combines a liberal arts core with graduate and professional schools and innovative research programs. The University embraces the teacher-scholar ideal, which prizes the personal interaction between students and faculty. It is a place where exceptional teaching, fundamental research and discovery, and the engagement of faculty and students in the classroom and the laboratory are paramount.

Wake Forest University is a community that seeks the enlightenment and freedom which come through diligent study and learning. Its higher goal, however, is to give life to the University motto "Pro Humanitate," as members translate a passion for knowledge into compassionate service. The community shares a tradition that embraces freedom and integrity and acknowledges the worth of the individual. The heritage, established by the school's founders and nurtured by succeeding generations, promotes a democratic spirit arising from open-mindedness and discourse. Wake Forest fosters compassion and caring for others. Its collective strength and character are derived from the values and distinctive experiences of each individual; therefore, it affirms the richness of human intellect and culture and its contribution to knowledge, faith, reason, and dialogue. Furthermore, it strives toward a society in which good will, respect, and equality prevail. To that end, Wake Forest University rejects hatred and bigotry in any form and promotes justice, honor, and mutual trust.

The University is comprised of: the undergraduate college, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Divinity, School of Law, and School of Medicine (located on the Bowman Gray campus with Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center) and today enrolls about 4,846 undergraduates and 2,823 students in graduate programs at its principal location, the Reynolda campus. Students at Wake Forest University enjoy a great deal of access to and interaction with world-class faculty both in and out of the classroom setting with a student-faculty ratio of 11:1. Wake Forest employs approximately 2,772 full and part-time faculty and staff.

Wake Forest is a collegiate university offering a vibrant, intellectual community with a rich cultural life, an impressive array of facilities, and a strong athletics program competing in the fifteen-team Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Since its founding, the university has adopted the motto “pro humanitate,” which is exemplified by a deep institutional commitment to public service and engagement with the world. Wake Forest has a strong commitment to holistic, eight-dimensional well-being for students, faculty and staff as evidenced in the Thrive initiative.

Winston-Salem, NC

Wake Forest is located in Winston-Salem, NC, a beautiful, mid-sized city centrally located in the Piedmont-Triad region of North Carolina. Winston-Salem is a family-friendly city with high quality schools, numerous outdoor recreational activities and events, and is known for its vibrant and thriving arts scene.

Winston-Salem residents enjoy close proximity to the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains (1.5 hours) and Atlantic beaches (4 hours), a moderate climate with four distinct seasons, a very reasonable cost of living, and an eclectic variety of restaurants, wine bars, and breweries for dining with friends and family. Winston-Salem offers many of the amenities of a large city but with the sense of community and quality of life of a smaller town (www.visitwinstonsalem.com).