Working/Functional Title
Vice Provost and Assistant VP One Team, One Health
Position Summary
The Vice Provost and Assistant Vice President for One Team, One Health (VP/AVP OTOH) primary function is to lead MSU Medicine unification and the creation of a new College of Health Sciences to advance sustained One Team, One Health strategy and collaboration. The VP/AVP OTOH is a dual report to the president and provost and is an institutional strategy, unification, and collaboration leader that spans the university. The position is separate from the Executive Dean of MSU Medicine and does not replace, supervise, or duplicate the Executive Dean’s academic authority. This distinction is essential to effective governance and to preserving the integrity of MSU’s separately accredited MD and DO programs.
This position is a full-time appointment with a three-year term and may be renewable.
The Vice Provost and Assistant Vice President works collaboratively with deans, vice presidents, faculty, and external partners to position the university as a national and global leader in addressing complex health challenges through interdisciplinary approaches.
Core Areas of Responsibility
Strategic and Institutional Leadership
- Advance and build upon the One Team, One Health vision articulated by the President and Provost, aligning it with MSU’s strategic plan, land-grant mission, and institutional priorities. Coordinate One Health initiatives across colleges, institutes, and centers.
- Lead the unification of the College of Human Medicine and College of Osteopathic Medicine into MSU Medicine.
- Guide the development of a new College of Health Sciences.
- Provide strategic leadership as the connective link between the Provost's Office and the Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI), advancing the One Health Research Network and aligning research priorities across the university.
- Advise the President and Provost with candid, evidence-based recommendations, including new opportunities, institutional implications, options, risks, resource needs, and stakeholder perspectives.
- Translate strategy into goals, accountable owners, timelines, investments, and measurable outcomes.
- Anticipate changes in health education, research, workforce needs, partnerships, policy, and funding that may affect MSU’s position and strategy.
Unification Governance and Change Leadership
- Oversee the MSU Medicine Implementation Team, providing strategic guidance to the co-chairs to keep implementation efforts on track and aligned with institutional goals.
- Oversee the design, execution, and maintenance of effective governance for a complex, multi-year institutional transformation.
- Clarify sponsorship, authority, consultation requirements, and escalation pathways across unification work streams.
- Lead change with transparency, empathy, urgency, and disciplined follow-through while attending to operational and human impact.
- Create durable structures and documentation so completed work can transition successfully to permanent operational owners.
Institutional Collaboration and Influence
- Build trusted relationships across colleges, academic governance, administrative units, health systems, and community partners, including our primary Henry Ford Health partner.
- Convene the appropriate expertise to address complex issues and enable decisions across organizational boundaries.
- Create partnership structures with clear purpose, roles, expectations, decision rights, and measures of mutual value.
- Resolve competing interests constructively while maintaining focus on university-wide objectives.
Research, Innovation, and Strategic Recruitment
- Bridge the Provost's Office and the Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) in a shared strategic partnership to advance the One Health Research Network and strengthen MSU's academic health research enterprise.
- Partner with the Vice President for Research and Innovation (VPRI) and other research leadership to align and connect health-related strengths without duplicating Office of Research Innovation, college, institute, or center responsibilities.
- Help develop interdisciplinary priorities capable of attracting large multi-investigator, center-level, foundation, industry, and philanthropic investment.
- Support recruitment strategies that build critical mass and complement existing faculty excellence across relevant colleges and disciplines.
- Promote shared access to expertise, data, infrastructure, clinical and community settings, and other assets that enable collaboration.
Outreach, Partnerships, and Reputation
- Develop strategic outreach and engagement initiatives responsive to Michigan’s health, workforce, and community needs.
- In partnership with the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, strengthen coordinated relationships with health systems, government, industry, foundations, professional organizations, and peer institutions.
- Provide leadership in strengthening the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University partnership (HFH + MSU), advancing collaborative initiatives in research, education and care.
- Partner with Advancement to articulate compelling One Team, One Health investment opportunities and steward institutional commitments.
- Represent MSU effectively in state, national, and international settings and communicate the impact of One Team, One Health work.
- Provide leadership in helping to translate research into public impact; promote science communication; support policy engagement.
People Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness
- Supervise staff supporting the initiative.
- Build and lead a capable, appropriately scaled One Team, One Health strategy team and a College of Health Sciences unification team and provide continued leadership to the existing MSU Medicine Implementation team.
- Establish clear roles, performance expectations, collaboration practices, and accountability for direct reports and initiative leaders.
- Provide regular feedback, professional development, and succession and continuity planning for critical functions.
- Foster a culture of integrity, respect, inclusion, shared purpose, constructive disagreement, and institutional citizenship.
Resource Stewardship, Risk and Accountability
- Develop and manage the portfolio budget and recommend integration investments based on strategy, feasibility, risk, and institutional value.
- Coordinate financial, workforce, technology, data, facilities, and infrastructure planning with responsible university leaders.
- Maintain a risk register and issue-escalation process addressing accreditation, academic continuity, student experience, workforce, finance, technology, partnerships, and reputation.
- Use dashboards and other evidence to report progress, outcomes, resource use, risks, and corrective actions to executive sponsors.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.
Required Degree
Terminal -An area of study related to the position
Minimum Requirements
- Tenured faculty position at MSU at the rank of Professor.
While no one possesses them all, the successful candidate will demonstrate the following experiences and skills:
- A record of progressively responsible senior leadership in a complex university, academic health enterprise, health system, research organization, government agency, or comparably complex institution.
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale integration, transformation, or cross-organizational implementation involving multiple stakeholders and significant operational dependencies.
- Strong understanding of academic governance, faculty culture, professional education, research, and the organizational complexity of a major public research university.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively in environments governed by accreditation, regulation, compliance, and shared authority.
- Exceptional interpersonal, communication, negotiation, facilitation, and change-leadership skills.
- Evidence of sound judgment, integrity, discretion, accountability, and the ability to provide candid counsel to senior leaders.
- Experience using data, project governance, performance measures, and risk-management practices to drive execution and continuous improvement.
- A demonstrated commitment to inclusive excellence, respectful workplace culture, and the public and land-grant mission of higher education.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in academic medicine, health sciences, biomedical or public health research, veterinary medicine, environmental health, or a One Health-related enterprise.
- Experience with LCME, COCA, or other professional/programmatic accreditation processes.
- Experience integrating academic units, professional schools, clinical enterprises, or complex administrative functions.
- A record of developing interdisciplinary research collaborations, large-scale funding initiatives, or strategic faculty recruitment programs.
- Experience building partnerships with health systems, government, industry, foundations, donors, and communities.
- Experience in a multicampus, statewide, or distributed educational and clinical environment.
Leadership Attributes
- Institution-first orientation and the ability to balance urgency with thoughtful consultation.
- Collaborative authority: able to lead through credibility, influence, disciplined governance, and shared purpose.
- Respect for academic and accreditation boundaries, coupled with the courage to surface ambiguity and clarify accountability.
- Strategic imagination paired with operational discipline and sustained follow-through.
- Clear, transparent, and empathetic communication during periods of uncertainty and change.
- Intellectual curiosity and respect for the distinctive contributions of human, osteopathic, veterinary, plant, environmental, public, and community health disciplines.
Required Application Materials
All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited.
Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume and a letter of interest addressing the themes in this profile.
For fullest consideration, candidate materials should be received by September 27, 2026.
Please submit all applications to the MSU internal applicant site located in the Careers@MSU tile of the EBS portal.
Nominations and inquiries should be directed to the Office for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs via e-mail at fasa.searchteam@msu.edu.
As an institution of higher learning, Michigan State University is committed to providing a safe environment for its students, faculty, and staff in support of its educational mission. With this commitment, the University will conduct a professional misconduct review of individuals seeking employment in Academic Management and Executive Management searches.
MSU Statement
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.