Job Description for the Director of the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship position. Review job description, requirements, and qualifications. Apply or register interest for the position.

The Martha and Spencer Love School of Business invites applications for the position of Director of the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The director will be responsible for driving the vision to enhance the visibility of the Doherty Center as a premier center for student entrepreneurship in collaboration with the Dean’s office and Entrepreneurship Faculty within the Love School of Business. This leadership role is critical in fostering a campus-wide culture of entrepreneurship and championing initiatives that bridge creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship across various academic programs and professional fields. Ideal candidates will demonstrate a strong background in fostering entrepreneurship and mentoring students as they pursue their entrepreneurial ventures or leading and developing people in an innovation-oriented organization. They must be able to work collaboratively across campus to make sure that the Doherty Center is seen as a campus wide resource. This position is supported by a shared program coordinator and a team of student interns. Travel for student events and some evening or weekend commitments are anticipated. The LSB has a culture of inclusive student-centered excellence that emphasizes entrepreneurial thinking, collegiality, and results. The successful candidate should be able to work within such a culture.

Responsibilities include:

Mentoring

• Mentoring students including the Innovation Living Learning Community Scholarship Program, the Doherty Center Innovation Scholars, and serving as an advisor for external programs, such as University Innovation Fellows.
• Meeting with students from across campus who are interested in entrepreneurship and start-ups.
• Engaging with, and advocating for, entrepreneurship curricular programs. Collaborating with entrepreneurship faculty, including occasionally teaching an undergraduate course.

Program Facilitation and Development

• Oversee and lead the Innovation Scholars Program, offering comprehensive extracurricular opportunities to over 30 students, including organizing visits to entrepreneurial ecosystems in various cities, while closely tracking their academic progress and scholarship status.
• Spearheading ongoing initiatives and events such as Oak Originals, Black Entrepreneur Initiative, Elon Innovation Challenge, the C. Ashton Newhall Speakers Series, and the Elon Medal Award.
• Maintaining programs within the budget allocated to the Doherty Center and building partnerships to effectively utilize available resources.

Collaboration and Innovation

• Building bridges to parts of campus including the Love School of Business, Elon Law, Office of Inclusive Excellence, Residence Life, and related academic departments.
• Explore opportunities for developing and revising programming in alignment with the Boldly Elon Strategic Plan.
• Representing the Doherty Center while working with the broader entrepreneurship community for support and opportunities for students.

Experience Requirements:  

This position is categorized as staff, with the possibility of staff with faculty rank, and requires a master's degree. An MBA from an AACSB-accredited business school is preferred, but candidates with a degree in engineering, technology, or innovation related disciplines will also be considered. Preferred candidates must have administrative experience in an entrepreneurship center and/or leadership experience in an innovation-oriented firm. Experience and/or background in design thinking is a plus.

About the School: The AACSB-accredited Martha and Spencer Love School of Business has emerged from a time of dramatic growth to become a leader in business education. Our faculty are both dynamic teachers who promote engaged learning and leading scholars who publish their work in top journals. To support our teacher/scholar mission, we provide extensive teaching and research development programs, including pre-tenure sabbatical, summer and academic year research grants, course releases, and teaching workshops. The LSB is housed in the Koury Business Center and Sankey Hall, which feature state-of-the-art classrooms, multiple student engagement areas, the LaRose Digital Theatre, the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, the Reed Finance Center, the Doherty Center for Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Organizational Analytics, the Center for Financial Literacy, and the Porter Family Professional Development Center.  In 2024, Poets and Quants ranked the school’s undergraduate program #40 in the nation and #26 among private colleges and universities and, in 2016, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the part-time MBA program #1 in the state and #17 in the nation.

About the University: Elon University has built a national reputation as the premier student-centered environment for experiential learning, emphasizing strong personal relationships between students and their faculty and staff mentors. Elon’s rigorous curriculum is grounded in the arts and sciences and complemented by nationally accredited professional programs. The 497 full-time faculty members teach in more than 60 undergraduate majors and nine graduate programs. Elon’s four-year graduation rate of 78 percent ranks in the top six percent in the nation. Elon’s 6,402 undergraduate and 805 graduate students come from 48 states and 54 other countries. About 25 percent are from North Carolina, with strong enrollment numbers from the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and across the country.

Elon is ranked among the top universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, with a #1 ranking for excellence in undergraduate teaching and a #13 ranking for most innovative national university. Elon also is the leader in the “Programs to Look For” feature – the only college or university ranked in all eight categories of academic programs linked to student success and positive learning outcomes.

To Apply: Please attach to your application a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and a list of three references. A clear background check is a prerequisite for this position. Review of candidates will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Elon values and celebrates the diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and perspectives of our community members. As an equal opportunity employer, decisions related to hiring, compensating, training, evaluating performance, are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees. We examine our unconscious biases and take responsibility for always striving to create an inclusive environment that makes every candidate feel welcome. At Elon we strive to follow our mission, where our employees are empowered to respect human differences, have a passion for lifelong learning, an emphasis on personal integrity and an ethic of service.

Elon University is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse workforce by fostering an inclusive work environment for students, faculty, and staff and welcomes all applicants. Candidates who have experience working with a diverse range of people, and who can contribute to the climate of inclusivity are encouraged to identify their experiences in their cover letter.  Elon is a dynamic private, co-educational, comprehensive institution that is a national model for actively engaging faculty and students in teaching and learning in a liberal art based residential campus. To learn more about Elon, please visit the University web site at http://www.elon.edu.