Position Summary - Spelman Johnson

Position Summary

Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, RI
Human Resources Partner, Academic Affairs

Institutional Background

                                                  Founded in 1877, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
                                                  is one of the oldest and best-known colleges of art and
                                                  design. RISD is recognized for its accomplished faculty of
                                                  artists, designers, and scholars, the breadth of its
                                                  specialized facilities, and its immersive approach to
                                                  studio-based learning. Each year approximately 2,500
                                                  students from around the world pursue a creative,
                                                  studio-based education at RISD, which offers
                                                  rigorous bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in 19
                                                  architecture, design, fine arts, and art education majors
                                                  complemented and animated by essential study in the
liberal arts. The RISD Museum, with the third largest university museum collection in the country (over
100,000 works of fine and decorative art), is an integral part of the institution and a resource for the
larger community. The RISD Library was founded in 1878; its collections include more than 155,000
volumes and 320 print periodical subscriptions and offers unusual depth and richness in the areas of
architecture, art, design, and photography. The library is noted for its artist’s book collection, its rare
books, and outstanding visual and material resource collections.

RISD is located at the base of College Hill in downtown Providence, and the campus is contiguous with
the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and
offer cross-registration and a dual degree program. RISD, considered to be one of the top art and design
schools in the nation, is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD),
a consortium of 42 leading art schools in the United States.

RISD has played a vital role in preparing students for leadership roles in all sectors, as demonstrated
through the outstanding and varied accomplishments of its 27,000 alumni.

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Institutional Leadership

Rosanne Somerson, President

                                               When she first arrived at RISD as a first year student in
                                               1972, Rosanne Somerson ‘76 didn’t anticipate that it was
                                               the beginning of a lifelong connection to the C0llege and
                                               its community. She had originally planned to study
                                               photography, but once she took an elective woodworking
                                               course her focus changed. “I found it to be incredibly
                                               exciting—and the hardest thing I had ever done,” she
                                               remembers. “I was challenged as I never had been before,
                                               but working in three dimensions was simpatico with my
                                               needs as an artist.”

                                                 Working closely with renowned woodworker, teacher and
                                                 mentor Tage Frid and other faculty luminaries, Somerson
soaked in everything she could about process, design, technique, and aesthetics. She earned her BFA in
Industrial Design (ID), focusing on furniture within the ID department two decades before RISD had a
freestanding Furniture Design department.

In 1978 Somerson established her own studio to focus on designing and making furniture full time. But
when Frid invited her to take over for him in 1985, she readily accepted and went on to run the graduate
furniture program in ID for ten years before helping to conceive of and found the Furniture Design
department. In 1995 she assumed the top leadership role in the new department, overseeing both the BFA
and MFA programs and helping to establish its solid reputation for educating exciting new innovators in
the field.

Somerson served as Furniture Design department head from 1995–2011, with a brief hiatus to step in as
interim associate provost from 2005–07. In 2011 she was invited to become interim provost and the
following year earned the provost’s position after emerging as the top candidate in an international
search. RISD’s Board of Trustees appointed Somerson RISD’s 17th president on February 18, 2015 after
she served as interim president from January 1, 2014 until her permanent appointment.

https://www.risd.edu/about/leadership/

Academic Affairs

Academic Affairs is overseen by the Provost and includes all academic and student affairs units
throughout the College. Reporting to the Provost are the Associate Provost & Dean of Faculty; the
Associate Provost, Research/Global/Practice; the Deans of Architecture & Design, Fine Arts,
Experimental and Foundation Studies, Liberal Arts, Libraries, and Student Affairs; the Director of
Academic Budgets & Resources; the Registrar; and the Executive Assistant & Academic Communications
Manager. Academic Affairs encompasses 160 full-time faculty and approximately 425 part-time faculty
members as well as more than 200 staff.

RISD Human Resources

The Office of Human Resources supports RISD's vibrant community by offering a variety of programs and
services that are designed to meet the personal and professional needs of its employees. The Human
Resources team is committed to furthering RISD’s vision of creating and sustaining a diverse, equitable
and inclusive community.

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Position Description

The Human Resources Partner (HRP) is a strategic
and trusted liaison who supports diversity, inclusion,
and equity initiatives, and the development and
delivery of human resources policy, programs, and
services for employees and departments that make up
Academic Affairs. The HRP will join RISD at an
exciting time as the inaugural Vice President, Social,
Equity and Inclusion will lead the implementation of
the Social Equity Inclusion Action Plan to make the
vision real through formulating policy, evaluating
progress, identifying opportunities, and locating areas
of concern across the campus.

The successful HRP will demonstrate the knowledge and skill to engage across a wide variety of
individuals and identities through meaningful interactions characterized by respect, mutual
understanding, and reciprocity. The HRP will provide advice and recruiting expertise to search
committees and individual hiring areas to creatively source, relocate, and retain talented and diverse
faculty and staff.

The successful candidate will provide accurate and robust advice, interpretation, and guidance to
employees and managers regarding the full range of the College’s human resources policies and processes;
will also use knowledge of federal and state laws to minimize risk for the College and to support the day to
day needs of the leaders, managers, and employees in resolving complex problems. The selected candidate
will promote a culture of inclusion, providing advice and counsel aimed at enhancing performance
through coaching, counseling, training, and career development.

The HRP will be a capable investigator who is able to conduct fact finding and/or investigations in
response to Title VII and Title IX allegations. The selected individual will partner with internal or external
subject matter experts in delivering a full range of integrated HR solutions to the division of academic
affairs.

General Responsibilities

       Proactively engage with assigned academic affairs divisional partners to understand divisional
        objectives and needs. As an integrated partner, this individual will identify, recommend, and
        implement solutions that achieve desired results, assist in developing a culture of inclusivity and
        awareness, and align operational and human resources strategies.

       Serve as a proactive and trusted partner providing timely, accurate, and robust advice,
        interpretation, and guidance to the academic affairs employees and managers regarding a full
        range of human resources policies, processes, practices, agreements, and issues. Partner with
        divisional leaders to successfully roll out institution-wide initiatives for academic affairs.

       Stay abreast of both state and federal laws in order to mitigate risk and support the day-to-day
        management of employees including surfacing and identifying practice and policy issues and
        opportunities and working with internal and external legal counsel.

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   Act as a point of contact for employee and labor relations issues; recommend courses of action,
        ensuring appropriate documentation of events and consistency and fairness in all resolutions.
        Interpret and administer collective bargaining agreements; and provide advice, coaching,
        corrective action, or investigation as needed.

       Request and interpret a wide variety of human resources management data for academic affairs
        leaders and from across the division. Analyze and share results, highlighting trends, progress and
        opportunities, and help develop and implement required actions and solutions based on data
        analysis.

       With an understanding of the academic affairs division operations, trends and needs, provide on-
        going advice and performance management guidance (e.g., coaching, counseling, career
        development, and improvement plans). With a continuous improvement approach, act as a
        conduit and advocate for performance management tools, techniques, and processes in order to
        optimize performance across the division.

       Identify divisional and individual training and
        coaching needs and skill gaps. Either directly or
        through other staff/consultants, create and
        deliver targeted training sessions to address
        opportunities with staff and faculty in the
        division. Work with managers to ensure regular
        performance development occurs with
        employees.

       With an understanding of institutional processes
        and academic affairs talent needs, provide sourcing creativity and expertise to allow the assigned
        division to recruit, relocate, and retain a high performing, culturally competent and diverse
        workforce who will position RISD to meet its goals and objectives.

       Engage and leverage the appropriate subject matter experts in the delivery of services, including
        but not limited to compensation, benefits, legal, risk, labor, and a range of other internal or
        external resources.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will possess a bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent combination of
education and experience with significant experience advising directly on a range of human resources,
management and employee related issues within a complex environment. RISD is seeking a human
resources generalist with a knowledge of multiple human resources disciplines, strong knowledge of
federal and state laws and regulations including Title VII and Title IX, and a demonstrated understanding
of inclusion and diversity issues in the workplace.

 The ideal candidate will champion and promote a workplace that is supportive of its members regardless
of their identities and beliefs, and is genuinely open to multiple perspectives. The successful candidate
will exhibit experience partnering with divisional leaders, managers, and employees on a wide variety of
human resources issues, and will demonstrate strong interpersonal, communication, presentation, and
listening skills. The ability to build trust and work collaboratively with all members of the community is
integral to this role. The successful candidate will have the capacity to deal with ambiguity and the ability

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to navigate paradox in recommending solutions. A candidate who is bi-or multilingual and has prior
union experience is desirable.

                                                               Benefits Overview

                                                               For information about RISD’s competitive benefits, go
                                                               to: http://hrrisd.wordpress.com/benefits/staff-
                                                               benefits/

                                                               Application and Nomination

                                                   Applications, including a position-specific cover letter
and resume, may be submitted online at www.spelmanjohnson.com/open-positions. Nominations
for this position may be emailed to Ellen Heffernan at eth@spelmanjohnson.com. Applicants needing
reasonable accommodation to participate in the application process should contact Spelman Johnson at
413-529-2895.

Visit the RISD website at www.risd.edu

Rhode Island School of Design recognizes diversity and inclusivity as fundamental to its learning community and
integral to and art and design education. We welcome candidates whose experience in leadership and higher
education has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence. RISD is an Equal
Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national
origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, or any other protected
characteristic as established by law.

Spelman Johnson has prepared this document based on personal interviews and information copied, compiled, or quoted in part
from source documents obtained from our client institution, and as such, the contents of this document are believed to be reliable.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this information, the original source documents and factual situations
govern, and the material presented here should be relied upon for informational purposes only.

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