Postdoctoral Fellow - Office of Innovation and Strategic Design

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Unit Description:

The Office of Innovation and Strategic Design, formerly the Office of Economic Innovation, supports strategic partnerships and provides front end innovation support to VCU’s academic enterprise through a combination of innovation, design, and business modeling. The office works closely with academic deans and other university leaders and offices to explore partnerships, lead experiments, develop prototypes, and assess and evaluate impact. Outcomes are measured at the unit level through increases in strategic partnerships, revenue generation, and the adoption of new technology and innovations that positively impact the student experience and academic enterprise.

Done well, our work raises the visibility of VCU and its students with potential partners and employers, empowers academic units to accelerate and improve their offerings, and develops award winning leadership and economic development models and programs adopted by other institutions.

Position Primary Purpose:

The Office of Innovation and Strategic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University seeks a postdoctoral fellow to support university-wide front end innovation and design thinking initiatives in the Office of the Provost. The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with faculty, staff, and students as well as senior administrators across the enterprise to advance high impact innovation projects and catalyze institutional knowledge of innovation and design thinking.

This role will utilize design thinking and service design to identify and prioritize opportunities for academic and administrative impact as well as lead projects. Responsibilities may include undergraduate and graduate teaching, development and delivery of workshops, and supervision of cross-disciplinary innovation teams.

There will be considerable opportunities for the postdoctoral fellow to participate in the development and implementation of projects, project management, data collection and analysis, scholarship, and grant writing. The postdoctoral fellowship is for a 12-month period, with the option to renew for additional years, contingent on performance and funding. The fellow will report to Dr. Garret Westlake, Vice Provost for Innovation and Strategic Design and Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship in the VCU School of Business.