We acknowledge that UBC’s two main campuses are situated within the ancestral and unceded territory of the Musqueam people, and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a global centre for excellence in teaching, learning and research, consistently ranked among the top 10 public universities in North America. UBC’s vision is to inspire people, ideas and actions for a better world, fostering global citizenship and advancing a sustainable and just society. Since 1915, UBC has been opening doors of opportunity for people with curiosity and drive to make a difference. UBC is home to over 70,000 students, supported by a $3.8-billion annual budget and 19,000 faculty and staff across its campuses in Vancouver and the Okanagan. For more information about UBC, visit www.ubc.ca.
The Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) is a pioneering research, educational and knowledge translation leader in sustainable agriculture, food science, food and resource economics, animal welfare and health and nutrition. LFS celebrated its centennial year in 2015 and has the distinction of being one of UBC’s three founding Faculties, when it was originally known as the Faculty of Agriculture. Its core research facilities (the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, Dairy Education and Research Centre, and the Food and Beverage Innovation Centre) enable LFS researchers and collaborators to innovate across disciplines to create real-world solutions to local and global food system challenges. LFS offers four undergraduate programs, six research-based programs for graduate students, four course-based master’s programs, as well as a series of certificate and training programs.
It is within this context that The University of British Columbia welcomes applications and nominations for the appointment of Dean, Faculty of Land and Food Systems, commencing July 1, 2026, or soon thereafter. Upon recommendation from the President’s Advisory Committee, chaired by the Provost and Vice-President, Academic, the Dean is appointed for a five-year renewable term in accordance with the Deans Appointment Policy (Policy AP5).
Reporting to Dr Gage Averill, Provost and Vice-President, Academic UBC Vancouver, the Dean, Faculty of Land and Food Systems will provide strategic and academic leadership across the Faculty and the University. Guided by the Faculty’s Action Plan (2021-2026), the Dean will be asked to envision and articulate LFS’ future and the collective impact of its 63 faculty members, and its approximate 1,800 undergraduate and 265 graduate students. The Dean will work to advance the Faculty’s research activities, teaching and learning pedagogies, partnerships, and student experience, while honouring and deepening relationships with Indigenous communities, farmers and other food systems networks, donors and alumni. As such, the Dean must be an exceptional leader, communicator, relationship builder, and facilitator of collaborations both within the Faculty and across campus as an integral member of the Provost’s leadership team, and externally at the local, provincial, national, and global levels. As the senior officer of the Faculty, the Dean also leads the development, allocation and oversight of the Faculty’s budget, aligning resources with its strategic priorities, ensuring the fair, sustainable and transparent management of its resources and actualizing critical investments in its programs, priorities and people.
Ideal candidates hold a record of serving as a strategic academic administrator within a similarly complex research-intensive university as UBC. Candidates must hold an earned PhD, exhibit robust research outputs and activities, a strong publications dossier, a commitment to excellence in teaching and pedagogy, a focus on the student experience, and be appointable as a Full Professor at UBC in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. As a Faculty with multiple disciplinary areas, candidates must have demonstrated success advocating and promoting a wide variety of programs, fostering and rewarding interdisciplinarity, and with creating an inclusive culture that encourages and welcomes diverse perspectives and opinions. A demonstratable understanding of, and commitment to, diversity, equity and inclusion is required, as is lived experience supporting Indigenization; experience working in partnership with local Indigenous communities. Familiarity and experience with fundraising, alumni engagement, donor relations, and development activities are required, as is the ease and ability to act in an advocacy capacity on behalf of the Faculty and University.
To learn more about this significant academic leadership position at the University of British Columbia, please submit a comprehensive C.V. along with a cover letter in confidence to Jane Griffith (jane@griffithgroup.ca) and/or Caroline McLean (caroline@griffithgroup.ca) or visit: https://griffithgroup.ca/ubc-dean-land-and-food-systems/.
All applicants will be asked to complete a confidential diversity survey.
Salary Range and Compensation Package: In accordance with BC’s Pay Transparency Act, the position has an expected base salary range of $290,000 - $340,000. To read about UBC’s faculty members appointments, tenure, benefits and more, please visit: https://hr.ubc.ca/working-ubc/faculty-resources
Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
UBC and Griffith Group are committed to an inclusive, accessible and welcoming hiring process that provides reasonable accommodation to all applicants. Please advise Centre for Workplace Accessibility (workplace.accessibility@ubc.ca) and Jane Griffith (jane@griffithgroup.ca) should you require any accommodation to participate in the recruitment and/or assessment processes.
We thank all applicants for their interest in this position.
