UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL AID
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS

Northwestern University (“Northwestern”) seeks a motivated, creative, strategic leader to serve as their next University Director of Financial Aid (“Director”). Reporting directly to the Vice President of Enrollment, Stacey Kostell, the Director is the University’s chief financial aid leader and will oversee the centralized Office of Financial Aid, which sits within Northwestern’s comprehensive Division of University Enrollment. The selected candidate will lead a 35-member team of professionals dedicated to providing exemplary service to both undergraduate and graduate students, stewarding institutional resources, and promoting access and affordability to talented students regardless of their financial circumstances.

Northwestern University ranks among the most innovative, comprehensive, and complex research universities in the world. Enrolling more than 8,000 undergraduates and an additional 14,000 graduate students, the University boasts nationally renowned programs across a variety of schools, departments, and disciplines. Northwestern’s Office of University Enrollment is equally dynamic and innovative, historically serving as financial aid policy pioneers and maintaining a strong commitment to access. The office maintains an annual aid budget of approximately $300 million, and total aid expenditures of over $600 million. Today, over 50 percent of Northwestern’s undergraduate students receive financial aid, and Northwestern is one of the only American universities that does not consider the ability to pay (for domestic first-year students). They are also able to meet 100 percent of students’ demonstrated financial need, and since 2016, the University has been loan-free. Doctoral students are also typically fully funded for four quarters per year for a minimum of five years.

The next Director will lean into this innovative culture and provide creative and forward-looking leadership to continue to shape and evolve financial aid administration at Northwestern. Further, the Director will promote aid opportunities for students of all identities and socioeconomic backgrounds, emphasize a customer service approach, deeply understand national trends and challenges in financial aid, and forge strong relationships with leaders across campus. The ideal candidate will possess demonstrated success in financial aid management at a college or university with a substantial need-based financial aid program. They will have a proven track record of setting and achieving strategic objectives, experience managing large and high-performing teams, an unwavering moral and ethical compass, and outstanding interpersonal and communication skills. They must be results-driven and should possess deep experience in data management and institutional methodology.

Northwestern University has engaged Isaacson, Miller to assist in the search. The target salary range for this role is $200,000 to $220,000 and will be commensurate with experience. Confidential inquiries, nominations, and applications (including resume and cover letter) should be sent electronically in confidence to:

Carrie Alexander, Alycia Johnson, Kristen Andersen, and Marlyn Desire
Isaacson, Miller
Click here to access the application and apply online

Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply.

The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa, as well as the Menominee, Miami, and Ho-Chunk nations. The greater Chicago area was also a site of trade, travel, gathering, and healing for more than a dozen other Native tribes, linking the Great Lakes to some 100,000 tribal members in the state of Illinois.

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Northwestern University

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University Director of Financial Aid