Scott Burrus

Provide overall strategic direction to the university staff and faculty to achieve forecasted results while maintaining the highest level of compliance with the standards of the Department of Education and adherence with expectations of a regionally accredited institution of higher education. Work within the guidelines established by the Board of Trustees. Guide academic development and maintenance of competitive programs. Oversee the day-to-day operations of the University. In the first year as President, outperformed the FY 25 budget exceeding revenue by 18% largely due to organizational efficiency, exceeding enrollment projections, achieving over a 30% conversion rate, and implementing innovations relative to reducing the inactive student population along with improved retention. This resulted in delivering $28.6 million in revenue, $8.6 million in net income on a budget of 4.1 million, and approximately a 30% margin.

Oversees academic programs, faculty affairs and academic support functions at United States University (“USU”). Develops and supports academic policies and programs for student success and meeting student educational goals. Responsible for the allocation of resources supporting all educational goals. Directs and coordinates activities of academic leaders and collaborates with cross-functional departments/teams. Represents and acts on behalf of the University President.

Serve as a resource and guide for faculty and students in preparing and conducting quality research. Work primarily with dissertation students and dissertation faculty in developing and conducting qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method dissertation research. Supervise part-time research methodologists in assisting dissertation students and faculty and in reviewing dissertation proposals and completed dissertation manuscripts. Teach research and dissertation-prep courses and supervise other instructors.

Adjunct faculty for research methods and statistics; Methodologist consulting on dissertation projects; Committee member and Dissertation Chair.

Served as the University Research Chairs for Learning Analytics. Key contributor and a leader in the area of scholarship surrounding data on teaching and learning. Built a research center focused on learning analytics research and implementing a research agenda dedicated to a key emerging area that informs higher education outcomes. Served as dissertation chair, methodological committee members and trains dissertation faculty on increasing engagement in scholarship. Member of Committee on Research reviewing proposals for institutional research and executes institution-wide initiatives on student and faculty research training.

Served the university at the pleasure of the interim provost as part of a planned academic leadership transition. Served as Adjunct Faculty and Methodological Committee Member serving on over 200 dissertation committees.

Served as the University’s Chief Academic Officer reporting to the CEO\President. Responsible for overseeing the academic integrity of the institution. Collaborated with the Executive and Senior Leadership Teams, academic deans and faculty, to execute academically related strategic plan action items and initiatives. Effectively worked with academic leadership to facilitate academic budget development and management. Supervised academic deans and support staff. Implemented initiatives that improved student retention by more than 5% year over year, and reduced attrition to 3%. Responsible for the development and execution of the University short and long-term strategic plan as related to academic initiatives focused on continuous improvement resulting in 19% growth over two years. Skilled in the accreditation process I served as primary liaison to regional accreditors. Oversaw three regional accreditation visits, including two simultaneous regional accreditation visits, one with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and one with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WASC/WSCUC). Achieved a 10-year reaffirmation of accreditation without monitoring from the HLC, and initial accreditation for 5 years with WSCUC. NCU was also granted by WSCUC the broadest new program authority at the Doctoral and Master’s degree level available. Served as primary academic liaison with the University Board of Trustees. Oversaw a budget of over 17 million dollars in instructional and academic administrative expenses. Led the transition to an all doctoral, all employee faculty model growing full-time faculty from 9 in 2009 to approximately 130. Focused full-time faculty on foundations courses and the dissertation sequence. Championed the investment of millions of dollars for curricular improvements.

Established the Office of Assessment, Faculty Resource Center (formerly CFE), and the Academic Success Center. Hired and trained Director of Assessment and established agenda for an institutional culture of assessment. Started institution-wide academic program review process designed to facilitate continuous improvement and inform budgeting. Developed new Office of Assessment and Institutional Research. Collaborated with the Dean of the School of Marriage and Family Sciences to obtain the accreditation from the Commission on the Accreditation of Marriage and Family Education (COAMFTE). NCU was the first distance education institution to receive MFT licensure accreditation and PhD accreditation from COAMFTE.

Served as interim Dean for the School of Education while also holding Vice Provost position. Responsible for executing curricular improvement and oversaw faculty accountability. Successfully achieved the first 100% online teaching licensure by the Arizona Department of Education. Supervised the TEAC accreditation application.

Supported university-wide academic quality of the dissertation programs and implementation of university-wide research policies by providing research assistance, guidance, training and support to staff, dissertation committee chairs, members, and learners. Consulted with deans, faculty and students on student project research methods and ways to increase doctoral-level research curriculum quality and the doctoral dissertation research process.

Mentored learners engaged in PhD doctoral studies. Supervised faculty.

Responsible for reviewing and updating course syllabi to achieve course outcomes and measurements. Served on dissertation committee, chair dissertations, research methodologist, and mentor students through the dissertation process. Act as University dissertation milestone document reviewer. Trained faculty and students on the dissertation process. Consulted on student project research methods, develop and manage research methods. Maintained dissertation resource center website for accuracy and relevancy. Served as subject matter expert and methodological committee member. Implemented strategies for students struggling to complete their dissertation, resulting in 80% completion rates at the doctoral level.

Specialist in cost study methods in applied research that demonstrated how programs, services or organizations save taxpayers and governmental entities millions of dollars per annum. These studies resulted in policy-informed sustainability and continuity. For over 20 years, served as part of multi-disciplinary organizations designed to provide quality evaluative, policy analysis, cost-benefit and program development services to a wide range of schools, school districts, colleges, governmental and non-profit and for profit sectors. Worked closely with community leaders, business partners, schools, principals, teachers, and policymakers to implement research strategies that provided timely answers to policy-relevant questions and fostered productivity, cultural responsiveness, and creativity. Experience working with educators at all levels on how to implement applied research methods to their specialized content. Managed 25+ applied business and education-related research projects, including several multi-site projects across the country involving thousands of participants. Managed $10M in budgets of research business and education-related grants. Additionally, as part of grant writing teams, or as a primary grant writer, secured over $4.5 million dollars in research grants. Managed project budgets. Each project was completed within or under budget.

Served as research assistant for several federally funded research projects that focused on homeless, domestic violence, and juvenile and adult substance use prevention and adult substance use treatment. Conducted research studies involving data collection and data analysis. Compiled necessary reports to illustrate research results and outcomes.

Responsible for continued program viability by meeting enrollment goals through the admissions process. Managed a caseload of over 100 Bachelor of Fine Art students for one of the nation’s largest private art colleges. Responsibilities included meeting with students individually to schedule course load and progression toward graduation. Resolve conflicts between students and instructors, and address and resolve lack of academic progress as needed.

Created new university-based counseling center for undergraduates. Provided counseling to individuals and groups. Conducted initial interviews and assessments. Dealt with individual crisis and conflict resolution issues between students and instructors. Taught seminars for students on drug and alcohol abuse. Created new systems for training incoming interns and program operations.

Served on the Santa Barbara Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse. Assessed for need of substance abuse services. Provided referral to county-funded services as need for client care.