Department:
Office of Research & Innovation Location:
Health Sciences Center Time Type:
Full time Worker Type:
Regular Job Req ID:
R109586 Minimum Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in a related field and ten (10) years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Grade 13 (Salaried) Position Description:
The Office of Research and Innovation is searching for an Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety. This position provides enterprise-wide leadership, institutional accountability, and strategic direction for the University of Louisville's comprehensive environmental health and safety portfolio. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation, the Executive Director serves as the University's institutional authority and principal advisor on environmental health and safety governance, regulatory compliance, risk management, operational readiness, and continuity of critical safety functions across research, teaching, clinical, and administrative environments. The Executive Director establishes institutional strategy, governance frameworks, internal controls, performance expectations, and resource priorities; exercises judgment regarding risk acceptance and mitigation; and leads partnerships with University administration, deans, faculty, staff, oversight committees, and external agencies to protect people, the environment, institutional assets, and the responsible growth of the University's research and academic missions.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Provide enterprise-wide leadership and strategic direction for DEHS, integrating environmental health and safety governance with the University's research, academic, clinical, operational, and institutional priorities.
Serve as the institutional authority and principal advisor to the AVP and EVPRI and other executive leaders on significant EHS risks, regulatory developments, high-consequence events, institutional vulnerabilities, resource requirements, and matters requiring leadership-level action or risk acceptance.
Establish and maintain an enterprise EHS governance framework, including policies, management systems, internal controls, standards, decision rights, and accountability mechanisms designed to ensure effective risk management and compliance assurance.
Exercise oversight and institutional accountability for research and teaching laboratory safety, biosafety and high-containment research support, radiation safety, chemical safety, occupational safety and health, industrial hygiene, environmental compliance, hazardous materials and waste management, and occupational health coordination.
Ensure strategic integration of EHS programs with research administration and institutional priorities, enabling responsible teaching, research, clinical activity, innovation, and service while maintaining proportionate and defensible risk controls.
Provide oversight for and administration of institutional committees and regulated research-safety processes, including the Institutional Biosafety Committee, Radiation Safety Committee, and other governance bodies or programs within the position's assigned scope.
Act as the University's authorized institutional representative for EHS-related regulatory matters; direct inspections, inquiries, permits, reporting obligations, investigations, formal responses, corrective and preventive actions, and verification of sustained compliance.
Maintain effective communication pathways across University operating units and cultivate working relationships with deans, principal investigators, research administration, legal counsel, risk management, emergency management, public safety, facilities, occupational health, and other institutional partners.
Provide organizational leadership and direct supervision for DEHS personnel, including responsibility for workforce planning, recruitment and selection, assignment of work, performance management, staff development, succession planning,…