Director, Center for Emerging Technologies

Director, Center for Emerging Technologies

The Director of the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) provides University-wide coordination and expertise for University of New England’s (UNE) work with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), that are changing education, professional practice, research, and the workplace.

The Director’s primary responsibility is to ensure that UNE students, regardless of degree program or field of study, develop the knowledge, judgment, and practical fluency needed to use these technologies, including AI, ethically and effectively. The Director works closely with faculty, professional staff, and academic leaders to understand how technological change is affecting individual disciplines and professions, and to help translate those changes into relevant student competencies and learning opportunities. The Director leads the Center’s programs and resources in support of this work.

The Director supports student and faculty research and scholarship involving emerging technologies and helps the University identify promising areas for exploration, experimentation, and external partnership. As CET develops over time, this work may lead to deeper areas of research and innovation. These activities should grow from the Center’s primary focus on students, faculty, and academic programs.

The CET serves as UNE’s University-wide hub for this work. Through the Center and the leadership of the AI Governance Committee, the Director coordinates activity across the University and partners closely with academic programs and units, including the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), Information Technology Services (ITS), the Office of Career Readiness and Workforce Development (OCR), and the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI), among others. The Center’s work is primarily academic in focus, with the Director working closely with ITS where the academic use of emerging technologies intersects with University systems, processes, data, security, and infrastructure.

Director, Center for Emerging Technologies Search Profile

About the University of New England UNE is Maine’s largest private university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study-abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible online offerings. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to positively impact a world full of challenges. We are the state’s top provider of health professionals and home to Maine’s only medical and dental colleges, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care programs, and nationally recognized programs in the marine sciences, the natural and social sciences, business, the humanities, and the arts.

About the Center for Emerging Technologies The Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) prepares UNE students to thrive in professions and workplaces being transformed by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. As a University-wide hub, the CET helps students, faculty, and professional staff understand, evaluate, and use emerging technologies ethically and effectively, while supporting academic programs in responding to technological change and creating opportunities for interdisciplinary exploration, research, and innovation. As UNE’s central point of coordination, the CET maintains policies, guidelines and best practices for the use of AI and emerging technologies, contributes to related University policies in partnership with other governance bodies, and provides shared resources that support responsible use of these technologies across teaching, learning, research, and University operations.

Benefits Overview

• Multiple health and dental plan options, plus vision coverage.
• Up to 8% retirement plan match.
• Generous leave time, including vacation, sick, and personal time, and 12+ holidays per year.
• Educational benefits:
• UNE tuition waiver for employees, spouses, and domestic partners.
• UNE tuition waiver for dependents of employees with 1 year of full-time service.
• 50% tuition reduction if less than 1 year of full-time service.

For more information about our outstanding benefits, please visit: UNE Benefits Overview

Responsibilities

Technological Fluency and Career Readiness Among Students – Coordinate and guide UNE’s University-wide efforts to prepare students for professions and workplaces increasingly shaped by emerging technologies, including AI. Responsibilities include:

• Develop and maintain a common framework for student fluency in emerging technologies, including AI.
• Work with academic programs to identify how technological change is affecting their disciplines and the capabilities their graduates will need.
• Support curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate these competencies.
• Partner with the Office of Career Readiness and Workforce Development, employers, alumni, and professional organizations to ensure that student preparation remains relevant to changing workforce expectations.
• Support advanced opportunities for students through employer projects, fellowships, research, interdisciplinary work, and other applied experiences.

Support for Faculty, Professional Staff, and Academic Leaders – Help faculty, professional staff, and academic leaders understand and respond to emerging technologies that affect teaching, disciplinary practice, professional expectations, research, and scholarship, among other things. Responsibilities include:

• Monitor emerging technologies and communicate developments relevant to UNE programs and professions.
• Provide consultation and expertise to faculty, professional staff, and academic programs considering the implications of technological change.
• Create opportunities for faculty and professional staff to explore and test relevant technologies.
• As the Center matures, support research and scholarship involving emerging technologies.
• Build connections among faculty, professional staff, external experts, employers, professional organizations, and other institutions.
• Partner with CETL when emerging technology raises questions related to pedagogy, course design, assessment, or faculty development.

Emerging Technology Exploration and Innovation – Maintain awareness of technologies that may warrant further attention from UNE and help the University make informed decisions about where to invest its time and resources. Responsibilities include:

• Establish a regular process for identifying and evaluating emerging technologies.

• Lead or coordinate appropriate exploratory projects and pilots in teaching, learning, and academic practice, in coordination with ITS when pilots involve new tools, University systems, or institutional data.

• Over time, help identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, external partnerships, research, and funded initiatives.

• Partner with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) when projects move toward sustained prototyping, product development, entrepreneurship, or commercialization.

• Partner with Information Technology Services on the evaluation and testing of emerging technologies for academic use, with ITS leading on security, infrastructure, procurement and licensing, data, integration, and institutional implementation.

• Artificial intelligence is the initial area of emphasis, due to its immediate effect on academic practice and professional expectations. The Center’s scope is deliberately broader. The specific technologies that reshape professions will change repeatedly and evolve over the course of a student’s career, and the CET’s work is expected to evolve accordingly.

Center Direction and Internal/External Engagement – Provide strategic and operational direction for CET and represent UNE in both internal and external conversations and collaborations related to emerging technology. Responsibilities include:

• Establish annual priorities and maintain a focused portfolio of CET initiatives, including representative use cases across the University.
• Maintain and regularly update the CET website.
• In partnership with ITS, maintain and publish the University’s list of approved emerging technology tools, including AI tools. The list is developed and kept current jointly with ITS, which reviews for security and data protection, procures, licenses, secures, and administers the tools.
• Lead and coordinate the work of the AI Governance Committee.