Executive Director, Animal Care and Use Program

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), in partnership with Vanderbilt University (VU), seeks an accomplished senior leader to serve as Executive Director of the Animal Care & Use Program (ACUP). Reporting to executive research leadership at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the Executive Director holds institution-wide responsibility for the strategy, performance, and integrity of Vanderbilt’s animal research enterprise.

Animal research is foundational to Vanderbilt’s discovery and translational research mission and operates at a significant scale across VUMC, Vanderbilt University, and affiliated research environments. The ACUP is administered centrally by VUMC and encompasses animal care operations, veterinary clinical services, regulatory compliance and IACUC support, and comparative and translational pathology services. As a result, the Executive Director functions not as a narrow compliance or committee-support leader, but as the senior enterprise steward of a complex, highly regulated, and mission-critical program.

The Executive Director serves as the single point of ownership for the ACUP’s operational stability, regulatory posture, veterinary leadership, and long-term readiness. This leader is expected to engage regularly with senior institutional officials, advising on animal research capacity, infrastructure needs, institutional risk, and strategic tradeoffs. The role also includes serving as, or overseeing, the Attending Veterinarian function, elevating veterinary authority and animal welfare decision-making into Vanderbilt’s executive leadership framework.

This search reflects Vanderbilt’s recognition that leadership of animal research sits at the core of the institution’s research enterprise and reputational responsibility. The successful candidate will bring the judgment, credibility, and executive presence to steward a large, visible program—earning the confidence of faculty, researchers, staff, regulators, and senior leadership, while enabling ethical, high-quality research at scale.

VUMC has partnered with Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to help with this recruitment. Confidential inquiries, nominations, and applications may be submitted to Isaacson, Miller below.