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Lees-McRae College

Academic Advisor

🇺🇸 Banner Elk, North Carolina 🕑 Full-Time 💰 TBD 💻 Academic Advising 🗓️ October 5th, 2026
NACADA

Edtech.com's Summary

Lees-McRae College is hiring an Academic Advisor. The Academic Advisor provides holistic, student-centered advising to support academic success, persistence, and degree completion, while collaborating with campus departments to offer coordinated student support. The role also includes teaching responsibilities, coordinating tutoring services, and implementing advising strategies aligned with best practices.

Highlights
  • Maintain an advising caseload of 100-150 undergraduate students including first-year, transfer, and at-risk students.
  • Develop and implement academic advising programs aligned with student success models and NACADA best practices.
  • Provide holistic advising for academic planning, goal setting, and academic progress monitoring.
  • Coordinate tutoring services and supervise the peer tutoring program.
  • Collaborate with Burton Center for Student Success, faculty advisors, and campus offices such as Financial Aid and Student Affairs.
  • Participate in retention initiatives including early alert and academic intervention.
  • Teach up to 9 credit hours annually, typically in First Year Seminar or courses for new/transfer students.
  • Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred in Higher Education, Counseling, Student Affairs, Education, or related field.
  • Experience with developmental advising and NACADA core competencies preferred.
  • Strong interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills necessary.

Academic Advisor Full Description

Academic Advisor

Position Details
Position Information
Position Title | Academic Advisor
Department | MNC
Job Description | About Lees-McRae College

Lees-McRae College is a private, four-year college located in the mountains of Banner Elk, North Carolina. The college is known for its strong commitment to student success, experiential learning, and a close-knit academic community. With small class sizes and a collaborative campus culture, Lees-McRae provides students with personalized support and meaningful opportunities for academic and personal growth.

Summary/Objective

Lees-McRae College invites applications for the staff position of Academic Advisor. The Academic Advisor provides holistic, student-centered advising that supports academic student success, persistence, and timely degree completion. This position comes with teaching responsibilities consistent with the NACADA Academic Advising Core Competencies Model, the Advisor integrates conceptual knowledge of student development, informational expertise in institutional policies and degree requirements, and relational skills to build meaningful advising relationships.The Academic Advisor serves as a key partner within Lees-McRae’s student success ecosystem, collaborating with the Burton Center for Student Success (BCSS), faculty advisors, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Business Affairs, and Financial Aid to ensure coordinated, proactive support for students. The Advisor helps students navigate academic requirements, develop educational plans, and connect with campus and community resources.This role supports a coordinated student success model and emphasizes proactive outreach, developmental advising, participate in early alert and intervention systems, promote student engagement, and collaborative student support. This position also coordinates tutoring services within the Student Success Center.

Key Responsibilities

Advising Program Leadership and Strategy

Contribute to the development and implementation of a comprehensive academic advising program aligned with Lees-McRae’s student success model and NACADA best practices.Contribute to advising policies, procedures, and initiatives that improve student retention, progression, and degree completion.Help ensure consistent, high-quality advising experiences across undergraduate programs.

Student Advising and Academic Planning

Maintain an advising caseload of approximately 100–150 undergraduate students, including first-year, transfer, exploratory, and at-risk students.Provide holistic, developmental advising that supports academic planning, goal setting, degree completion, and awareness of financial and academic policies.Assist students in developing and maintaining four-year academic plans aligned with academic, career and graduate education goals.Coordinate initial course scheduling for incoming students and support registration processes in collaboration with faculty.Help students understand general education, major requirements, and graduation criteria.Monitor academic progress and engagement, conduct proactive outreach to students experiencing difficulty, and maintain accurate advising documentation in institutional systems.Interpret and communicate institutional policies, degree requirements, and academic procedures.Coordinate with appropriate campus offices to ensure transfer credits are evaluated and recorded accurately to support effective advising.

Student Success Support and Retention

Participate in institutional retention initiatives, including early alert and academic intervention processes.Provide outreach and advising support to students on academic warning, probation, or identified as at-risk.Connect students with appropriate campus resources such as tutoring, accessibility services, counseling, financial aid, payment planning, and career services.Coordinates tutoring services, including assisting in training peer tutors, for student success.

Collaboration and Campus Partnerships

Work closely with BCSS staff and faculty advisors to coordinate student support services and ensure continuity of advising as students transition into academic majors.Serve as a liaison between students and key campus offices including Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Financial Aid, and Business Affairs.Assist with advising support during key academic milestones such as orientation, course registration, and major declaration.

Student Development and Teaching

Teach up to 9 credit hours annually, typically in First Year Seminar and/ or courses supporting new or transfer students.Apply student development theory and NACADA advising principles to foster student responsibility, decision-making, and academic ownership.Support diverse student populations through inclusive advising practices and contribute to advising assessment and continuous improvement.

Supervisory Responsibility

This position has supervisory responsibility for peer tutoring program.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m.-5:00 pm on site. This is not a remote position. Some evenings, holidays, and/or weekends might be needed.

Travel

No travel is expected for this position.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

At-Will Employment Disclaimer

This job description is not intended to be a contract of employment. Employment with the Company is at-will, which means that either the employee or the Company may terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause or notice, subject to applicable law. The Company reserves the right to revise, modify, or change job duties and responsibilities as business needs dictate.
Required Qualifications | Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred (Higher Education, Counseling, Student Affairs, Education, or related field).Experience working with college students in advising, student services, or a related role.Strong interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications | 1-3 years experience with developmental advising and NACADA competencies or experience working with students to promote student success initiatives.1-3 years experience in a small college or student-centered environment.1-3 years experience using student information systems and advising technologies.
Physical Demands | 
Posting Detail Information
Posting Number | S131P
Number of Vacancies | 1
Job Open Date |
Special Instructions to Applicants |
Quick Link for Internal Postings | https://leesmcrae.peopleadmin.com/postings/552

Supplemental Questions
Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).

Documents Needed to Apply
Required Documents
  1. Resume
  2. Cover Letter
Optional Documents
  1. Transcripts
  2. Letter of Recommendation
  3. Curriculum Vitae
  4. Media File
  5. Portfolio
  6. Teaching Philosophy