ABOUT WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY:

Willamette University, founded in 1842, is a nationally-renowned private university enrolling 2800 students across five colleges. Our historic campus, adjacent to the Oregon State Capitol, hosts a distinguished undergraduate liberal arts college in Salem, Oregon. Our downtown Portland campus is home to the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). We offer a wide range of professional graduate programs, including Oregon’s top-ranked MBA program, the Northwest’s oldest law school, as well as MA/MFA programs at PNCA and master’s degrees in data science and computer science.

Willamette University provides a high-value and comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. Our Benefits Summary includes options for health, dental, life insurance, retirement, substantial paid time off, tuition and more. If you need assistance applying for a job or have any questions on recruitment at Willamette, please contact our HR Department, hr@willamette.edu or call us at 503-370-6210.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY invites applications for a tenure-track, assistant professor position in Clinical Psychology OR Social Psychology. We are open to candidates with expertise in a range of areas within either of these fields. We seek candidates with deep enthusiasm for undergraduate teaching and an active program of publication-oriented research that can involve undergraduate majors within the context of a small, private, liberal arts college. Over a two-year rotation (5-6 courses per year), teaching responsibilities will include a mixture of upper and lower level courses serving both the Psychology major and minor, as well as the general student population. The successful candidate will be able to teach a broad offering in your area of expertise (e.g. Abnormal Psychology or Social Psychology) and to contribute to our career development sequence. Opportunities to teach advanced offerings in your area of expertise are also available. Applicants should have completed their PhD by the time that the appointment begins in Fall 2026 and should have prior college teaching experience. Interested applicants should visit https://my.willamette.edu/site/hr/careers for application details and a more complete position description.

For optimal consideration, all application materials should be received by November 1st, 2025, but the search will continue until the position is filled. Required materials include a current CV, a cover letter, a teaching statement, and a research statement. In your preparation of materials, please consider that you are applying to a liberal arts institution and address the question of how you would contribute to Willamette in particular. Letters of recommendation and evidence of teaching effectiveness will be requested of finalists. Willamette’s Department of Psychology is committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty, staff, and student body. We seek candidates, particularly those from marginalized groups, whose work furthers equity and who bring to campus varied experiences, perspectives and backgrounds.

Willamette University is a selective institution with a national student body of roughly 2000 undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences along with graduate programs in law, data science, computer science, and management. The Psychology Department has 5 full-time faculty. The current position represents a tenure track line replacing a recently retired colleague. Psychology majors are required to take Introductory Psychology, four survey courses within foundational areas of Psychology, a year-long integrated methods and statistics sequence, and one 400-level course or seminar, in which students write their senior paper. Students must also complete a professional and career planning sequence that meets once a week during the end of the students’ junior year and beginning of their senior year, and a research or field internship. In addition to the teaching responsibilities outlined above, candidates should be prepared to contribute as needed to our Research Methods and Analysis sequence and the University’s first-year seminar. Our faculty have active research and publication agendas that involve students — many of whom pursue graduate study in psychology and related fields. For more information on the department, please see our web site at https://willamette.edu/academics/college/psychology/. Willamette is a residential campus located across from the capitol in Salem (population 177,000) and is roughly an hour's drive from Portland, Eugene, the Pacific Coast, and the Cascade Mountains.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Teach 5–6 undergraduate courses per year

• Advise and mentor students

• Maintain a scholarly research agenda, marked by peer-reviewed publication

• Engage in rotating service to department, college, and university

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD or scheduled dissertation defense

• Experience with college-level teaching

​Salary: Faculty are paid on a step system. The 2025-26 salary for a Step 1 Assistant Professor is $70,301.

You will need to upload the following documents as part of your application materials in the "My Experience" section labeled “Resume:”

• Letter of application addressing how your teaching, scholarship, and life experience would contribute to Willamette’s liberal arts environment specifically 

• Curriculum vitae

• A teaching statement (including a discussion of how issues of diversity and inclusivity are addressed in your teaching) 

• A research statement (describing your work to date, and laying out your plans for the next 3–5 years)

• Copies of up to three published papers or working papers

Letters of recommendation and evidence of teaching effectiveness will be requested of finalists. At least one letter should address teaching.

Review of applications will begin immediately. Applications should be received by November 1, 2025 for full consideration. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

If you have questions about the position, please contact Dr. Miller at millerj@willamette.edu. 

n

BACKGROUND CHECK REQUIREMENT:
All University positions require that candidates submit to a criminal conviction record check prior to hire. Conviction does not automatically preclude candidates from being hired. Nature of conviction will be considered relative to the duties of the position.
 

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS STATEMENT:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICANTS:

Please read the following carefully before beginning the online application process. To be considered for employment at Willamette University, please complete our online employment application. Your application and all required attachments -- listed at the bottom of the page -- must be submitted for each individual job post that you are interested in applying. Once you submit your application you will not be able to edit your application.