John Woods is the chief academic officer and provost for University of Phoenix andresponsible for further developing and fulfilling the University’s academic mission. He ischarged with amplifying the University's high-quality, rigorous and career-relevant academicprograms, while spurring innovation to help working adults move efficiently from education tocareers. He leads a team of academic leaders and over 3,000 practitioner faculty withapplied experience in the disciplines they teach. His team defines student learning outcomesthat align with employer expectations, and with the specific skills students need toimprove their performance in today's competitive economy.Dr. Woods provides leadership for assessment of student learning, instructional innovation,faculty engagement, accreditation, and institutional reporting. He is the founding director of the University of Phoenix Career Institute® which annually publishes the Career Optimism Index®. In 2022, Dr. Woods’ insights on the Index were featured in numerous publications including Forbes and Inc. He speaks on career, workforce and higher education issues at events including the 2022 SHRM conference, 2022 Economic Development Summit of WESTMARC, Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation’s 2022Workforce Summit, and the 2022 Reagan Institute Summit on Education (RISE).Prior to joining University of Phoenix, Dr. Woods served as a dean at a traditional liberal artscollege, an adjunct faculty member at numerous institutions over the last twenty-five years,and as CAO for over fifteen years at other institutions serving working adults. He began his career in higher education helping colleges and universities leverage technology for instruction with the Eduprise, Collegis and Deltak family of companies.Dr. Woods has been a Trustee of Worthington Educational Foundation and previously served as a Peer Evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission. He currently holds a board seat with Kivuto, an educational technology company that works with schools to simplify how they manage and distribute digital resources to students. He is the author of a book chapter in Doing More With Less: Making Colleges Work Better, and has had a presentation on self-study and institutional improvement published with the Higher Learning Commission.Dr. Woods holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green StateUniversity, where he researched adult learning, training and development, aswell as academic honesty policies and procedures. He has a Master of Arts and Bachelor ofArts from Carleton University.