History
Adequate and informed preparation for faculty and academic administrative position searches is essential to achieve a successful employment outcome. However, great opportunities are routinely lost because of a lack of preparation, presentation and interview experience. Academic Search Interview Prep LLC was born out of a critical and previously unfilled need in the Higher Education talent marketplace: providing one-to-one, personalized and customized support and mentorship to candidates engaged in faculty and academic administrative searches.
Today, Academic Search Interview Prep, LLC remains the only full service, academic search consultative organization devoted entirely and exclusively to assisting the candidate to achieve successful search outcomes. Our decades of expertise is based on thousands of searches conducted by a wide range of colleges and universities, including public and private, small and large, and teaching intensive and research based. Our clients overwhelmingly credit the support and guidance they gained through their association with Academic Search Interview Prep as having significantly contributed to their job search success.
Academic Search Interview Prep, LLC was founded by its President and CEO, Dr. Ron Toll. Dr. Toll’s academic career spans over 35 years as a faculty member and administrator at five highly regarded colleges and universities, including both private and public institutions. After a successful career as an innovative faculty member and researcher, Dr. Toll went on to hold a series of progressively more responsible administrative positions including Department Chair, Division Chair, College Dean, Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Corporate Relations, Vice President for Academic Affairs/Dean of the Faculty, and Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Ron Toll
President and CEO
During his career, Dr. Toll was a finalist or semi-finalist for multiple academic positions from assistant professor to senior administrator. As is typically the case, especially for senior level administrative positions, many of these searches involved a combination of video conference calls, neutral site (‘airport’) visits, and on-campus and post on-campus ‘call back’ interviews. As a result, his total search experience as a candidate for positions ranging from faculty member to university president/chancellor is exceptionally broad, with dozens of interview ‘experiences’ and hundreds of candidate meetings with search committees, faculty, students, staff, administrators, senior hiring officials, community representatives, Presidents/Chancellors, and Boards of Trustees.
From the opposite prospective, Dr. Toll served in the role of senior hiring official and/or supervised over 400 searches for faculty at all academic ranks and across numerous disciplines ranging from the arts and sciences to professional education, business, allied health, and engineering. Further, he participated directly in searches for over 75 academic administrative positions ranging from Department Chair to President/Chancellor. As a result, Dr. Toll has amassed an enormous repository of experiences related to the academic search environment and process. This extensive real-world perspective, from both sides of the interview conference table, has provided to him a rich understanding of the many facets of the academic interview, starting with the initial submission of a letter of interest to negotiating terms and conditions of employment prior to final acceptance of an offer.
Education:
Union College (NJ)
A.A., Biology
Rutgers University
B.A., Zoology
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Univ. of Miami
Ph.D., Biological Oceanography
Harvard University, Institute For Management and Leadership in Education
Graduate Certificate
Academic Positions Held:
• Assistant, Associate and Full Professor
• Department Chair
• Division Chair
• College Dean
• Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Corporate Relations
• Vice President for Academic Affairs/Dean of the Faculty
• Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs