Executive Director - Baptist Healthplex
An opportunity to Lead a significant community health and wellness organization through its next stage of financial, cultural, and operational development.
The Opportunity
The Baptist Healthplex at Mississippi Christian University is seeking an Executive Director to provide strategic leadership for a large, multidisciplinary health and wellness organization serving the university community and the broader public. The Healthplex operates an approximately 70,000-square-foot facility with fitness, aquatics, group exercise, Child Watch, personal training, programming, and other health and wellness resources.
The next Executive Director will inherit an experienced leadership team, a strong community membership base, and an organization that has recently undertaken meaningful changes in pricing, membership technology, financial strategy, leadership development, and long-range operational planning. The opportunity is to build on that work while bringing the leader's own judgment, experience, and vision to the next chapter.
What the Executive Director Leads
- A multidisciplinary organization with approximately 11 full-time and 70-75 part-time employees.
- Department directors responsible for membership, fitness/programming, marketing/events, facilities, and aquatics.
- A substantial community and university membership operation in which recurring membership revenue is the primary economic engine.
- A complex physical plant with pools, wet areas, fitness spaces, studios, Child Watch, and significant mechanical and facility infrastructure.
- Relationships with the Healthplex Board, Mississippi Christian University leadership, Baptist leadership, vendors, controllers, community partners, members, and employees.
The Leadership Mandate
This position is designed for an organizationalleader who can see the whole enterprise. The Executive Director does not need to be the technical expert in every department. Instead, the leader must know how to ask the right questions, develop capable directors, understand the financial and operational implications of decisions, establish accountability, and keep the organization aligned around a clear mission.
Key Priorities for the Next Leader
Financial Sustainability
Continue strengthening the Healthplex's financial position through disciplined budgeting, membership-revenue oversight, collection performance, reserve growth, debt management, and intentional capital planning. The organization is working toward greater financial resilience and the ability to fund predictable facility and equipment needs from a position of strength.
Membership & Management Intelligence
Build on the recent transition to Club Automation by establishing consistent reporting and management practices around membership, billed revenue, collected revenue, failed payments, joins, cancellations, and other key indicators. The goal is not simply more data, but timely information that improves decisions.
Leadership & Culture
Continue developing the director team from strong departmental managers into organization-wide leaders who develop their people, solve problems at the appropriate level, reinforce expectations, and carry the Healthplex mission and culture through their teams.
Operational Continuity
Reduce dependence on individual institutional knowledge by documenting critical processes, cross-training leaders, establishing backup ownership, and preserving important facility, membership, vendor, and organizational knowledge.
Facilities & Capital Planning
Move facility management toward a more documented and predictive model that tracks repairs, costs, preventive maintenance, equipment condition, vendor relationships, and anticipated 1-, 5-, and 10-year capital needs.
MC, Board & Strategic Relationships
Maintain strong, transparent relationships with Mississippi Christian University and the Healthplex Board while helping clarify decision rights, communication expectations, financial obligations, and the Healthplex's long-term institutional relationships.
The Organization We Are Building
The Healthplex's strategic direction is centered on three interconnected pillars: financial sustainability, a healthy leadership culture, and resilient operations. The intent is to create an organization that remains excellent even when individual leaders change-one where institutional knowledge is shared, important processes are documented, directors are empowered to lead, and the Executive Director can focus on strategy, relationships, financial direction, leadership development, and major decisions.
What Success Looks Like
- Directors lead their areas confidently, develop employees, and possess enough cross-functional understanding to preserve continuity when another leader is absent.
- Membership and financial performance are visible through consistent reporting, with clear understanding of expected versus collected revenue.
- Facility repairs and costs are documented, recurring problems are visible, and future capital needs are anticipated rather than discovered at the point of failure.
- Hiring and onboarding intentionally reinforce organizational standards rather than simply filling vacancies.
- The relationship between the Healthplex, MC, the Board, and strategic partners is clearly understood and effectively managed.
- The Executive Director spends the majority of executive attention on strategy, relationships, leadership development, financial direction, and high-level decisions rather than routine departmental problem-solving.
The Leader We Are Seeking
The strongest candidate will combine strategic thinking with practical judgment. This person will be relational enough to build trust, financially disciplined enough to protect the organization, operationally curious enough to understand a complex facility, and secure enough as a leader to develop others rather than becoming the answer to every problem.
- A developer of leaders who can create clarity, accountability, trust, and ownership
- A financially literate executive who understands budgets, revenue, cash flow, debt, reserves, and capital decisions.
- A systems thinker who can improve processes without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- A strong communicator who can work effectively with a governing board, university leadership, employees, members, and external partners.
- A service-oriented leader who values people and understands that member experience is shaped through thousands of everyday interactions.
- A decisive, high-integrity leader who can balance immediate operational realities with long-term organizational health.
Preferred Background
Candidates may come from health and wellness, recreation, healthcare administration, hospitality, higher education, membership organizations, nonprofit leadership, business operations, or another environment that requires leadership of people, finances, facilities, customer/member experience, and complex stakeholder relationships.
- Bachelor's degree required; relevant master's degree preferred.
- Progressive leadership experience with meaningful responsibility for people and organizational performance.
- Demonstrated budgeting and financial-management capability.
- Experience leading managers or department heads and developing future leaders.
- Experience with facilities, membership/customer operations, or complex service delivery strongly valued.
- Strong written and verbal communication, judgment, integrity, and relationship-building ability.
Mission, Vision & Values
Mission
We strive to provide the highest quality service for those pursuing healthier, happier lifestyles. Through knowledgeable staff, intentional relationships, and a wide range of resources, we empower each person to be a good steward of their health and live with lasting impact.
Vision
Guided by strong values, we envision a community where every person-regardless of fitness level-finds encouragement, gains strength through challenge and is equipped with the tools to make health and wellness a lifelong pursuit.
Core Values
Integrity Always - Who we are in the spotlight is who we are in the quiet.
Passion with Purpose - Bring skill and heart to work that advances the mission.
Intentional Relationships - Treat every person as valuable and worthy of our best.
Personal Impact That Echoes - Recognize that individual attitudes and actions create a wider impact.
Health Matters - Honor health of mind, body, and spirit as something worth stewarding.
Growth Through Commitment - Pursue improvement through accountability, encouragement, and perseverance.
Respect for All. Always. - Value every person regardless of role, experience, or circumstance.
Strategic Context
The next Executive Director will not be expected to follow a rigid script. Current leadership is documenting the strategic direction established through 2026, the rationale behind major decisions, work already underway, and the intended three-year destination. This is designed to provide continuity while giving future leadership appropriate freedom to adjust tactics as circumstances change.
A complete job description is attached. Applications will be accepted until November 13, 2026.
Mississippi Christian University uses Dynamic Forms for the employment application process.
- To apply, you must create an account with Dynamic Forms.
- Once logged in, select the staff application type.
- You will be required to upload a cover letter and resume.
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