Dr. James Hedges

Dean, Division of Online & Continuing Education

An expert in strategic innovation, James Hedges is a learning leader who oversees the entrepreneurial and innovative arm of the institution: the Division of Online & Continuing Education. Driven by a longstanding passion for developing educational solutions to meet future workforce and stakeholder needs, he is a campus leader in non-credit to credit bridges, corporate partnerships, stackable credentials and prior learning assessment. 

Serving in the capacity of dean for Weber State University’s Division of Online & Continuing Education since 2022, he has extensive experience in competency-based education and creating educational pathways to enable mid-career professionals to upskill and reskill. He and his team do this through mapping degree programs to labor market trends and collaborating across campus to build programming that fits students’ lives. 

During his tenure, James has developed a new strategic plan for the division, designed a campus-wide strategy of online education, and reorganized the division to create a more efficient process of business development and program creation that is responsive to employer needs. He has deep relationship-building experience with widely recognized companies and the facilitators who connect them to higher education, and he looks forward to maximizing those relationships with this new structure. 

James has also led his division in creating an actionable strategy for online education.The strategy is built upon the pillars of quality, access and demand, program expansion and support. He partnered across campus to launch four new fully online programs in fall of 2023. In addition, he worked with WSU stakeholders to institute a new online tuition model for out-of-state students. 

James believes that Weber State's unified commitment to innovative leadership within the changing landscape of higher education is crucial to executing the institution's mission.