Successive governments have pushed Australian Universities to transform their learning and teaching quality. Strong strategic leadership of learning and teaching is essential to this endeavour. Yet, such learning and teaching leadership by Associate Deans continues to be challenged. The purpose of this study was to develop a deeper understanding of the Associate Dean in their strategic leadership role for the Creative Arts in Australian universities.  A social constructivist epistemology and critical theory paradigm underpinned the study and Bourdieu&amp;rsquo;s Theory of Practice was used as a critical lens to explore the complexity at the individual and the multi-relational contextual levels in which the Associate Deans worked. A prototype of the Associate Dean emerged, followed by a typology comprising &amp;lsquo;Stars&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Rising Stars&amp;rsquo;, &amp;lsquo;Copers&amp;rsquo; and Strugglers&amp;rsquo;. Institutional, sectorial and global aspects were found to both equip and deny the Associate Dean capability in their leadership.  Opportunities have been identified for strengthening the role, but unless a radical change occurs that disrupts the culture of the traditional university, the strategic learning and teaching leadership of the Associate Dean will always be problematic. If the leverage points suggested in this study were implemented to enable the role, the results could be transformative for learning and teaching in Australian Universities