Dear Colleagues —

I am pleased to announce the successful conclusion of our search for the newly defined position of Director of Career Development and Campus Integration. 

Please join me in welcoming Colleen Withers who started in her new role on Wednesday, February 15. (You may already know or recognize Colleen; she is an internal hire and is joining us from the Leavey School of Business's Graduate Business Career Management (GBCM) team.)

As Director of Career Development and Campus Integration, Colleen will be a member of the Career Center's leadership team. She will lead the Career Development team with a focus on building greater integration of the work of the Career Center into academic and co-curricular programs across the university.

During her last four years with GBCM, Colleen designed and implemented career management workshops for students that compel them to remain engaged throughout their program. This helped the team achieve a #1 ranking for Career in the Poets & Quants rankings for Online MBA Programs. Colleen has significantly expanded GBCM's engagement with Alumni. She has connected with hundreds of Alumni bringing them back to campus for in-person and virtual panels, to expand networking opportunities. Colleen has enjoyed 200+ one on one coaching appointments annually with students to prepare them for interviews and assist them with their career journey. Previously she worked as an Executive Recruiter at KPMG and Human Resources Director for software startups, nonprofits and solar companies. She received her Bachelors in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame. She is passionate about teaching students career readiness skills and lifelong career self reliance.

As we welcome Colleen, I want to take this opportunity to thank Sunaina Gulati-Ruh, Senior Director of the GBCM team, for her support and graciousness throughout this process. I also want to thank the search committee – Melissa Thiriez, Toby McChesney, Brenda Versteeg, Tedd Vanadilok, Zach Plaza, Erin Kimura-Walsh, Sarah Hays, Laura Doyle, Katharine Heintz – who helped to identify the strongest candidates. Many members of the campus community, including faculty, staff, current students and alumni, also met with candidates and provided valuable feedback. And most importantly, thank you to my team. For all of the time and energy invested in this process, I am very grateful. 

Please feel free to send Colleen a note of welcome and congratulations at cwithers@scu.edu.

Thank you,

DYLAN HOULE Executive Director, Career & Professional Development Career Center, Santa Clara University

◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾ ◾

Questions, concerns, ideas, suggestions?
Please email careercenter@scu.edu.