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William Wright-Swadel Named Director of Career Services at Duke

William Wright-Swadel

DURHAM, N.C. -- William Wright-Swadel, director of career services at Harvard University, has been named Fannie Mitchell Executive Director for Career Services at Duke University, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta announced.

Wright-Swadel, who will begin in August, succeeds Sheila Curran, who announced last year that she would be stepping down at the end of the 2007-08 school year.

Since his appointment at Harvard in 1995, Wright-Swadel has led the office that provides comprehensive assistance to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Harvard College, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Division of Continuing Education. Services offered by Wright-Swadel's office include career counseling, pre-professional advising, fellowship advising and administration, internship/externship programs, on-campus recruitment and a comprehensive range of educational programming.

Wright-Swadel also was responsible for the development and evaluation of policies, procedures and systems for effective delivery of services to students and alumni.

"We are so very fortunate to be able to sustain such strong leadership in our career services to students," Moneta said. "The career development and support needs of our students have become increasingly critical and complex. I have every confidence that Bill will take this effective program and move us even further forward with expanded career counseling, partnerships with academic and personal counseling, and enhanced employer and job attainment services."

Prior to his time at Harvard, Wright-Swadel was director of career services at Dartmouth College (1992-1995) and the University of Rhode Island (1988-1992). He also has held career services positions at the State University College of New Paltz in New York and at the University of Maine.

"Duke's diverse group of students needs access to an effective career community if they are to develop the balance of dreams and reality necessary to set and achieve goals across a lifetime," Wright-Swadel said. "The Career Center has helped, and will continue to help, every student we work with shape a college career that will benefit them throughout their lives.

"We will work with each student to really find out who he or she is, to activate that person, and to include and bring out as much of that person as possible in the choices they make throughout their college experience. The goal is to enhance their education, to first broaden their exposure to new experiences consistent with their interests and then to focus their efforts in the right place at the right time."

Wright-Swadel has served as chair and co-chair with committees of both the National and the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers, and is a member of the Southern College Placement Association and Yankee Conference Placement Association.

He received his bachelor of arts degree in history (1972) and master of education degree in student and personnel services (1974) from the University of Maine at Orono.