Greg Victory Appointed Next Fannie Mitchell Executive Director of Career Center

Gregory J. Victory has been named Fannie Mitchell Executive Director of the Duke Career Center and assistant vice president of Student Affairs, announced Vice Provost and Vice President for Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon. Victory will start July 1.

Victory has served as executive director of the Tufts Career Center since 2016. He succeeds William Wright-Swadel, who retired earlier this year. 

“In this critical and uncertain time, we are pleased to bring such a strong, innovative leader to Duke’s Student Affairs team,” McMahon said. “Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an exceptional ability to create valuable partnerships and opportunities to connect that will benefit students, alumni and the larger Duke community.”

The Career Center engaged in a collaborative, four-month, national search process for this position. Candidates for the position were vetted by a search committee comprising staff and faculty from across campus, as well as undergraduate and graduate students and alumni. 

"I am deeply grateful to search committee chairs Nicole Kempton ‘01 and David Pittman and to the faculty, staff, student and alumni committee members for their extraordinary commitment to this important search,” said McMahon. “In developing a vision and criteria to identify the next Fannie Mitchell Executive Director, the committee was very deliberate in reviewing recommendations of the Trustee's Activating the Global Network Task Force report, input from the University-wide OneDuke career network, and national models for supporting undergraduate and graduate students' career readiness now and in the future. Greg is uniquely suited to lead our Career Center team in this pivotal moment."

Shrey Majmudar ’22, the Duke Student Government representative on the search committee, said, “I was simply floored by how student-centric he is. Even though Greg hasn't started at Duke yet, he has already begun meeting with me and crafting a broad list of student feedback which he hopes to address over his first year and beyond. I am thrilled that Greg is joining the Duke community and am confident he will have a tremendous positive impact on our campus and especially on our students."

"I am delighted to be joining the Duke family,” Victory said. “During my interviews, it quickly became clear that there were hundreds of members of the community who wanted to roll up their sleeves to build collaborative and innovative systems and resources to ensure every Blue Devil has access to what they need to be career-ready.

“That was what sold me on this role and on Duke,” he added. “I look forward to working with the amazing colleagues already assembled to launch a new vision for the Career Center at Duke.”  

At Tufts, Victory successfully developed and launched a “Designing Your Life” course for first-year students and oversaw creation of numerous career and student-alumni networking events in San Francisco, New York, Paris, Madrid, and London. He also revitalized Tufts’s outreach to employers and alumni across a wide range of industries and non-profit sectors.

“Greg has demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect with faculty, staff, and students—showing both a keen eye for perspective taking and that a spirit of collaboration would be the cornerstone of his work at Duke.”
-- Jacqueline Looney

“The Tufts Career Center made major strides under Greg's leadership,” said Jim Glaser, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts. “He not only brought vision and strategic thinking to the position, but he modeled for our students a way to comport oneself on the job market—with energy and integrity.”

Says Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Associate Vice Provost for Academic Diversity Jacqueline Looney, “Greg comes to lead the Duke Career Center at a transformative moment in its history and is well suited to guide the professionals that will make up his team in developing relevant and innovative resources to meet the career services needs of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Greg has demonstrated an uncanny ability to connect with faculty, staff, and students—showing both a keen eye for perspective taking and that a spirit of collaboration would be the cornerstone of his work at Duke.”

Victory has also been praised by Tufts colleagues and students for his analytical and relationship-building skills and his clear commitment to social justice, inclusion and equity for students and within the career team. 

Asked what else the Duke community might want to know about him, Victory pointed to one of his favorite jobs: serving as “Scooch,” mascot for the Syracuse Mets (formerly the Syracuse Chiefs), a AAA baseball club—the same level as the Durham Bulls. That position allowed him to “be as goofy as I wanted to be, to bring joy, laughter and excitement to fans,” he said. “It offers a glimpse of my spirit, energy and enthusiasm.”

Victory has held a number of student-facing and career development roles in his 25-year career, including as Executive Director of Continuing Education at Rhode Island School of Design, where he was previously Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Director of the RISD Career Center. He credits his time at RISD as integral to his emphasis on ensuring all graduate and undergraduate students incorporate principles of design in developing career and life-skill strategies throughout their studies. During nearly a decade at Syracuse University, Greg taught in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, led the highly regarded First-Year and Transfer Programs office, and served as a lead with employer engagement in the Syracuse Career Center.

Victory has also held positions at Colgate University and Ithaca College. He serves on the alumni Board of Regents at his alma mater, Le Moyne College, from which he received a B.A. in education and history. He holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from Syracuse and has completed coursework in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse.