To: The Wellesley College Community
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: Introducing Wellesley’s New Associate Provost and Executive Director of Career Education
Date: December 16, 2020
I am delighted to announce that Jennifer Pollard will be the College’s new associate provost and executive director of Career Education.
Wellesley selected Jen after conducting a national search that yielded a pool of extremely talented and qualified candidates. I’d like to thank the search committee members, who were committed to identifying the best person for this critical leadership role: Carol Bate, Ravi Ravishanker, Andy Shennan, Carolyn Slaboden, Sue Wagner ’82, Lulu Chow Wang ’66, Sara Wasserman ’02, and Akila Weerapana. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude to Lisa Rodensky ’84, committee chair, for her extraordinary work leading this search.
Many members of our community already know Jen, who came to Wellesley in 2016 to serve as director of operations and analytics for the College to Career Initiative and, more recently, has held an interim leadership position in the Career Education department. Jen began her career in marketing research and public relations and quickly shifted to higher education in pursuit of greater meaning and purpose in her work, spending three years at George Mason University as assistant director of career services while pursuing a master’s degree in higher education and educational technology.
Jen is uniquely positioned to drive the ongoing innovation of career education at Wellesley, an institutional priority for the College. She will continue to lead the stellar Career Education team that prepares students to craft a lifetime of opportunity and inspires them to realize their full potential. She will also continue to mobilize Wellesley’s formidable alumnae network to facilitate undergraduate career exploration and alumnae career transitions. Jen will report directly to me, with a dotted line to Provost Andy Shennan.
I hope you will join me in extending your congratulations to Jen as she takes on this critical role for the College.
