Joseph Catrino joined the Dartmouth community this week as the inaugural executive director of the Center for Career Design, announced today.
The appointment is the latest development in the ongoing reimagining of Dartmouth鈥檚 undergraduate career services program鈥攑art of the commitment President Beilock made at her inauguration to invest in the lifelong value of Dartmouth by expanding professional advising for undergraduates and alumni throughout their careers.
鈥淭o help students thrive upon graduation and for a long and meaningful career thereafter, Dartmouth must support opportunities for them to identify career paths that align with their values, strengths, and aspirations,鈥� President Beilock says. 鈥淚n Joe Catrino, we have found a proven leader who brings a design-thinking approach to career and life planning. I鈥檓 delighted to welcome him to Hanover.鈥�
Catrino has been hired to lead the Center for Career Design, which will incorporate and expand the into a best-of-its-kind resource for students to chart their future beyond Dartmouth.
鈥淛oe brings a student-centered approach to career design that will empower undergraduates to identify and explore their interests as they begin to navigate their path beyond Dartmouth,鈥� says Co-Interim Dean of the College .
Catrino was most recently the founding executive director of career and life design at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., which strengthened the college鈥檚 career development, student success, and retention services through a unified framework.
鈥淐areer design is about helping individuals navigate their professional journeys, applying the mindset of a designer to proactively shape a life of meaning and purpose,鈥� Catrino says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a multidisciplinary, human-centered approach that is really about understanding people. The first step is empathy鈥攈elping students understand who they are, so they can make informed decisions.鈥�
The career-design approach is especially important for students at a time when technology and demographics are changing the expectations of the workplace, Catrino says.
鈥淔or the first time in history, we have five generations in the workforce鈥攑eople in their 70s working with people just starting at 22,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e need to help students to be nimble across different industries, to be able to articulate their skills, and to understand how they can partner with AI to leverage the future of work.鈥�
Key to shaping the center鈥檚 vision will be collaboration with partners from across campus and in the alumni community.
鈥淚 intend in my first few months to do a lot of listening,鈥� Catrino says. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in all perspectives. I want to meet with faculty, students, staff, and alumni and hear where there鈥檚 overlap, how we can partner, where there are potential challenges. Design thinking is about creative problem solving.鈥�
A short-term alumni 鈥渇it-for-purpose鈥� committee chaired by Mike Triplett 鈥�96 will serve as advisers to Catrino during his first year and help to organize alumni channels for feedback and participation in the center.
In advance of the center鈥檚 launch, in September Dartmouth opened a new, centrally located satellite undergraduate career center in McNutt Hall and announced an anonymous $15 million, dollar-for-dollar challenge gift to help raise an additional $15 million鈥攆or a total of $30 million鈥攖o support a top-tier internship program.
The aim is to make internships accessible to all undergraduates, and for the new Center for Career Design to create a streamlined process through which students discover internship funding opportunities across the many campus programs that also facilitate them.
To date, the Dartmouth community of parents, alumni, and friends has raised $5.8 million toward the challenge goal.
Hudak says the response from the alumni community has been overwhelmingly positive.
鈥淔rom the moment we announced the fundraising challenge, alumni and families have stepped up to support the idea that internships in all fields鈥攊ncluding those that don鈥檛 traditionally pay for internships or housing鈥攕hould be within financial reach of all Dartmouth undergraduates,鈥� she says.
, a member of the , served on the search committee that hired Catrino.
鈥淒artmouth has long shaped the next generation of leaders, and a best-in-class Center for Career Design is key to advancing that mission,鈥� says Josebachvili. 鈥淎lumni are eager to support Joe in elevating our work here.鈥�
Catrino served a number of roles at Trinity before taking on the leadership of its Career and Life Design Center, including as senior associate director of marketing in the Office of Enrollment and Student Success, director of career development, and special assistant to the vice president for innovation.
Previously, he was associate dean of career development at Quinnipiac University鈥檚 School of Communications and associate director of admissions and marketing for Quinnipiac University Online. He has served as adjunct faculty at Quinnipiac and the University of Hartford, and serves as a course development consultant for Texas A&M鈥檚 College of Innovation and Design and as a studio facilitator for Stanford University鈥檚 d.school.
Catrino earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in history with a minor in communications and public relations from Marist College, and went on to complete a master鈥檚 in communication from the University of Hartford and an MBA from Quinnipiac University. He is currently working toward a doctorate in instructional systems and workforce development from Mississippi State University.
