A new chapter for Wellesley’s career services opened last month with the arrival of Christine Yip Cruzvergara on campus.

Cruzvergara, who will serve as executive director and associate provost for career education, has the task of developing the vision for the new College to Career (C2C) initiative. The program will aim to “reimagine how women are introduced to a world of opportunity during their four years and over the course of their lives,” President H. Kim Bottomly said in announcing Cruzvergara’s appointment. C2C will actively engage the alumnae network and will be supported by the transformational gift of $50 million from two alumnae late last year.

Cruzvergara comes to Wellesley from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where she was assistant dean and executive director of University Career Services, a 20-person department serving 34,000 students. She has also held positions in career services and student life at Georgetown, George Washington University, and the University of Maryland.

As associate provost, Cruzvergara will be a senior member of the College administration, a strong draw for her. “Wellesley is one of the first institutions to move career services into the president’s cabinet,” Cruzvergara says. “That repositioning speaks volumes to prospective students and parents, to current students, to employers, and to our colleagues in higher education.” She also was engaged by “the culture and confidence of the student population.”

Cruzvergara sees career education built around connections and communities—“bringing people together and working collectively … to [create] programs that illuminate the unique strengths of Wellesley and help to prepare and lead Wellesley women into the world so they can contribute their talents to making a difference.” In her first year of reorganization, she plans a comprehensive listening tour—students and alumnae, employers, faculty, trustees, and more—to parse out key themes that will help shape the vision, mission, approach, and organizational structure of the nascent C2C program.