Moody Named Executive Director of Center for Career Development

As Lisa Moody completes her 12th year at Washington College, she does so with a new job title. On June 1, Moody stepped into the executive director role at the Center for Career Development.

Lisa Moody came to the Washington College Center for Career Development from Delaware State University’s career center in 2014. Hired as assistant director of employer relations and outreach, Moody built relationships with potential employers, bringing them to campus to get to know Washington students and sending students to gain experience at their companies.

With a background in financial services, sales, and other leadership positions, Moody says the executive director role is a culmination of all her experience in leadership and hiring.

“I love this job because you get to prepare students for their future,” she said, “being involved with students who don’t know what they want to do or be and then watching them launch.”

Moody will continue to serve as advisor for several clubs on campus, including Black Student Union, African Student Union, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Among the things she loves about Washington: these opportunities to get to know students, be involved with campus organizations and events, and mentor student leaders.

Along with Moody, the career center has two other full-time staff helping Washington students build their future careers: Georgina Bliss, recently promoted to associate director of career development, and Brad Hirsh, recently hired as assistant director for employer relations and experiential learning.

These changes are not a major shift in operations, Moody said. Instead, they allow career center staff to realign roles, play to their strengths, and focus on employer relations and development as well as experiential learning and internship opportunities for students.

“It’s really about trying to inform students about how they need to be prepared,” Moody said. “One of the messages I’ve been trying to get out is that students are doing this already, we just have to put a name on it and teach students how to talk about it.”

Students are prepared for careers after graduation through the center’s four-year career development model, which includes specific programming in the First-Year Career Awareness and Sophomore Professional Awareness & Readiness Kickstart (SPARK) programs. Programming includes resource awareness, career and technology exploration, workshops, seminars, and more. Programs are open to all students, regardless of major or class year.

Career center staff serve as career advisors, working with students throughout their time at Washington to get to know them and their career goals. Whether a student comes to Washington knowing what they want to do after graduation or their career advisor works with them to explore their interests and potential career options based on their major, that relationship builds and grows throughout students’ time at the College.

“We’re here to support every major,” Moody said. “If we teach you these skill sets, connect you to resources, then you can help yourself and, ultimately, that’s what we want to do. We want to make sure that students have every tool that they need in their toolbox to be able to navigate their career for a lifetime.”

To get students thinking about career opportunities and start planning how to achieve those goals, Moody helped implement the First-Year Career Awareness program during her first years at Washington. A comprehensive program with career awareness at the center, students learn what future employers expect of them, which includes not only experience but how to present themselves in professional, college-level documents.

“Then they can be very strategic and intentional about the next three to four years that they are here,” Moody said.

From self-assessments and reflection about the vast opportunities available to students depending on their major to résumé building to mock interviews, from searching for opportunities to pursuing specific ones, the Center for Career Development staff work to propel students toward their career goals.

Students are encouraged to look for externships—either through established partnerships or surrounding their home communities—to shadow different careers. The career center also taps the College’s alumni network for internship opportunities, informational phone calls, mock interviews, and more.

“We provide everything you need to educate you to become a competitive candidate, but ultimately you have to go out there and make things happen for yourself,” Moody said.

Hodson Funding is available to support the expenses of internships. Funds can be used to supplement income if the internship is unpaid, travel expenses, room and board, and more.

“We don’t want a student bypassing any internship experience because they don’t have the funds,” Moody said. “I always tell students not to leave money on the table, to apply and take advantage of the resources available to them here.”

—MacKenzie Brady ’21