NACE Awards:
2004 Academy of Fellows
Recognizing career services and HR professionals for their advancement of knowledge, leadership, and excellence in professional practice.
Tom Devlin
During his 30+ years as a career services practitioner, Tom Devlin
has received many awards for his vision and leadership—from
the 1977 “Ear to the Ground” Award for being the “most
student-oriented administrator” at the University of Pittsburgh
at Johnstown, to a 2001 NACE/Chevron Outstanding Achievement Award
for Innovative Programs.
Devlin—director of the career center at the University of California-Berkeley—considers
his greatest accomplishments to be the collaboration with staff
and colleagues, and the creative process.
“[My greatest accomplishments are] taking risks and exploring new opportunities that open doors which haven’t often been traveled,” Devlin explains. “While I have held many roles within regional and national associations, I take great pride in those activities where groups of colleagues have joined together to develop a common project, a benchmark group, or a special event.”
In nominating Devlin for the NACE Academy of Fellows, Tim Johnston, managing consultant of Torchiana, Mastrov & Sapiro in Santa Clara, California said, “The vast majority of Tom’s career has been at the helm of two highly visible leading national universities’ career centers [Cornell University from 1978-1997 and Berkeley from 1997 to present]. His technical, business, and leadership achievements in his own career services operations have been and continue to be modeled by other career services practitioners both nationally and internationally.”
In 2001, Devlin and his staff at Berkeley received the NACE/Chevron Award for the development of web-based employer profiles. He received NACE’s 1995 Kauffman Award for outstanding service to the profession, and several other awards. Devlin has served on the NACE Board and many committees and task forces. His regional association also has recognized him for his leadership roles.
In 2003, Devlin joined six other directors from national universities to help develop NACElink®—an online college recruiting and hiring system designed to meet the unique needs of college career centers and employers interested in hiring college students and graduates. That project encapsulates some of the things Devlin enjoys most about the career services field.
Devlin also embraces change and the challenges it presents, which has benefited the profession in addition to the campus communities he serves.
