Center Director
Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
SUSAN CAMPBELL
Susan is the Director of the Cawley Career Education Center, which serves all undergraduates at Georgetown University. In Spring 2024, Susan partnered with MyCareerClosest to develop Cawley’s Career Closet – a customized, user-friendly, hassle-free solution that equitably serves all students.
Students often struggle with appropriate professional attire for interviews, networking events, and internships. This disproportionately impacts first-gen, and lower income students. A recent WSJ article “Grads Have No Idea How to Behave in the Office” (click here), highlighted employers like PWC who are having to “tell some young workers what types of clothes are appropriate, and what it means by business casual.” Many schools have donation-based career closets that are hard to maintain, and harder to provide equitable service to all students.
Cawley’s Career Closet eliminates the need to (1) solicit clothing donations and maintain inventory, (2) purchase clothing and/or distribute store gift certificates, and (3) maintain a retail-type operation within their center. Most importantly, it levels the playing field for students who don’t have the financial means or social capital to professionally and confidently present themselves at career-related events.
Cawley’s Career Closet is subscription-based service. It offers students on-demand video styling, clothing for 1-2 complete outfits appropriate for professional activities and online resources. Students receive their orders at the Center’s front desk and return them directly within 30 days. All orders can be purchased at deeply discounted rates.
Georgetown was the first university to fully roll out this service. Susan consulted with both the University of Miami and Southern Methodist University regarding their pilot programs with MyCareerCloset. Susan has participated in webinars, co-hosted a marketing event for DC area universities and provided valuable insight to MyCareerCloset leadership.
To develop, launch and expand the program, partnerships were essential.
Campus Partners: Susan engaged stakeholders including the dean of the McDonough School of Business,, the executive director of Georgetown’s Scholars Program and the associate vice president for the Office of Student Equity and Inclusion. They shared priorities, provided ongoing feedback and support, and allocated funds for an initial 2-month trial program.
Alumni & Office of Advancement: Susan solicited advice and guidance from Georgetown’s past president of the alumni association and presented the prototype to a senior development officer and the director of family philanthropy. This led to a group presentation to all development officers and equipped them to assist with fundraising efforts.
Employers: Susan worked with the center’s associate director of employer relations to develop a revamped Employer Sponsorship Program. Unlike prior programs that focused on priority recruiting dates and sponsorship of career-related events, the employer sponsorship funds directly support the clothing rental cost for students with expressed financial need. For example, a “Gold Sponsor” funds the rental cost for 100+ students during the academic year.
Peer Institutions: Susan has been readily available to share Georgetown’s experience with other universities/colleges. Among others, this includes: Johns Hopkins, GW University, Gallaudet, UNC Wilmington, Boston University, New York University, and all of the Big East schools.
Graduate Students: Susan is working with Georgetown’s graduate schools to expand the program to serve their 15,000+ students.
Athletics: Susan is partnering with the varsity football coach to provide specialized services for student athletes (e.g. onsite seamstress and stylist).
Here are some metrics from Georgetown’s spring 2023 launch.
75% of students requesting financial support were members of Georgetown’s Scholars Program (GSP), most of whom are first generation.
50% of use was from students within the College of Arts & Sciences; 67% of users were juniors, sophomores and juniors. We had expected business school students and seniors to be the heaviest users
70% of GSP students expressed interest in using the service more than once
Disclosure information not submitted.
An Innovative, Equity-Focused, and Hassle-Free Career Closet Solution
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
3:00 PM - 3:50 PM EDT