Greene Center executive director and associate vice provost will help oversee work on institutional planning and priorities.
Joe Testani, who has helped transform career education initiatives at the University of Rochester since 2015, has been named deputy to President Sarah Mangelsdorf, filling a position on the president’s team that has been vacant.
In his new role, Testani will support Mangelsdorf, the staff of the Office of the President, and other senior leaders. He will lead and coordinate University-wide strategic projects that address institutional priorities and planning. In addition, he will bring together a wide range of key external and internal constituencies to create alignment and ensure action on issues affecting the future of the institution.
He will report directly to Mangelsdorf.
“Joe is a strategic, forward-looking leader with great ideas and a passion for the University of Rochester,” Mangelsdorf says. “I’m very much looking forward to working more closely with him.”
An interim director for the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections will be appointed in the near future while a search is conducted for Testani’s successor.
Since 2015, Testani has been executive director of the Greene Center, where he has led a team that developed strategic pathways for career growth and advancement. During his tenure, employer engagement increased 50 percent, more than 60 percent of undergraduates engaged with the center, and alumni involvement tripled.
Among many initiatives, he and his team implemented education technology solutions, developed academic partnerships and courses, and explored ways to improve university-wide corporate engagement.
In 2018, he was named University associate vice provost for career education initiatives. In that role, he has provided leadership for career education initiatives for both undergraduates and graduate students across all academic units of the University. He also led a core pillar of the University’s recent Together for Rochester campaign.
In addition, he has led efforts to build strategic partnerships with advancement, academic units, alumni relations, student life units, student leaders, and employers to create robust career education programs and to enhance awareness of the roles that all stakeholders play in student development.
Before joining Rochester, Testani held leadership roles in career services at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. He has also been part of career services teams at Yale University, Indiana University, Franklin College, and Berkeley College.
Throughout his 20-year career in higher education, he has served as an advisor and consultant domestically and internationally in higher education and for educational technology companies and served on local, regional, and national work groups, professional associations, and committees.
