Christopher Pratt, director of career services at Seton Hall University, will join MIT as the director of career services and preprofessional advising in January.
"Chris is an excellent manager, a born teacher and educator, and a warm and engaging human being," Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education Rosalind Williams said in announcing Dr. Pratt's appointment.
Dr. Pratt was raised in Natick and received the BS from Northeastern University in 1970. He earned the MA from Bradley University in Peoria, IL, in 1977 and the EdD from Seton Hall in South Orange, NJ, in 1992.
"I look forward to meeting and working with the MIT students and faculty to help each other learn to be more effective in our changing world," said Dr. Pratt. "As for coming home, Gail Sheehy says that passages are very important in our lives, and I am looking forward to this one with great anticipation. Perhaps as TS Eliot said, '������������������and the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.'"
Dr. Pratt, who studied English, journalism and social psychology as an undergraduate and was president of his senior class at Northeastern, worked at his alma mater from 1970-73 in university relations and at the Cooperative Education Research Center.
He was director of the Center for Cooperative Education at Trenton State College in New Jersey from 1973-76 before becoming director of the Cooperative Education and Career Development Center at Bradley from 1976-79. He then returned to New Jersey to become the director of career services and head the Atlantic Cooperative Training Center at Seton Hall, where he also coached women's soccer from 1990-1993.
Dr. Pratt received the 1993 Cooperative Education Association Ralph W. Tyler Award for Outstanding and Distinguished Research, Procedures and Outcomes for Students in Cooperative Education at the 30th CEA Conference in Newport, RI. He has published more than 20 articles and conducted program consultations and evaluations of cooperative education and career services at nearly 100 institutions.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on December 10, 1997.
