The Graduate College is proud to announce Derek Attig, the assistant dean for career and professional development, is a Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence (CAPE) awardee. Attig oversees programming and advising services for over 18,000 graduate students and 600 postdoctoral scholars.
A total of 12 academic professionals at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were honored with the CAPE award, encompassing the 2020 and 2021 award cycles. The recipients, six from each year, received their awards remotely due to the pandemic. The CAPE award was established to recognize academic professionals for their work, personal and professional contributions. Individuals are nominated, reviewed by a committee and approved by Chancellor Robert Jones. Each of the honorees receives a $1,000 cash award.
Attig fosters collaborations across campus to support the preparation and planning for diverse careers. As a pivotal resource for careers on campus, Attig conceptualizes and implements programming, workshops and training events for students. Units, departments and student organizations have integrated their programming into first-year experience programs, orientations and online environments.
Since 2015, Attig has conducted more than 2,000 career-advising sessions. In addition to promoting career education on campus, Attig serves as the Midwest regional director of the Graduate Career Consortium, a national professional organization for graduate career advisers that piloted a digital collaboration space among universities to enable connections and help increase career pathways for graduate students. Attig also has served as a member of the governance committee to help develop policies that have allowed the organization to grow significantly in recent years.
Photo of Derek Attig by L. Brian Stauffer.
Story by the U. of I. News Bureau, repost from April 15, 2021, Illinois News Bureau article.