New Post Created to Link Part-Time Graduate Business Students and Corporate Community

Christa Hinton, president and owner of Women in Business, Inc., will join DePaul University Nov. 5 as the director of the newly created Career Management Center at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.

The mission of the new center is to provide networking opportunities that will bring together DePaul graduate business students—especially professionals enrolled in the university’s highly ranked part-time MBA program—and employers seeking interns and full-time employees. The Center will work to raise recognition of the graduate business school’s educational quality and its talented students among local, national and international corporate leaders. DePaul’s part-time MBA program is ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and is the largest accredited, part-time MBA program in the United States.

“The Kellstadt Career Management Center reflects changes in the job market and a new approach to career management for working professionals who are earning business degrees in DePaul’s evening and weekend programs,” said Dee Dee Wolff, assistant dean and director of Kellstadt. “The changing economy has brought adjustments in the tuition-reimbursement policies of many employers. In addition, the evolving career aspirations of our students mean that even if they intend to stay with the same organization post-MBA, they may be seeking a transition into another function of the corporation. As a result, our part-time students need resources that will help them assess and manage their own careers.”

“The Kellstadt Career Management Center is not a placement center, like you would see for undergraduates,” Wolff explained. “Instead, the focus is on career management, self-assessment and the need to network throughout your career so that when the time comes to make a change, you have the right connections.”

Hinton said: “Throughout my career, I have accomplished my goals through building solid relationships in the Chicago business community and creating and implementing a growth-oriented strategic marketing plan. I plan use this experience and my networking skills to establish Kellstadt’s Career Management Center as a leader in service to students and employers.”

Before coming to DePaul, Hinton, a resident of the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, served for three years as president and publisher of Chicago-based Women in Business, Inc., publisher of the Women’s Yellow Pages, an annual directory of women-owned and operated companies. In this role, she increased the company’s customer base, visibility and revenues through marketing, built alliances to improve company growth and provided strategic leadership.

Hinton earned a degree in 1998 from DePaul’s MBA in International Marketing and Finance program. Designed with advice from global business leaders, the unique 18-month, full-time program allows students to complete 10-week internships with multi-national firms all over the world. Hinton interned with Verseidag AG, a German manufacturing firm, where she analyzed financial and marketing initiatives and trends for the company’s U.S. subsidiary. Prior to enrolling in DePaul’s MBA program, Hinton worked in the field of health care. From 1990 and 1996, she was a senior occupational therapist and a therapy resource coordinator at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Hinton holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in biology from Millikin University in Decatur and one in occupational therapy from University of Illinois, Chicago.

Hinton has been a board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, among other board memberships. The association presented her with its National Rookie of the Year and its Corporate Partner of the Year awards in 2000.