To lead its new OWU Career Connection Center, Ohio Wesleyan University conducted a national search to find “a creative and visionary leader” who would serve as “an energetic, engaging and passionate advocate” for students preparing for a lifetime of fulfilling work.

It turns out the ideal candidate already was working on the Ohio Wesleyan campus and exemplifying all of the qualities she will help to develop in current and future OWU students. The university announced on Dec. 14 the appointment of 2005 alumna Megan R. Sanders Ellis as executive director of the new OWU Career Connection Center. She currently is serving as administrative director of Ohio Wesleyan’s Woltemade Center for Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship.

In her new role, Ellis will report to Natalie Milburn Doan, OWU’s vice president for University Advancement, and oversee four employees including those from the current Office of Career Services.

“Megan is the perfect person to lead the new OWU Career Connection Center,” said Doan, a 2003 Ohio Wesleyan graduate. “In her work with the Woltemade Center, Megan helped to create two new fellowship programs and spearhead the development and October opening of The Delaware Entrepreneurial Center at Ohio Wesleyan University. I am confident she will bring this same energy, vision, and success to her new role.”

As executive director of the OWU Career Connection Center, Ellis will partner with university faculty and staff to create a comprehensive and contemporary career center rooted in OWU’s mission of practical idealism. The center will help students identify and embrace all of the opportunities provided by their Ohio Wesleyan educations, it will help them to understand their strengths and how those strengths may relate to career options, and it will provide a guided exit to ensure they are prepared for their first jobs as well as a lifetime of meaningful work.

The OWU Career Connection Center is a component of Ohio Wesleyan’s signature student experience, The OWU Connection. The OWU Connection is designed to help students think big (understand issues from multiple academic disciplines), go global (gain international perspective), and get real (translate classroom knowledge into real-world experience). Ellis, who will begin her new role in January, said she is pleased to be part of the effort to help students prepare for and then thrive in life after their time at Ohio Wesleyan.

“Through The OWU Connection, Ohio Wesleyan has created a strong foundation to help students achieve their goals,” said Ellis, who graduated cum laude from the university with an economics management major and psychology minor. “The OWU Career Connection Center will help to expand the impact of The OWU Connection with enhanced faculty-driven, career-focused mentorship as well as OWU Connection internships, independent research projects, and other vehicles. I am honored to be part of such a visionary project.”

Ellis joined the Woltemade Center in 2015, and now brings more than 10 years of experience in program creation, strategic planning, organizational growth, nonprofit organization, development, grant writing, and community engagement to her new role. Before joining the Ohio Wesleyan staff, she served as the director of development and outreach at Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Franklin County and as the director of development and communications for Cancer Support Community Central Ohio.

Economics professor Alice Simon, Ph.D., faculty director of the Woltemade Center, said Ellis is a “stellar” choice to be the inaugural executive director of the OWU Career Connection Center.

“The expectations for the new center are very high, and Megan is the right person to achieve them,” Simon said. “Megan has proved in her current role that she has the skills to jump into a newly created job and operationalize the vision, create a blueprint, and achieve the goals required to be successful. Ohio Wesleyan is fortunate to have her leading this initiative.”

Learn more about The OWU Connection and the opportunities it provides Ohio Wesleyan students at www.owu.edu/owuconnection.