Rebekah Paré

Rebekah Pryor Paré is the Associate Dean for the Letters & Science Career Initiative and the Executive Director of SuccessWorks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Paré oversees the college-wide enterprise intended to enable all L&S students to enjoy rewarding careers and satisfying lives. In three short years, her work increased student participation in career preparation five-fold, improved student career outcomes by 14 percentage points, and engaged faculty and academic departments as partners in student career development. She has trained some 20 institutions from across the globe on her innovative model of service delivery.

Since 2020, Paré has served as the chair of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Letters and Sciences Career Initiatives Peer Group. Prior to her current role, she served as an academic advisor and then Assistant Dean for Academic Progress Services. Her insights into student advising positioned Paré to write a landmark research report on L&S college-wide advising that led to a number of significant policy changes.  Paré earned her BA from the University of New Hampshire and MAs in German Literature and Musicology from UW-Madison. She completed doctoral coursework in both fields, and while dissertating on the nationalistic misappropriation of the “Taste” debate in early German periodicals, she redirected her career toward higher education administration.  In her free time, Paré plays the piano for “Ladies Must Swing,” a 19-piece all-female big band, she relishes.