Leadership
CareerWell is led by Graduate School Director of Experiential Professional Development Jason Cramer, Ph.D., M.Ed.Dr. Cramer is an educator and career coach who draws from nearly 20 years of experience educating, coaching, and mentoring 1200+ individuals—a group comprising high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and professionals across sectors—to lead the CareerWell program.
His passion for education drove him to teach high school chemistry for nine years, pursue a master’s degree in educational leadership from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the VCU School of Medicine, and teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Dr. Cramer subsequently joined NC State University where he founded the Accelerate to Industry (A2i) program, an industry workforce development program for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers offered by the NC State Graduate School and 10 other universities across the US. He secured a NSF Innovations in Graduate Education grant to evaluate A2i as a national workforce readiness model and positioned the program to receive corporate sponsorships from several business partners.
Dr. Cramer also served as a scientific consultant and grant writing specialist for Eva Garland Consulting and a proposal writer for PRA Health Sciences.
His current role involves liaising with business and government professionals to develop, deliver, and evaluate programming to support graduate students’ exploration of non-academic career options, including careers with companies, nonprofits, and government units. Dr. Cramer also works closely with Carolina alumni, faculty, and staff to advance existing partnerships supporting professional development programs, including the Graduate Certificate in Business Fundamentals program.