That’s how Cara Mulvaney explains her journey to Rochester Institute of Technology, filling a new role in a new office managing youth protection and compliance. With a legal background and professional career spent in compliance, she not only speaks the language of the position, but uses it to help others navigate through somewhat unchartered waters.

“My husband and I both happened to see the job posting and were like, “Oh my God; they wrote this position for me’,” she said with a laugh. “I had been a Year One program facilitator at RIT, so I knew the university well and it was just a stunning thing to see, so I really thought this job had been written for me.”

The offer came from Donna Burnette, executive director of RIT’s K-12 University Center, a week before the pandemic shutdown in March 2020 – something Mulvaney said was a blessing in disguise that gave her time to invest into researching and writing the Protection of Minors Policy for RIT, when all activities were canceled.

Now, as director of RIT’s Office of Youth Protection and Compliance, she’s charged with implementing and overseeing guidance and policy regarding youth engagement with the university. As the office enhances its services, Mulvaney said she is committed to creating awareness and promoting youth safety across campus and in the community.

“There are very few offices (that) work with minors day in and day out, but there is a youth aspect on campus all the time, so it’s about creating awareness in the RIT community that we have thousands of people on campus every year who are not adults,” she said. “We need to teach people about proper supervision and appropriate engagement and interaction with youth in a way that creates boundaries and helps educate everyone involved on those expectations.”

Mulvaney comes to the position with an extensive background in compliance and higher education. She earned an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Dayton and graduated in 2006 with a Juris Doctor from Ohio State. Shortly before starting at RIT, she also graduated from Syracuse University with a master’s degree in higher education administration.

“My entire career has been dedicated to compliance – it was just the perfect fit for me,” she said. “I’m a rule follower; I’m very by-the-book. By the time I was a senior in college, I knew I was going to law school, not necessarily to practice law at a firm, but rather to use that kind of knowledge and skill set in something else.”

A connection led her to athletic compliance at Ohio State, working alongside colleague and mentor Heather Lyke who is the current athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh. Mulvaney then landed a job as compliance coordinator with the University of Texas athletic department and was recruited back to Ohio State where she worked for five more years and helped create Buckeye Sports Camps and Clinics. In 2012, she moved again – this time to Central New York for a position as assistant athletic director for compliance at Colgate University.

By the time she moved to the Rochester area three years later, her next career step was up in the air.