10 Within 10 Recognition

Class of 2020, The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions 

As a business development executive at Gartner, a Texas-based global research and advisory firm, Cristina Pizzimenti, ’20, has built her career on relationships, resilience and the willingness to start somewhere new. After graduating from CMU, she made a deliberate choice to relocate to Dallas — a city where she knew no one — becoming the first in her immediate family to leave Michigan since her grandparents immigrated from Italy in the 1960s. 

The risk has paid off. Cristina rose from top business development associate in 2020 and 2021 to a position where, in 2024 — her first year as a manager — her team closed more than $2 million in business. Along the way, she closed a record-setting deal for the region. She has been a consistent Winners Circle achiever at the firm, and she lives by a simple philosophy: get 1% better every day. 

Cristina credits her time at CMU with giving her the foundation for that leap. As a new member educator for Delta Zeta, she developed the mentorship and leadership instincts she now applies with her own team. On-campus work experiences gave her a head start on the professional skills she’d use every day. “It goes by so fast,” she said of her time in Mount Pleasant. “Pause and appreciate the little moments while they’re happening.” 

She stays connected to CMU in concrete ways: mentoring current Delta Zeta members, actively recruiting CMU graduates to Gartner, and volunteering her time to help Dallas-area professionals — many of them fellow CMU alumni — with resume and interview preparation. 

“Someone before you made your CMU experience possible,” she said. “Now you can help make it possible for someone else." For Cristina, being a CMU Chippewa means belonging to something that doesn’t end when you leave campus. 

Cristina holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts in health administration from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions at CMU.