2026 VIRTUAL THINK TANKS
Transform Your Career Ecosystem
What are Virtual Think Tanks? Deep dives on important career services topics involving community discussion, practical case studies, and inspiring trends insights,
Innovations in Employer Relations & Industry Partnerships
Tuesday July 21 | 1:00-4:00 EST
Early-bird Registration!
trends talk
Steve Russell
Bowling Green State University
TARGET AUDIENCE: This session is primarily for employer relations staff members and any career services staff who are exploring how to build more strategic, scalable, and innovative partnerships between career centers and the employers who hire their students.
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Developing an innovative employer relationship strategy that goes beyond transactional interactions and drives deeper, long-term industry partnerships
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Leveraging frameworks and tools, including AI, to modernize and scale employer relations outreach, communication, and engagement
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Getting more strategic about employer relations, moving from reactive event and program coordination to proactive, data-informed partnership development
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Working effectively across colleges and academic units to create an institution-wide employer engagement approach
PANELISTS
Melissa Thiriez
Director, Industry & Employer Connections
Santa Clara Unversity
Sean McGowen
Director of Employer Relations
Carnegie Mellon
Melissa Kulp
Executive Director,
Price College of Business
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Panelist To Be Announced
Innovations in Embedding Career Success
Wednesday July 22 | 1:00-4:00 EST
Early-bird Registration!
trends talk
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Target Audience: This session is for career services leaders, staff, academic advisors and faculty, focusing on building long-term integrations between career centers and the academic experience, both curriculum and co-curriculum.
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Developing strategies to embed career success within the curriculum and co-curriculum to reach and impact all students
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Increasing student career readiness through intentional integration with academic advising systems and processes
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Helping faculty embed and incorporate career services into the classroom experience in ways that are practical, discipline-relevant, and sustainable
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Understanding and measuring the student impact of an embedded career success to demonstrate value and drive continued investment
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Succeeding as a career advising team in an embedded model, including navigating relationships with faculty and academic departments
Speaker To Be Announced
PANELISTS
Brenna Gomez
Director of Career Integration
Oregon State University
Megan Brock
Associate Director of Academic Integration
University of Georgia
Julia Lapan
Executive Director of Career Design & Discovery
University of Virginia
Erica Ely
Assistant Director
University of Maryland,
College Park
Innovations in Faculty Partnerships
Thursday July 23 | 1:00-4:00 EST
Early-bird Registration!
trends talk
This session is for career services leaders, staff, and faculty, focusing on strategies, structures, and relationship-building approaches that turn individual faculty relationships into long-lasting career ecosystem partnerships.
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Defining and implementing strategies for integrating career readiness into courses, syllabi, and academic programs
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Identifying and engaging faculty champions who can model career integration and influence peers across multiple departments
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Developing frameworks and resources that make it easy for faculty to incorporate career learning into their existing teaching
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Measuring and communicating the student impact of faculty partnerships to build institutional momentum and secure long-term buy-in
Nick Cattin
Senior Manager of Consulting
The Career Leadership Collective
PANELISTS
Sarah Crose
Director of The Career Center
Luther College
James DeVita
Assistant VP of Academic Partnerships & High Impact Practices
UMBC
April Robles
Director of Operations & Special Projects
Miami University
Harshdeep Nanda
Grants Director, Career Empowerment Center
Cal State East Bay
Innovations in Leveraging Career Learning Outcomes
Friday July 24 | 1:00-4:00 EST
Early-bird Registration!
trends talk
Monique Frost
Consultant
The Career Leadership Collective
This session is for career services leadership teams and institutional leaders across campus, focused on designing, scaling, and measuring the career touchpoints that ensure every student is progressing toward career readiness.
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Designing a career learning framework or roadmap that guides students from orientation through graduation with clear career readiness
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Creating equitable learning outcomes that reach and support underrepresented students, first-generation students, and those least likely to seek out and opt into career services
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Using career learning and outcome data to tell a compelling institutional story about student career readiness outcomes for accreditors, senior leaders, alumni, and prospective students
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Building campus-wide accountability for career learning outcomes by engaging academic advisors, faculty, and student affairs partners as collaborators of the student career journey
PANELISTS
Amy Jared
Career Development Manager
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Marc Hunsaker
Dean of Personal & Professional Development
Berry College
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Panelist To Be Announced
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Panelist To Be Announced