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VIRTUAL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
VIRTUAL
Thursday, November 13, 2025
All times listed are Eastern Time for the Virtual Conference
11:00-12:00 Opening Keynote: Academic & Career Integration Across a Career Ecosystem
12:00-12:30 Breakouts
12:30-1:00 Plenary Conversation: Dr. Tammy Wyatt, Senior Vice Provost, UTSA
1:00-1:30 Breakouts
1:30-2:00 Breakouts
2:00-2:45 Thriving Ecosystems Panel: Academic Integration Strategies
2:45-3:15 Breakouts
3:15-4:00 Fireside Chat, Andy Wilson, Ph.D Senior Associate Vice President, Student Success, Loyola University Chicago
KEYNOTE
The Career & Academic Integration Necessity
Jeremy Podany is the Founder and CEO of The Career Leadership Collective, a consultancy that has done business with over 1,000 colleges and universities since 2017 on the systemic career development needs of higher education. Jeremy is the author of the 2025 book The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education. The Collective is the inventor of the National Alumni Career Mobility (NACM) survey and the EMBARK first destination data service, which were both acquired by Lightcast in 2023.
Jeremy enjoyed nearly 20 years working in higher education, primarily in career services. His inventions and consulting solutions have systemically helped thousands of university leaders and hundreds of thousands of college students with career education and career mobility.
PLENARY CONVERSATION
Building a trackable and measurable ecosystem where career engaged learning is integrated into the academic experience.
Dr. Tammy Wyatt
Senior Vice Provost
UTSA
Dr. Tammy Wyatt serves as Senior Vice Provost for Student Success at The University of Texas at San Antonio. With over 20 years in higher education, she leads cross-campus initiatives that advance student success and institutional innovation—boosting retention and graduation rates, reducing time to degree, expanding access for first-generation and underserved learners, and embedding career-readiness as a core component of the student experience. As a nationally recognized speaker and scholar, her work has earned UT San Antonio multiple national awards and over $30 million in external funding. Her research centers on holistic student support, career-focused learning pathways, and data-informed ecosystems that foster student thriving. She holds the Jeff & Loretta Clarke Endowed Mental Health Chair and is a Fellow of the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership.
FIRESIDE CHAT
Strategic Planning for Your Career Ecosystem
Andrew (Andy) Wilson, PhD, serves as Loyola University Chicago’s inaugural associate vice president for student success, effective May 2, 2022. In this role, Dr. Wilson provides an overarching vision and strategic leadership for Loyola’s Student Academic Services and Career Services in the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success. He collaborates with students, faculty, staff, and departments across the University to enhance student success and career development. As such, he champions and advocates for these functions and teams to provide exemplary programs and services for all students.
THRIVING CAREER ECOSYSTEMS PANEL
Academic Integration Strategies
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Julie Bechtold
Academic and Career Advising Manager
Waubonsee Community College
Mario Vela
Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director, University Career Center,
University of Texas San Antonio
Erica Stallings
Executive Director, Career Discovery and Success
Auburn University
Dr. Amy Frederick
Associate Professor of Art History
Centre College
BREAKOUT SESSIONS
12:00-12:30
Building The Ecosystem: Intentional Career and Academic Collaboration
Neil Baumgartner, Associate Vice President for Student Success and Advising, Oakland University
Wayne Thibodeau, Senior Director, Career and Life Design, Oakland University
Transforming a campus-wide approach to career readiness takes time, intention, and strategic partnership. Over the past year, Oakland University’s Career and Life Design Center and Academic Advising leadership have laid the groundwork for a collaborative ecosystem that integrates academic advising and career development. What began as informal conversations has evolved into joint leadership meetings, fostering stronger partnerships and generating new ideas for systemic collaboration. This summer, the academic advising team adopted a revised vision and mission—anchored in newly developed student learning outcomes and adviser competencies—that explicitly center career development as a shared responsibility. Guided by The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education, we are now forming a cross-campus steering committee of faculty and staff to co-create university-wide career learning outcomes. Our bold goal: to ensure that every Oakland University student is equipped for career success upon graduation. This proposal represents our next step in building a sustainable, campus-wide ecosystem that intentionally prepares students for life beyond the university.
12:00-12:30
Not Just Scheduling Classes: Reimagining Advising for Career Impact
Julie Bechtold, Academic and Career Advising Manager, Waubonsee Community College
Academic advising has long been viewed as a logistical checkpoint—helping students navigate course selections and degree requirements. At Waubonsee, we integrated career advising and academic advising equipping all advisors with foundational career development knowledge shifting the career conversation from transactional to developmental. We accomplished this by training all advisor on career development theories, career exploration strategies and incorporating the use of career tools when meeting with students.
Outcomes: Advisors report confidence in using career tools when meeting with students to help them move forward in the decision-making process. They also have greater clarity on when to keep working with the student or referring them to a career counselor for more intensive guidance.
12:00-12:30
Advising for the Future: Career Champions and Academic Integration
Carly Smith, Director, Career Education, University of Miami
Marina Marchena, Interim Executive Director, Student Success Advocates - Strategic Planning, University of Miami
Career aspirations are the primary driver behind students’ pursuit of higher education. Recognizing this, the University of Miami has taken deliberate steps to more closely align career services, academic advising, and student success. Academic Advisors, known as Cane Navigators at the University of Miami, have consistently led participation in the Toppel Career Center’s annual Career Champions certification sessions. This year, with the launch of the new Center for Academic Navigation and Success (CANS), the University formalized this vital partnership. In collaboration with the Toppel Career Center, all 79 Cane Navigators, Transitional Guides, and Success Advocates became certified Career Champions by undergoing interactive training. This immersive experience equipped them not only with essential career-related resources but also with hands-on practice navigating these tools, empowering them to better support students in areas such as career exploration, pre-law advising, internship planning, and career readiness. To further enrich this foundation, these staff members are encouraged to participate in ongoing professional development focused on career-related topics. This collaborative spirit came to life during the annual Student Success Summit, a full day of workshops and networking designed to foster growth and connection among student-facing professionals. Going forward, every new staff member joining CANS will become a certified Career Champion as part of their training.
During this session, participants will gain the following:
1. Strategies to provide career services training to professional academic advisors
2. Outline for a collaborative Student Success Summit that bridges career education, academic advising, and student success
3. Suggestions for resources that support career exploration conversations and link career coaches and academic advisors
1:00-1:30
Career 201: Embedding Required Career Education and Resume into Advising and Registration
Stacy Collins, Executive Director of Career and Academic Success, Stetson University
Liz Connor, Director of Career Success, Stetson University
In an effort to improve post-graduate success of our students we created a mandatory advising/registration lab that all sophomore-level students must complete. In this online module students watch dynamic videos on the career resources available at Stetson University, answer questions about their own career competency gains, and submit a resume. This takes career education from an auxiliary, optional component to one that is embedded in the curricular and academic experience. The first group to have completed this lab have our highest post-graduate outcomes in history, with a 93% success rate. This success shows the effectiveness of this initiative which was implemented with zero operational dollars and a small team. Participants who attend our session will walk away with concrete steps on how to modify our strategy and create a similar effort at their own school.
1:00-1:30
Design Thinking for Student Success: Replicable Models for Academic and Career Integration
Eli Burke, Senior Program Manager, University of Arizona
This session will share how the University of Arizona’s Design Lab integrates research and design thinking into paid student internships to create scalable, equitable, and academically grounded experiential learning opportunities. We will describe how the program grew from 10 interns in 2021 to over 200 annually by 2024 through replicable frameworks for partnering with industry and community organizations. Participants will engage in a mini design sprint activity to experience the process first-hand, learn how applied research and student-generated data drive program design, and explore practical ways to integrate these strategies on their own campuses. Outcomes include a clearer understanding of how to align academic learning with workforce readiness, concrete tools and templates for implementation, and evidence-based strategies for measuring success through student impact data, partner feedback, and continuous improvement.
1:00-1:30
A Collaborative Model For Integrating Career Readiness Across Disciplines
Brandy Bast, Director of Curriculuar Integration, Marian University
How can career readiness become a fully integrated part of the academic experience rather than a separate, co-curricular effort? This panel shares a scalable, cross-disciplinary approach to embedding career competencies through intentional collaboration among faculty, career services, and students. Panelists will highlight a three-class workshop series in Education, a 16-week careers course in Exercise Science, and the student impact of scaffolded business career courses. Attendees will gain practical strategies for building faculty partnerships, tailoring content by discipline, measuring outcomes, and scaling efforts across campus.
1:30-2:00
Strong Start: A Career Readiness Continuum for First Year Students
Genevieve Harclerode, Assistant Vice President, Career Services, Loyola University Chicago
Taylor Kinn, Director, Career Communities, Loyola University Chicago
Our presentation will showcase how Loyola University Chicago Career Services successfully introduced a career readiness continuum for new students by integrating initiatives across multiple entry points in their first 6 months as a Rambler:
1. Intentional introduction of career-focused programming for students and their families during summer orientation (LUCO)
2. A warm and personal welcome from their dedicated Career Community Advisor at “CareerPalooza” - a large-scale interactive event hosted during Welcome Week
3. Reinforced throughout the fall semester by dedicated career curriculum content for UNIVERSITY 101, a required first year course
Participants will be able to identify strategies for creating an intentional continuum of career readiness by integrating career services into orientation, co-curricular programming, and first-year curriculum, and adapt these approaches on their own campuses.
Career Community engagement and adoption metrics and examples of programming content will be shared.
1:30-2:00
An Ecosystems Approach to Supporting International Students’ Career Development
Jane Sitter, Senior International Career Consultant, UMN Twin Cities
An ecosystems approach to career development is essential for addressing the complex challenges of creating accessible, inclusive services—especially for populations like international students. This presentation will explore how to implement such an approach by engaging and training key partners such as the international student office, alumni relations, academic advising, English language support, student leadership and employment, external community organizations, and more. We will discuss the process of identifying key influencers in the ecosystem, evaluating their impact on international students’ career journeys, and establishing collaborations. Examples of career ecosystems initiatives supporting international student career needs will be shared, including successes and challenges and program results. The audience will reflect on this approach and implementation ideas, while also exploring how it can benefit other student populations.
1:30-2:00
From Classroom to Career: Adapting Curriculum for What’s Next
Brianna (Bri) Miloz-Pabst, Associate Director of Curriculum Design, W. P. Carey School of Business Arizona State University
ASU W. P. Carey School of Business Career Center has adapted the career curriculum to align with students’ current needs while accounting for shifts in the job market and the rise of AI to ensure relevance with today’s trends. This work involved assessing the student experience through course surveys, engaging workgroups with staff who interact directly with students to gather anecdotal feedback, and integrating new AI tools that address both student needs at scale and employer expectations in the evolving market. As a result, students are reporting greater clarity and confidence in their career direction, noting the usefulness of the AI tools and the career curriculum in helping them articulate their interests and plan their next steps.
2:45-3:15
Customized Career Engagement Programs for Graduate Students
Yas Hardaway, Executive Director of Career Services, Pepperdine University, Graduate School of Education & Psychology
We create customized programs for graduate students with the following learning outcomes: Clarity, Confidence, and Community. Our Jamii: Communities of Practice programs provide an accessible opportunity for graduate students to gain up-to-date labor market information in the fields of education and psychology, while expanding their professional community of alumni and industry experts. Our Career Designing Retreat is hosted for new graduate students and is designed to promote self-reflection, intention-setting, and community-building as they embark on a new academic journey.
2:45-3:15
Rapid Redesign: co-create community-engaged curricula in five days.
Annie Kurton, Director, Experiential Learning, University of Arizona
The Design Sprint was first developed at Google Ventures to answer critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers in five-days. In 2021, the University of Arizona launched the Experiential Learning Design Accelerator Intensive - a highly facilitated faculty fellowship and training program that brings fellows through the sprint process to arrive at desirable, feasible, and viable approaches to integrating authentic community partnerships into undergraduate courses. This workshop will guide participants through the design sprint process adapted to a higher education context, specifically focusing on community engaged learning (CEL) design, grounded in mutual benefit and reciprocity. We will also share our insights, including models, strategies, and examples of best practices for participants to apply at their home institutions.
This workshop invites participants to learn and apply the design sprint process- developed at Google Ventures to answer start-ups’ critical business questions, and how it’s been adapted to a higher education context to drive community engaged curricular innovations. In a sprint, participants move from clarifying a critical question, for example “how might we authentically integrate this community organization’s challenge into my course?” to develop and test prototypes informed by stakeholder feedback and actionable insights.
Rather than prototyping products in a business design sprint, faculty develop critical components of their students’ experience in the course, and prototype sustainable community partnerships grounded in reciprocity and mutual benefit.
A design sprint is an integral component of the University of Arizona’s Experiential Learning Design Accelerator program (the Accelerator) and launches the year-long fellowship where faculty across campus apply to redesign an existing undergraduate course or create a new course that integrates community engagement. Since offering the Accelerator to our campus in 2019, we have supported over 70 faculty with total courses enrolling more than 3,000 students. These Accelerator courses range from 100-level General Education to 400-level technical electives, from disciplines spanning humanities and social sciences to engineering, business, and public health. Our work in the Accelerator centers a community of practice composed of faculty and CEL staff, mentorship, and protected time for curriculum development. This year, our efforts are focused on the Borderlands region in Southern Arizona, and effectively engaging our LatinX and First Generation students in community engagement and experiential learning.
From there, the session will guide audience members to consider how they might apply these principles and strategies in their own work.
2:45-3:15
Start with the End in Mind: Using Career Markers to Guide the Student Journey
Beth Lee, Lead Career Coach, College of Business Administration, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Xiomara (Xio) Tapia, Lead Career Coach College of Hospitality, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
We developed a program based on Career Success Markers that serve as key career milestones that guide students in their career development process. We anticipate this will lead to successful post-graduation outcomes based on industry standards and generally accepted high-impact practices. We developed a Career Development Plan along with a campaign and communication strategy to engage students and campus partners. Preliminary numbers in the pilot semester already showed an increase of 178% in student touchpoints after implementation.
REGISTRATION
Early Bird ends Oct 3
Pricing Overview