Leaders In the Field: Where We've Been, Where We're Going

In commemoration of NACE’s 50th anniversary, this article takes a look at a few of the many people who have been instrumental in building and shaping the association over the years—some of the professionals elected to the NACE Academy of Fellows. Here are their reflections of the past, observations about the present, and expectations for the future.

Established in June 1994, the NACE Academy of Fellows recognizes those individuals who have contributed to the career services and HR/staffing professions through the advancement of knowledge, leadership, or excellence in professional practice.

As a result of encouragement from some of her mentors—some of the recruiters who visited her career center—Linda Bates Parker, director of the career development center at the University of Cincinnati (UC), became involved with NACE. “They wanted to help me get connected with colleagues regionally and nationally,” she remembers. “They were recruiters from [companies such as] Procter & Gamble (P&G), Dow, and GM, and they would ask me, ‘Are you going to the CPC conference, do you have membership yet?’ ”

Because she formerly worked at P&G, Parker says the recruiting teams at those employers felt ownership for her success at UC. “Dow and GM had started discussing the importance of diversity and I was interested in ways of diversifying the career center,” she says.

In addition to being encouraged to do so by her mentors, Parker took on leadership roles to help build credibility for her career center. “One of the challenges for a centralized career center within an academic institution is to demonstrate the credibility of its staff and elevate the staff’s standing in the eyes of the institution.”.

She also wanted to see greater diversity in those taking leadership roles. She had been involved early on with the affirmative action committee in MidwestACE, she says. “And, once you become outspoken about some things, someone will say, ‘Well, why don’t you do it?’ Although I never felt like I had the time, I wanted to [volunteer] to affirm my commitment to the issues.”

One issue important to all career centers is technology, Parker says, and she encouraged her staff to embrace new ideas and systems. “One of my staff members was instrumental in creating our virtual career fair, one of the first in the country,” she says. “She connected with others who were working on tech systems by using the NACE directory.”

She also was involved in the association’s early ethics discussions that eventually resulted in the Principles for Professional Conduct and presented at a number of NACE National Meetings on issues related to minority recruitment. After that, Parker developed a minority recruiting training institute for employers that UC hosted for eight or nine years, she says.

Parker received Working Mother Magazine’s National Diversity Champions Award in 2000. She is a featured columnist for Black Collegian magazine; author of “Career Portfolio,” a textbook used in professional development courses; and contributing author of “The Senior Year Experience,” a book about the needs of college seniors.

Parker found the biggest challenge over the years to be budget cuts. “Budget cuts that were institution-wide and resulted in staff losses had to be offset in one way or another,” she says. “We became very entrepreneurial in terms of replacing those resources with alternate forms of income.” For example, her center was buying a book on career planning, but she realized it would be better to produce their own book that was more specific to the needs of UC students. “It was an opportunity to cover things pertinent to us,” she says, “and, of course, receive the income.”

Parker says her staff also has become astute in aligning the career center’s priorities with institutional priorities. “Retention has become a university mandate, and we decided that we could have a role in this issue. We developed “Career Navigator,” which is designed to help undecided and undeclared students have some structured focused time to help them move on the continuum of career decision-making,” she explains. This program was funded by the university and resulted in a new staff position.

The success of that program spurred Parker and her staff to create “Special Topics in Career Decision-Making,” a three-credit course offered every quarter that students in any major can take. “This also resulted in another staff position,” Parker says.

For directors, there is a challenge in allocating time to take on leadership roles because one also must continue to readjust and meet the new expanding or different priorities of the institution, to stay aligned with the university’ goals and objectives.

Now and in the future, Parker says, an important challenge is how to address the increasing demand for technology with an increasing demand for hands-on involvement with students who, she says, seem to be less inclined than ever to pursue the services of career centers. To meet this challenge, Parker says, “We absolutely have to be in touch with the student scene; we have to know who they are and the demands they are facing.”

For example, Parker found that a sizable number of UC students reported having dependents, and wrote an article for Black Collegian magazine on what she calls, “a hidden phenomenon. Our students—male or female—who are facing these dilemmas and demands, need to be directed to services.” And, to keep up with changing student demographics, career centers’ programs and services also may need to change.

Parker says that in addition to offering online programs and services, career services should provide for personal interaction. “We think students should have personal time with us to ensure they understand how important [career services] is,” she says. “We’re trying to find ways to get the message to them early on so we have more time to build relationships with them. Also, we try to get allies and partners on campus to help deliver that message.”

Looking toward the future, Parker thinks those in the profession have to be able to think strategically to optimize the use of facilities. “We can’t sit and look at space and not be very concerned about the best use. We are partnering with disability services to allow for those students who have special testing needs to use our interview rooms when not in use,” she explains.

“Tutoring services and law school interviews also occur in our facility, and we recently invited INROADS to conduct their intern interviews here as well.”

Pat Caretta joined NACE (then known as the College Placement Council, CPC) in 1979 when she was hired as director of career services at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia. “I wanted to better represent our university within the profession and to make sure we had access to the information, resources, professional development opportunities, and networking [that the national association provided],” she remembers. Early on, she came to rely on colleagues that she considers her professional mentors, who offered their wisdom and served—and still serve—as sounding boards, she says.

“Bill Banis was a colleague, and we talked a lot during the 1980s as we both experienced significant growth at our universities. And, as we began to integrate co-op and experiential learning into our operations and faced budget cuts, we needed to rethink how to better position our centers within our universities to serve students and raise our visibility within our institutions,” Carretta explains. “Bill has always had a lot of wonderful ideas and practical advice.”

Carretta also views Gale Varma, who has served in positions on both sides of the profession, as a role model. “I admired her professionalism, passion, and commitment to advancing the profession; her incredible energy; and her ability to engage us into thinking about the future,” she says. “Gale was significant in her work at the national level with NACE. She was the first woman inducted into the Academy of Fellows, and it was gratifying to see a woman receive this well-deserved recognition and honor. She also paved the way for some of the rest of us in terms of involvement in our professional association.”

She also cites Tom Devlin for his “incredible vision [and for the] conversations we [had] about the profession and where it’s going. He thinks outside the box and was an early advocate for NACE’s Management Leadership Institute (MLI). His confidence in my leadership ability and his encouragement were instrumental in my becoming involved in NACE.”

And when “confronted with challenging issues and dilemmas, especially regarding ethical principles,” Carretta consulted Alan Goodman of Catholic University, whom she calls an “incredibly trusted colleague.”

Carretta says her mentors inspired her to assume leadership roles in NACE. “Tom and Gale particularly influenced me because they were in significant leadership roles before me. Leaders need to reach out, grab the hands of ‘newer’ people, and help them take the next steps. That encouraged me to make a commitment of time and effort to the association.”

Part of Carretta’s increasing NACE involvement included participating in the curriculum development for the MLI. She says it was a team effort as people from around the country came together to work with NACE staff in developing the program.

“We thought about the roles we play as leaders in career services work,” she explains, “about the competencies and knowledge areas that could help us be more effective—and then how to put all that together into a curriculum that people would learn from and take back to their offices.” Carretta commends NACE for committing the resources to develop MLI and make it a success. “Being part of creating something so needed and well received has been most rewarding,” she says.

“However, not everyone can afford [to attend] MLI, plus it can’t cover everything. The need for ongoing training is an important responsibility of our professional association,” she explains.

When Carretta was on the NACE Board of Directors from 1998-2000, she became involved with the committee focusing on measurement and assessment for the career services profession.

“That really got me thinking seriously about how important it is to have good information about what we do and what we do well; how students are using services; their satisfaction level; who is using services and who is not; and how we can be more effective.”

Since that time, assessment has been a passion for Carretta. “I’m now our division coordinator of assessment activities across the division of student affairs,” she says. “Activities include best practices, professional standards, measurements, and how to use the information to raise our visibility and image on campus.”

Assessment also is important in providing justification for resources, she says. “We’re competing for limited resources,” she explains, “and assessment information helps us determine if we’re putting resources in the right places.”

In addition to building and strengthening connections with faculty and academic departments at GMU, Carretta has used assessment to show the value of the career center’s activities and services.

“Through assessment, we have the opportunity to demonstrate how what we do helps students continue to learn and develop,” she says. “We tie our programs and services in with classroom activities—this improves learning for our students and reinforces the value of different out-of-classroom experiences that we offer. It also shows us as educators as well as professionals.”

The importance of co-curricular programs and working with faculty members will continue to grow, she says, which is all part of demonstrating value and results to obtain the necessary resources to keep helping students.

Looking ahead, Carretta says that it is important to prepare new professionals to be successful in the field. “We need to think about how we can impact what’s being taught in the graduate programs.”

She also believes that ever-growing multiculturalism will continue to influence the profession. “We need staff who can relate to the increasingly diverse student population,” she says. “We have international students and first-generation students whose parents came here from all over the world. New professionals need to have multicultural competencies to help these students think about career plans and the job search.”

In addition, she says it’s important to attract people to the profession to help diversify the staff. “This is a serious issue because we believe our staff’s diversity should reflect the diversity of our students,” she explains.

As for the association, “NACE should continue to offer virtual seminars on a variety of topics and continue to offer opportunities to help new professionals develop skills and competencies,” Caretta says. “Our association has a critical role to play in offering training opportunities to enable staff to develop and enhance skills and knowledge.”