Elizabeth Zavala-Acevez, Ph.D. is an experienced career services professional with over 15 years of experience working within Higher Education. As the Director of the Career Center at California State University, Fullerton she provides strategic direction to all facets of the Career Center, is involved with several programming efforts that pertain to CSUF’s retention cluster, and serves as the lead on career readiness within the university’s Student Success Team structural framework. As a career services professional she has been actively involved in the Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges and Employers (MPACE), and previously served as a Board Member for the association, co-chaired the 2015 annual MPACE professional conference, and was awarded the NACE Management Leadership Institute Scholarship by MPACE in 2013. Elizabeth’s involvements also include being an active member of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and has been selected and attended both the NACE Leadership Advancement Program and the Management Leadership Institute. Additional professional memberships and involvements include the National Career Development, Association and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). As a professional in higher education, she was also awarded the NASPA Region VI Mid-Level Student Affairs Professional Award in 2015. She has a B.S. in […]
Tom Dowd joined Muhlenberg College in February of 2016 as executive director of Career Services. He is a career development educator and career coach with more than 12 years of experience creating and delivering career programs for diverse audiences in higher education, nonprofit, and corporate environments. Prior to Muhlenberg, Tom was the director of career & professional development at Lehigh University. He received his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College and his master’s degree in instructional design & technology from Lehigh University. Tom also has done additional coursework in organizational development at Temple University.
Marques Clark is an educator and lover of anything pizza-related. He is the Program Manager of the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act grant at Waubonsee College in Aurora, IL. After attending Northern Illinois University, and earning his Master of Science in Higher Education, Marques began conducting research on how pop culture can be used as a tool to educate, train, and engage students. In 2017, Marques launched ClarkHouse, a publishing company that combines pop culture and education to create career resources for young audiences. Marques’ blog MOREPOPCULTURE is a platform that highlights useful tools and resources in pop culture and career development. Marques is currently working on his Doctorate in Counseling and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University. His mission is to empower students by providing them with the tools to market their strengths and experiences in order to achieve their unique career goals.
Brian Parish has over 25 years of experience in enterprise data systems, data governance, and integration, and reporting. As CEO and Founder of IData Inc, a data management firm primarily working with higher education institutions he has worked with over 500 colleges and universities to help them access, understand, connect, and effectively use their organization’s data across all systems. In 2008, Brian led IData in the development in the Data Cookbook, a data governance solution built to support the best practices of pragmatic data governance. Brian lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and 3 daughters.
Jill Thomas has been a national educator and trainer specifically for Title IX in Higher Education. She was formerly the Title IX Coordinator and Director of Equity Investigations at Stanford University. In that role, she oversaw the investigations and three-person panel hearings. Jill came to Stanford in 2018 after a career as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) where she prosecuted child exploitation cases, including cases involving sex trafficking, sextortion, sex tourism, and online exploitation. Before gaining her expertise in child exploitation, she prosecuted terrorism cases, gangs, and cartels. Jill was a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice for over 11.5 years. Jill has recently returned to the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor. Before joining the Department of Justice, Jill served in the U.S. Air Force as a JAG for nearly 10 years doing tours both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney. She remains active in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, JAG Corps as a military judge. Over the course of her career as a trial attorney, Jill has taught and mentored hundreds of lawyers on trial advocacy skills and trained many law enforcement agents on investigations.
Jean Hobler is a lawyer in private practice in Sacramento, California. In her 19 years of litigation practice, she has investigated claims and crimes including sexual harassment and discrimination, criminal activity, and workplace harassment and discrimination on college campuses. After eight years with California and international law firms, Jean spent nine years as a federal prosecutor, investigating and prosecuting a wide range of white collar and national security crimes. As Senior Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento, Jean was responsible for mentoring younger prosecutors in investigating, developing, and trying criminal cases of all types, as well as presenting training to federal, state, and internal banking investigators on investigating and developing cases. Now in solo practice, Jean investigates and reports on a wide range of workplace issues, including on college campuses.
Kathleen Diemer, CFRE, currently serves as Associate Vice President of Advancement Relations at George Mason University. In her role at Mason, she oversees the donor relations, advancement communications, prospect research and management, and information technology and reporting teams. In addition, she played a key role in helping to steer the success of the university’s $500 million Faster Farther campaign. Prior to her work at Mason, Kathleen helped guide the University of Maryland’s central donor relations unit through two comprehensive fundraising campaigns. During her tenure at Maryland, she helped design and implement the university’s Celebration of Scholarships website and Online Endowment Donor Portal, which are widely-recognized as the first applications of their kind. These award-winning projects set industry standards and served as models for donor relations and stewardship programs at other organizations. Kathleen has proudly served as both Secretary-Treasurer and President of the Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP). During her term as President, she helped strengthen association policy related to partnerships and conflict of interest, and also led the association through a strategic visual identity and re-branding process. During her two decades in the field of higher education fundraising she has written or reviewed approximately 2,000 gift agreements.
After spending 25 years in progressive roles within Student Life (DePauw University, Millsaps College and Davis & Elkins College) Dr. Sneed was asked to use the skills and experiences of those years to help Belmont implement its comprehensive SYE program. The direct service component of the SYE has come to be known as the GPS (Growth & Purpose for Students) Program. After the formation of the program in the summer of 2011 and learning from hundreds of Belmont students, David has focused on developing relationships with key campus resource providers and focusing on the developmental issues of “2-3-4 semester” students. Dr. Sneed received his Ed.D. in Higher Education from the University of Memphis and his M.A. in Education and his B.S. in Agriculture Education from Western Kentucky University. He last served as Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students and Special Counsel to the President of Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia. Prior to his work in West Virginia, he was Dean of Students at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.
Dr. Leibsohn received her Ph.D. in Psychology in 1989 and has been committed to the mental health and addictions field since then. For the past 30 years, she has been a tenured professor, chair, and program director in the Seattle University Counseling program and in private practice. She recently received the title of Professor Emeritus. Dr. Leibsohn has written two books with accompanying videos (Basic Counseling Responses and Basic Counseling Responses in Groups), and she also consults with organizations to improve personal and professional wellbeing.
At VCU, Jimmie Gahagan facilitates students’ integrative learning and leadership development to support their success and employability. He teaches leadership classes and encourages students’ engagement in high-impact practices such as study abroad, internships, undergraduate research, peer leadership, and service-learning. He has presented and published widely on such topics as the Sophomore-Year Experience, Creating Learning Outcomes, Residential Learning Initiatives, Peer Leadership, the First-Year Experience, and Student Retention. He has a B.A in political science from the University of Richmond and received his M.A. in Higher Education and Student Affairs and Ph.D. in Education Administration both from the University of South Carolina.
