Career Everywhere

What would it look like if every college student—not just the ones who knew to ask, or had the time, or could afford to go unpaid—actually got a meaningful work-based learning experience before graduation? That's not a hypothetical at ODU. It's the mandate. In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Barbara Blake , Chief Internship Officer and Execut...

What does it actually take to make career services a campus-wide strategic priority—not just in name, but in budget, staff, and institutional structure? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Barbara Zerillo , Senior Director of the Career Development Center at Post University, to talk about how she turned career readiness into one of the institution's five official strategic pillar...

What does it take to build a career development program for students you may never meet in person—students scattered across time zones, juggling jobs and families, logging in at 3 a.m.? In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, Amy Ballard of Eastern University talks about how she built an online career development program from scratch for a population that's as diverse as it is distribute...

The internship landscape is shifting—and if you've been feeling the pressure in your career center, you're not alone. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Todd Schuster , Senior Director and Head of Network Development at Forage , to take an honest look at the state of experiential learning in higher education. Todd brings a rare dual perspective: he spent the first half of his ca...

What career services team wouldn't benefit from reaching more students—without adding more hours to the workday? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Nikki Pebbles, Learning and Development Specialist for the City University of New York and a career content creator with over 400,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Nikki shares how career advisors can pos...

What does it actually look like when a university president makes career a strategic priority — and how does a career services leader make the most of it? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Joe Catrino , Executive Director of the Center for Career Design at Dartmouth College, for a candid look at what's possible when career services has a seat at the highest table on campus. Joe...

What if "not knowing" wasn't a problem to fix—but exactly where students are supposed to be? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Justin Lawhead, Assistant Vice President for Career Readiness and Postgraduate Student Success at the University of South Carolina, to talk about one of the most persistent challenges in career services: the deficit model. Justin is working to repla...

The job market hasn't been this hard for students and recent grads in decades. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with John Koelliker , co-founder and CEO of Leland —a platform that connects students and professionals with expert coaches and partners directly with career centers to amplify their impact. John works with tens of thousands of students and the employers trying to hire th...

What if your on-campus student job could do more than pay the bills? What if it was actually a career development experience? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Eran Peterson , Associate Director of Work+ at the University of Connecticut, to talk about how UConn is reimagining student employment through the Work+ program. UConn's Work+ program — adapted from a national model pio...

What does it look like when a small career services team thinks big—and builds the systems to back it up? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Amber Goreham, Jess Johnson, and Derrick Gill from the University of Central Missouri's Career and Life Design Center to talk about how their six-person team is scaling career education across a campus of nearly 9,000 students. UCM has spen...

What if career services leaders thought more like Chief Marketing Officers? In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Ashley Safranski, Chief Marketing Officer at uConnect, to explore why adopting a CMO mindset can help career services leaders elevate their impact across campus. Ashley shares the striking parallels between marketing teams and career cen...

In an era of constant technological change, a liberal arts education builds the adaptability, critical thinking, and career agility students need to stay employable—even as jobs evolve or disappear. In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Sharon Belden Castonguay , Executive Director of the Gordon Career Center at Wesleyan University, to explore why a liberal arts education may be more...

In this repurposed live session from the Career Everywhere Community , Meredith Metsker sits down with Gerald Tang , Executive Director of Career Services and Internships at Bridgewater State University, to explore how institutions can rethink and strengthen their employer engagement strategies. Gerald shares how his team moved beyond counting career fairs and job postings to develop a tiered, dat...

What does it really take to scale career services when you’re a team of one—or leading a very small team? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Anita DeCianni Brown (SUNY Empire State University), Nick Edwards (Hardin-Simmons University), and Tyler Orr (Southern Virginia University) for a candid conversation about doing more with less. The panel shares practical strategies for expand...

In this episode, Dr. Matt Cowley of Virginia Tech shares how his team united career services, financial aid, procurement, legal, payroll, advancement, and employers to build a creative, compliant solution for funding unpaid and underpaid internships. Matt discusses how simple leadership moves—framing the problem around student impact, asking the right people to the table, and staying open to itera...

How do you launch a university-wide Experiential Learning Center—in just one year—across three campuses, during budget cuts, staffing challenges, and constant organizational change? In this episode of the Career Everywhere Podcast, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Dr. Josh Domitrovich, Rhonda Gifford, and Meaghan Clister of PennWest to unpack the strategy, persistence, and cross-campus collabo...

In this episode of Career Everywhere, host Meredith Metsker talks with Jeremy Schifeling , Founder of The Job Insiders, AI and ChatGPT expert, keynote speaker, author, and former higher ed career services leader. Jeremy breaks down how AI is actually changing the job market right now, who’s being most affected (including Gen Z and tech talent), and why he believes we’re moving from the “revenge of...

In this episode, University of Washington Executive Director of the Career and Internship Center Briana Randall shares her team’s four-year journey to expand their budget and find new funding sources for career services. She walks through what worked (and what didn’t) when it came to pursuing new revenue streams—from donor campaigns that fell flat, to creative partnerships across campus, to the ma...

How do you scale career support for thousands of nontraditional, online students—many of whom are balancing work, school, and family life? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker chats with Anita DeCianni Brown , who has led career services at SUNY Empire State University for over a decade. Anita shares how she built SUNY Empire’s career services function from the ground up, including how she trans...

How can career education become part of every student’s academic journey—not just an optional add-on? In this episode of Career Everywhere, host Meredith Metsker chats with Brenna Gomez , Director of Career Integration at Oregon State University, about how OSU successfully embedded career development into its new general education curriculum (called Core Education ). Brenna shares how the Beyond O...

In this episode, host Meredith Metsker talks with Joretta Nelson , Vice Chairman of Credo (now part of the Carnegie family). With 25 years of experience in higher education—including time as a music faculty member, vice president for enrollment management, and now a national consultant to presidents and cabinets—Joretta brings a unique vantage point on how career services leaders can position them...

In this episode, host Meredith Metsker is joined by Jonathan Wehne r , AVP of Enrollment Strategy at Carnegie and a seasoned higher ed leader with more than 20 years of experience leading enrollment at institutions like Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and Case Western Reserve University. Jonathan brings a rare insider’s perspective on what enrollment leaders are jugglin...

In this episode, host Meredith Metsker sits down with Julia Vollrath (Director of Career Data, Technologies, and Engagement) and Marissa Altenburg (Integrative Career Solutions Manager) from the University of Florida. Julia and Marissa share how UF’s career center has woven data into the fabric of its operations—transforming data from a scary, four-letter word into a common language that empowers...

How can career services and faculty partner to embed career exploration directly into the classroom—so every student has access, no matter their background or schedule? In this episode, host Meredith Metsker chats with Krysta Foster, Associate Director of Career Services at Michigan State University’s Lyman Briggs College, and Dr. Shahnaz Masani, Assistant Professor in Lyman Briggs College and MSU...

With public trust in higher ed at an all-time low, and ROI under the microscope, career services is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s central to proving the value of a college degree. In this episode, Christine Cruzvergara of Handshake joins host Meredith Metsker to discuss how career services leaders can meet this moment with clarity, courage, and strategy. Christine shares how leaders can redefine...