Featured Speakers
Topics and speakers are subject to change
Featured Speaker I
Tues 10:15 am - 11:30 am
When the Going Gets Tough: Nonconventional Career Counseling Approaches for Socially Disenfranchised Clients
Traditional career counseling approaches assume most clients have an internal locus of control, adaptive life skills, and autonomous control over career decisions. In reality, millions of clients or students require added care and creativity from service providers due to cultural factors, socioeconomic barriers, abject living conditions, and other difficult situations. This session will focus on “nonconventional” career counseling approaches that were conceived using the tenets of social constructivism where clients/students construct their own understanding of the world within the social context of their unique experiences. This presentation will explore approaches that include: 1) life narratives to enrich career counseling with socially disenfranchised clients, 2) career genograms to explore diverse family patterns, and 3) quantitative career assessments for qualitative content. The presentation will include the actual cases derived from the supervision experiences of students with a variety of clients.
Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology at Howard University, Senior Research Analyst for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Negro Education, the country’s oldest black continuous publication. After completing coursework for a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Temple University, Ivory became a correctional and forensic psychology resident at the United States Penitentiary. Upon completion, he joined the faculty of Southern University and became the fourth recipient of the prestigious DuBois Fellowship from the US Department of Justice. Ivory is also the author of Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-Age African-American Males, which analyzes academic success indicators from national surveys that together give voice to nearly 5,800 pupils from schools across the country. He also served as the clinical director of the Manhood Training Village. He has held visiting research appointments at Emory, Drexel, and Morehouse School of Medicine.
Featured Speaker II
Tues 11:45 am-1:00 pm
Opportunity Through Adversity: Accountability is Here to Stay
This presentation will highlight some of the great opportunities we have as counselors, career specialists, educators, and other helping professional while facing these challenging times. The speaker will share some of her personal experiences that started with adversity and later turned into some incredible opportunities. This is a "must see" session from a speaker who started her career as a rural school teacher in Wisconsin and has gone on to become the President of the National Career Development Association and the Chair of the Counseling Department at George Washington University. As you follow her journey she will share many lessons learned along the way, and how accountability is one of the keys to success. You will be inspired and motivated to move forward in your own journey to succeed.
Pat Schwallie-Giddis, Ph.D., is Chair of Counseling/Human and Organizational Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University (GWU). Previously she was an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Counseling/and Human and Organizational Studies at GWU. Pat has been recognized as a champion of counseling and career development for many years. She has a wealth of experiences as a teacher, counselor, district level administrator, and director for career development at the Florida Department of Education. Pat has spoken to professionals throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Russia, and Scotland. She has held leadership roles in professional associations at state and national levels including President of the Florida Career Development Association, the Florida Counseling Association, Associate Executive Director and Interim Executive Director of the American Counseling Association. She is the current President of the National Career Development Association.
Pat is known for her untiring service to education and counseling, having received the American Counseling Association Carl D. Perkins Legislative Award and the Spirit of America Award from the AVA/Guidance Division and the United States Air Force. She is an American Counseling Association Fellow. Pat received her Ph.D. at Florida State University in Counseling and Human Systems where she was named Distinguished Educator of the Year in 1995. In 2000, she received the Distinguished Educator award from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Pat co-authored several articles and three books including her most recent book, Counseling Activities for Life Skills and Career Development.
Featured Speaker III
Tues 1:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Best Jobs for Renewing America
As America emerges from the worst recession in a half-century, government leadership is redirecting our economy in ways that will keep us competitive. Learn about the initiatives that are indicated by the stimulus package and by the federal budget plan. Gain an understanding of the job opportunities that will emerge in certain key sectors of the economy: infrastructure, green technologies, education, information and telecommunication technologies, health care, and advanced manufacturing. Some of these are pillars of the economy that need renewal for the benefit of all jobs and businesses. Others are industries where America has long had a competitive advantage and is likely to enjoy that advantage for years to come.
Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., is one of the nation's leading occupational experts and appears regularly on national news programs and in major print publications to share his expertise about trends in the world of work. He is a Senior Product Developer at JIST Publishing, has 30 years of experience in the career information field, and is an award-winning career information systems developer. Laurence has been a researcher and developer at Educational Testing Service, where he helped to develop the SIGI Plus computer-based career information system. As a consultant, he developed the Career Oasis system, which is used at three universities in the Persian Gulf region.
Laurence has served as a board member and as president of the Association of Computer-based Systems for Career Information. He has appeared on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, ABC News Now, the Fox Business Channel's Money for Breakfast, CNN's American Morning, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and many more television and radio shows across the nation. He is author and co-author of a score of books for JIST Publishing and maintains the Career Laboratory blog on FastCompany.com.
Featured Speaker IV
Tues 3:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Yes, But What Else Can You Do? Considerations for Promoting Transferable Skills Development
Today's labor market and its consequent employment practices are changing, relying less on permanent full-time workers and instead employing more people who work flexibly for different organizations at different times. Transferable skills such as effective communication and problem-solving skills are critical to successful employment in this evolving labor market. Although workers need to be flexible and adaptable in their approach to the work environment, many individuals either do not have or cannot identify their transferable skills. This presentation will focus on the responsibilities of and opportunities for promoting transferable skill development in educational (emphasis on secondary and higher education sectors) and work settings. Specific strategies for promoting the importance of transferable skills and for developing them will be discussed. Emphasis will be placed on preparing individuals to develop cultural competency skills to work in diverse environments. Career professionals who work with secondary and post-secondary education students, adult workers, and job seekers are encouraged to attend.
Angela M. Byars-Winston, Ph.D., completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at the University of Maryland, College Park and earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University. She is currently an Associate Scientist in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Women’s Health Research. Her research interests include the examination of cultural influences on career development, especially for racial/ethnic minorities and women, using social cognitive career theory. Angela’s recent work has focused on the career development experiences of underrepresented groups in the sciences, engineering, and medicine. She is principal investigator for a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation conducting a three-year study of the career and academic development of racial/ethnic minority undergraduates in science and engineering. In addition, she is co-investigator of a federal grant funded by the National Institutes of Health to promote retention of racial/ethnic minority doctoral students in biological and behavioral science. Angela is currently consulting on and co-leading several research and intervention efforts to advance the careers of female early career professionals in clinical research at several medical schools around the country (University of Virginia and MD Anderson Medical Center, Dallas, TX).
Angela's publications have appeared in various journals including the Career Development Quarterly, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Career Assessment, and Medical Education and in several edited volumes such as Career Counseling for African Americans, Handbook of Multicultural Counseling (2nd Edition), Counseling Diverse Populations (3rd edition), and the forthcoming Handbook of Diversity in Feminist Psychology (2nd edition) edited by Drs. Hope Landrine and Nancy Felipe Russo. She is an ad-hoc member of numerous editorial boards and has served the American Psychological Association through various positions in the Society for Counseling Psychology (Division 17) and the Society for the Psychology of Women (Division 35). Angela is immediate past Co-Chair of the Professional Standards Committee for the National Career Development Association.
Featured Speaker V
Wed 9:45 am - 11:00 am
Conducting Career Development Services in a Flat World: Implications for Practitioners and Educators
United States college graduates are starting their first job out of town – in China. Face-to-face conversations are happening online by people thousands of miles apart from one another. Global classrooms and workgroups are occurring through webinar technologies. As career professionals and career educators are we prepared to participate in a global marketplace? Using online career information systems and webinar technology, we can provide career services to anyone with access to high speed internet. This presentation will demonstrate some of the new innovations going on globally to provide career services in a virtual and technology-rich environment.
V. Scott Solberg, PhD., is the Associate Director of Research at The Center on Education and Work in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and the Director of the Wisconsin Careers unit. Scott is an active member in the Society for Vocational Psychology, a Section in Division 17 (Society for Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. He is a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology, International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, and National Career Development Association. Scott currently serves on the editorial board of the Career Development Quarterly. He has published more than 40 professional articles, chapters, monographs, and technical reports that focus on vocational guidance, career and workforce development, preventing school dropouts, and developing resilience skills among at-risk youth. He is author of Success Highways, a proven drop-out prevention curriculum for at-risk middle and high school students.
Featured Speaker VI
Wed 11:15 am - 12:30 pm
Why Try? Overcoming Poverty, Violence and Failure
What are the keys to helping youth overcome violence, failure, poverty, and other deficits that make it difficult for them to succeed? Christian Moore will share his own life experiences as a youth with severe learning disabilities, and walk participants through his journey of discovering the social and emotional assets that allowed him to get a masters degree and become a nationally recognized child advocate. This session will explore the seeds of motivation and hope which enable young people to overcome their challenges and succeed in education, the workplace, and life. Topics include: how social and emotional deficits lead to destructive behaviors and poor social outcomes, using multiple learning modalities to help reduce social and emotional deficits, and how positive relationships can build hope and change lives.
J. Allen is President of WhyTry, Inc., a company which provides behavioral interventions for at-risk youth. He is an international presentation on social and emotional education. His experience include 20 years as a volunteer working with at-risk youth, youth in custody, and foster children. He has been a passionate advocate for youth and an innovator in technologies for helping youth move from failure to success. After receiving a degree in journalism, he started a career as a technology entrepreneur that led him to start nine high tech companies. In 1988 he install the first PC network in the White House and spent four years working there and with other large agencies in Washington, D.C. In 1998 his janitor came to him with an idea for helping kids stay out of trouble. That janitor was Christian Moore, who would become the author and creator of the WhyTry Program.
Featured Speaker VII
Wed 12:45 pm - 1:45 pm
Dropout or Push Out: Lives Changed Forever
The dropout statistics in the United States are alarming. Many young people either drop out entirely or feel like they are pushed out of a system that doesn't respond to their needs. Different students require different tools and strategies to keep them engaged and successful in school and beyond. In this presentation, you will explore a "toolbox" of programs and approaches that have been used in South Carolina. These tools represent options and resources for students and parents ranging from free, common sense methods to more complex and expensive programs. The presenter will highlight some best practices for keeping students in school, and programs that include Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), Middle College, STAR Academies, High Schools that Work, Your Child Is Job #1, and others. To keep young people in school we must help them discover, in the words of Bill Daggett, “how [they] are smart.” Come explore how to do that in this practical presentation.
Kaye Kirkland Shaw, Ph.D., is the coordinator for the Midlands Regional Education Center, and Executive Director of Midlands Education and Business Alliance, serving Lexington, Richland and Fairfield Counties in South Carolina. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of South Carolina. Kaye has taught at-risk students at the high school and adult education levels with a certification in business education. She was instrumental in launching and continues to work with Midlands Middle College, a program for students who are having challenges in the traditional high school setting. Over the past six years, Kaye has taught numerous career development facilitators courses for educators and business partners in the Midlands of South Carolina and is currently one of four instructors in South who is trained to teach this course electronically.
Kaye's research projects include looking at the dropout rate of the Midlands of South Carolina, School-to-Work legislation and its implications for communities and families, teacher retention, and the benefits of electronic mentoring with 8th graders. She serves on the statewide Marketing and Communications Committee and the Curriculum Framework and Counseling Committee, both set up to implement the Education and Economic Development Act in South Carolina. Kaye is a member of a newly formed group in South Carolina to look at how the educational system can work more effectively with the military. She serves on the Education, Jobs, and Life Skills Council of the United Way of the Midlands.