Meet the Career Center
The Career Center staff is here to help undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni develop and implement their short and long-term career plans. We have experienced Career Advisors who specialize in different disciplines, offering sound career advice and professional connections relevant to their specialty. Whether you're still deciding on a major, trying to identify professional career paths related to your major, or ready to start your job/internship search, be sure to connect with us early and often!
Career Advising Team
Chris Babbitt (he/him)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Chris is a Career Advisor who works with students, faculty, and employers in the Seymour & Esther Padnos College of Engineering & Computing, mathematics, statistics, and physics departments.
Rachel Becklin (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Rachel is a Career Advisor and Internship Specialist, helping students and faculty with internship programming and initiatives. She also serves students in psychology, dance, theatre, and music.
Career Community: Human & Public Service | Communication & the Arts
Katie Cwiakala (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DEV
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Katie is a Career Advisor and works with students, faculty, and employers in the Seidman College of Business, as well as HTM and Sport Management. She also leads the Career Center's peer-to-peer Career Connector program.
Troy Farley (he/him)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Troy is the Director of the Career Center and advises students and alumni in the MBA, MST, and MSA programs.
Stephanie Jensen (she/her)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Stephanie is a Career Advisor who works with students, faculty, and employers in the natural and hard sciences and health related programs.
Meet me in CareerLab Mondays, 11am - 4pm in 200 STU
Lisa Knapp (she/her)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Lisa is a Career Advisor who works with students, faculty, and employers in the communications, humanities, and liberal studies programs. She also works closely with our first and second year students as they begin exploring the world of work.
Dayna Phillips (she/her)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Dayna works with students in the Human and Public Service Career Community. She also specializes in working with exploratory students.
Career Community: Human & Public Service
Lori Staggs (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Lori is a Career Advisor and works with students, faculty, and employers in the Seidman College of Business, as well as HTM and Sport Management.
Meghan Veltri (she/her)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Meghan is a career advisor who works with students, faculty, and staff in the health and science programs. She also helps students parallel plan as they seek entrance into competitive programs.
Graduate Assistants
David Steadman (he/him)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
David is a graduate student in the College Student Affairs Leadership program at GVSU. He assists with career events and outreach and advises students in our engineering & computing, mathematics, statistics, and physics professions. David will work in the CareerLab on Wednesdays and be closely associated with the STEM Career Community.
Natalee Williams (she/her)
Office Address: 200 Student Services
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Natalee is a graduate student in the Social Work and Public Administration programs at GVSU. She will be advising students in the Communications and Arts Career Community as well as working with Career Connector students and assisting with Career Center events.
Employer Relations
Cindy Brown (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Cindy is the Employer Development Manager and works with our employer partners to connect to GVSU, recruiting students and alumni for full-time jobs and internships.
Kristie Scanlon (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Kristie is the Employer Relations Coordinator and specializes in helping employers create and enhance internship programs for GVSU students.
Marketing, Technology, Adult and Alumni
Grace Joaquin (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Grace is an Assistant Director who evaluates the technology needs for the Career Center. She also provides transparency and informs the work the Career Center does through data analytics.
Dani Lauer (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Dani is the Assistant Director/Coordinator of Adult and Alumni Career Resources who works collaboratively with the Alumni Office and Office of Adult and Continuing Studies to curate, build and maintain career resources and initiatives for adult learners and GVSU alumni.
Megan Riksen (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Megan is an Assistant Director who leads the marketing and communication efforts for the Career Center.
Support and Operations
Sonya Barrett (she/her)
Office Address: 200 STU
Phone: (616) 331-3311
Email: [email protected]
Sonya manages the front desk of our Allendale office, as well as works with the training and development of our Student Assistants.
Joy Hecht (she/her)
Office Address: 101B DeVos
Phone: (616) 331-6708
Email: [email protected]
Joy manages the front desk of our DeVos office as well as works with the training and development of our Student Assistants.
Student Staff
You'll find Career Center Student Assistants covering our Allendale and DeVos offices' front desk; scheduling appointments, checking in students, and helping the office run smoothly.
Career Center Career Connectors can be found out and about around campus; marketing our events, and sharing career advice to resident halls and student groups! You'll also find our Career Connectors running our peer-advising space, CareerLab.