Award Recipients

Most of the awards presented by SoACE are received through a nomination process, vetted by committee, and then approved on by the board.  One annual award, however, is given at the sole discretion the sitting President, based upon his/her desire to recognize a member who has distinguished themselves by their service to the Association.  The President’s Award has been presented since SoACE’s founding in 2007.

During the President’s Reception at last year’s conference, Mark Colvenbach, the 2018-19 President, awarded Rachel King with one of two 2018 President’s Awards. Samantha Meyer from the University of Georgia also received the award. While on stage presenting the award, Mark shared the following about Rachel:

SoACE has experienced tremendous growth and success over the past few years. A large part of this success can be attributed to the creative, comprehensive and strategic work of Rachel King. Rachel spent a great deal of energy and time re-designing the Conference Newsletter which helped to transform the marketing and knowledge sharing associated with the Annual Conference over the past few years.  Rachel was constantly meeting deadlines despite needing to rely heavily on many individuals to meet her goals.  Despite this she remained extremely positive and elevated the professional nature of communication to membership regarding the upcoming conference. It is not a coincidence that the past 2 conference have been 2 of the most highly attended conferences in the eleven year existence of SoACE. We are forever appreciative to Rachel King for her role in SoACE’s continued success. 

Rachel serves as the Assistant Director of Peer Programming for the University Career Center at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In her role, Rachel provides career advising services to students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences while also managing the Peer Career Ambassador Program. Rachel’s primary responsibility is assisting students in all phases of career decision making, planning, and job search preparation. She also oversees the annual Liberal Arts and Sciences Summit hosted by the University Career Center.

A 2008 alumnus of UNC Charlotte, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology, Rachel comes to us with over four years of transferable work experience in the healthcare industry.  During her two years serving as Recruiting Specialist with the University Career Center, Rachel completed her Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration through Northeastern University in 2014 before moving into a career advisor capacity.

Rachel is native to Indiana and relocated to North Carolina as a youth. She loves her two labs, Callie and Calvin, all things crossfit, hiking and traveling! 

Most of the awards presented by SoACE are received through a nomination process, vetted by committee, and then approved on by the board.  One annual award, however, is given at the sole discretion the sitting President, based upon his/her desire to recognize a member who has distinguished themselves by their service to the Association.  The President’s Award has been presented since SoACE’s founding in 2007.

During the President’s Reception at the 2018 Annual Conference, Mark Colvenbach, the 2018-19 President, awarded Samantha Meyer with one of two 2018 President’s Awards. Rachel King from UNC Charlotte also received the award. When presenting the award to Samantha, Mark shared the following:

Samantha Meyer embodies so many of the qualities it takes to be a successful professional within SoACE and Higher Education. Over the past few years, SoACE has made tremendous strides in elevating its resources and deliverables for its membership. With this growth, there can be challenges to ensure the quality and type of programs match the expectations of members served.  Samantha was instrumental in elevating SoACE’s ability to truly serve as a “go to” organization for its members with her leadership role on the newly-created SoACE Branding Guide. This project was time consuming, yet critical to SoACE’s ability to streamline branding and marketing across its various committees and teams to present one unified message to membership.  This effort, along with various additional volunteer roles, make Samantha an easy choice for this year’s President Award.

Samantha Meyer (ABJ ’13, MA ’14) graduated from the University of Georgia majoring in public relations and women’s studies during her undergraduate studies, and Grady’s 4+1 program for her master’s degree. Her love of the UGA campus community led her to work at the University of Georgia Career Center as the career consultant for students in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Through that role, she helped Grady students with all of their career-related needs and assisted employers with getting connected to students. In addition, she served students on the Career Center’s internal diversity and inclusion committee, to ensure equitable career services and networking opportunities for UGA’s diverse student populations.

In her role as director of experiential programs, Samantha ensures all Grady College students are meeting UGA’s experiential learning requirement, and putting their skills learned in Grady to use through internships, studying abroad, research and hands-on classroom experiences.  She is also the staff advisor for the Grady-based Women in Media student organization and serves at the Graphic Designer for the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers.