Stephanie Bird, 2017 Imaginative Spirit Award Recipient

The Imaginative Spirit Award may be presented to a college or employer member to recognize their contributions towards the implementation of a unique and creative approach relevant to student/alumni programming, advising, employer/university relations, recruiting and/or training.  The purpose for this award is to uphold high standards of excellence in support of student/alumni/employer/ university engagement, to encourage and reward creativity in our profession and to recognize and share best practices. Stephanie Bird, Senior Assistant Director for Career Branding at UNC Charlotte, was our most recent recipient at the 2017 Annual Conference in San Antonio.

Stephanie was nominated by Patrick Madsen, University Career Center Director at UNC Charlotte, who wrote:

Stephanie was tasked with bringing the NACE Career Competencies to life at our university. A new product and way of thinking about career development and branding will integrate their resource into the academic experience educating students on career branding and the connection between their higher education experience and the next steps in their career maturity. The future will see a redesign of job postings enabling employers to communicate in each job and internship they post what competencies they are seeking for their job function—helping students translate their unique experiences to each job they apply to. The administration and university as a whole have also come on board and are having intensive discussions as the career center moves forward with this great initiative which came from a challenge to think big – dream big.

Stephanie serves as Senior Assistant Director for Career Branding at UNC Charlotte, assisting freshmen and sophomores in their career development. She works closely with the Career Development team in exploring the career development process for students to ensure their career success.

Prior to joining the University Career Center team, Stephanie worked at Georgia Southern University as the Career Development Specialist for the College of Engineering & Information Technology and the College of Science and Mathematics. Stephanie received her Master of Science in Counselor Education with an emphasis in Student Affairs from Radford University and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Virginia Tech.

Stephanie has been involved with SoACE since 2009 and has been involved in a variety of ways, including being a member of the conference committee and marketing committee. Additionally, Stephanie served as Chair of the 2017 Annual Conference in San Antonio.