15th Annual Drive-In Conference

Career Services in Primetime:  Getting Your Audience to Tune In

Thank you to everyone who attended the 15th Annual Drive-In Conference on July 23, 2010.  A special thank you to our hosts at the University of Houston-Downtown and to the chairs of the conference, Jessica Campbell (University of Houston) and Tracie Mazzu (University of Houston-Downtown).

This annual event is a great opportunity for career center professionals to gain valuable information about the current market trends, new technology, and new counseling techniques, plus more.  In addition, attendees will have plenty of time to network colleagues.

View Conference Program and Session Descriptions.

Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Houston Brown

This year's keynote address is titled, "The 12 Essentials - A Framework to guide Millennials through the transition to both college and the work place" and will be presented by Dr. Houston Brown.

Although recently retired from his position as Manager of Graduate Recruitment and University Relations for Shell Oil Company after 28 years with the company, Dr. Brown started his career at Shell as a polymer chemist where his work spanned six continents, lead to seven patents and over 100 presentations, in addition to many published papers and talks.  Fascinated by the changing face of computer technology, he later switched his career to the field of IT.

In addition to his other duties, Dr. Brown was part of the campus recruiting effort at Shell, focusing on MSU, MIT, Texas A&M, and University of Houston.  He was campus manager for MSU. This work led to his interest in graduate recruitment and to his most recent position in human resources.  He enjoys giving talks to large and small groups of people, on a variety of subjects from ethics and resumes, to chemistry and alternate energy sources. Dr. Brown has a BS in Chemistry from UCLA and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from MSU.  Dr. Brown has been married for 34 years and has 3 children.  To maintain work-life balance, he relaxes by refereeing soccer games at youth, high school, and adult levels.

Featured Speaker: Karen Andrews

Karen has almost 30 years in the field of career development in higher education.  During this time, she has worked in institutions ranging from vocational schools to liberal arts colleges to state universities. Currently she is the Director of Career Services for Kennesaw State University. During her 20 years at KSU, she has co-authored a book called “The Complete Graduate” on the senior year experience, served in leadership roles on various professional organizations and has written articles in national publications. Besides being the chief administrator for KSU’s Career Services Center, Karen has taught a Senior Year Experience course and a First Year Experience course designed for career exploration.

Karen received a Bachelor degree from The Ohio State University and a Master of Education degree from Georgia State University.