Programme Committee
London 2023

Suzanne Helbig is the Associate Vice Provost at the Division of Career Pathways at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), a top ten public US university that is proud to be designated both a Hispanic Serving Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Institution. Suzanne arrived at UCI with 15 years of experience in career services, including over 10 years at UC Berkeley.

In addition to serving as Programme Chair for the 2023 Global Career Services Summit, Suzanne also served as Programme Co-Chair for Summits in 2022 and 2021 (online), 2020 (set for Singapore) and 2018 (Newcastle, UK). She has been invited to speak at conferences in England, Ireland, Japan, and China.

Suzanne has served on the Board of Directors for both the Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges and Employers and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Her NACE involvement includes co-chairing numerous committees; presenting at NACE’s inaugural Executive Leadership Symposium; joining the faculty of NACE’s Management Leadership Institute; delivering numerous annual conference presentations; and authoring articles. Suzanne holds a Master of Arts in Higher Education from the University of Arizona. 

Kulvinder Birring has over 25 years of employability experience working across a range of higher education institutions, with 10 of those years at deputy & director level. Institutions have included City, Brunel, Kings, UCL, SOAS, Anglia Ruskin and most recently London South Bank University from where he has just moved to the University of Keele in 2023 as Director of Student Futures.

The wealth of experiences, knowledge and subject matter are extremely wide, resulting from the institutions Kulvinder has worked across, informing his approach as a leader, manager and practitioner. Kulvinder has been privileged to manage and develop a wide range of employability initiatives, take part in enterprise, start-ups and externally funded schemes; supporting AGCAS, employers, sector organisations, professional bodies, giving him an insight into stakeholder needs and the ever-changing labour market.

Kulvinder’s drive has always been to provide wrap around employability services along the student journey helping students to reach their goals, changing lives and the wider society.

Kate Daubney has been Director of The Careers Group (TCG) federation of careers services since October 2020; before that she led two very different careers services at King’s College London and the University of Chester. Her practice-led research is in surfacing the transferable skills value of curriculum and she has the enormous privilege of advising universities across the UK and around the world on how to implement new approaches to education strategy on that basis. She has also innovated approaches to measuring careers learning gain. As part of TCG’s goal to tackle organisational structural inequality, she has established an Advisory Panel of colleagues of Diverse Heritage at The Careers Group to shape the organisation’s strategic planning and decision-making. She is delighted to welcome fellow GCS Heads to the University of London and The Careers Group for GCSS 2023!

Caroline Kennedy is Head of Careers in National College of Ireland. For the past 19 years Caroline has lead the strategic development of the Careers Team in NCI building and implementing scalable employability initiatives aimed at building networks and communities to improve social mobility. At a national level she was a Director of AHECS – The Association of Higher Education Careers Services in Ireland for a number of years and also served as Chair of the Labour Market Task Group in AHECS.

Liz Lierman is Assistant Vice Chancellor of Career and Professional Development at the University of
Denver. She is dedicated to providing career development at scale, supporting students in building experience, and fostering connections between students and professionals who can further enhance career exploration and preparation. She previously served in career development leadership roles at Mount Holyoke College, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and Oberlin College. Lierman has contributed to research on the relationship between internship participation and career outcomes, her advice has appeared in publications including Career Convergence, Forbes, Recruiter, and The Wall Street Journal, she has presented at regional and national conferences, and she has co-chaired and served on
committees for the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). Lierman holds master’s
degrees in social work and non-profit management from Case Western Reserve University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Williams College.

Alan is the Deputy Director, Student Success at Curtin University. Prior to this Alan was Associate Director, Student Success at QUT where he led five portfolio areas that oversaw six multidisciplinary teams in each of the 6 QUT faculties. He is a longstanding Management Committee member of the National Association of Graduate Career Advisory Services (NAGCAS) and was President from 2010 until 2014. He is a member of the CICA executive and also sits on the board of Graduate Careers Australia. Alan has over 20 years experience in the career development field with the last 15 being in HE sector. During that time he was part of three citation awards from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). He is a tragic 70’s music rock lover and plays his guitar (very badly).

Michelle Schenk is the Senior Director of the University Career Centre at the University of Texas San Antonio. Schenk has 8 years of active-duty service in the U.S Air Force and over 13 years of higher education experience specifically in career management. Schenk earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration at Trinity University, her master’s degree in public administration at the University of Washington, and her master’s degree in advertising at The University of Texas in Austin. Prior to UTSA, Schenk most recently held the position of Director, Employer and Alumni Engagement, Career Management & Corporate Relations at Texas McCombs, UT Austin. Prior to that role she was the Director, MBA Employer and Alumni Engagement at Texas McCombs.

Mario Vela is a double alumnus of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), one of the largest Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the United States and one of 20 tier one HSIs (Carnegie R1). During his time at UTSA, Mario earned his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology & Philosophy and his Master of Science in Sociology. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Mario started his professional career in social services at the non-profit Family Service Association in San Antonio. Before joining the UTSA University Career Center (UCC), Mario held the role of Director of Partnerships at the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) in Chicago, a leading organization dedicated to the employment, development, and advancement of current and aspiring Latino professionals. After HACE, Mario served as the Director of Employer Relations at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago. In this role, Mario created, monitored, and evaluated the sustainable development and maintenance of over one thousand recruiting relationships. In 2019, Mario returned to his alma mater to serve as the Executive Director of the University Career Center after nearly a decade in Chicago. As of 2021, Mario is the Assistant Vice-Provost of Career-Engaged Learning to advance UTSA’s Classroom to Careers initiatives.