Mandel Named New NACE Affinity Group Liberal Arts Leader

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has appointed Valerie Mandel, executive director of Rollins’ Center for Career & Life Planning (CCLP), as a leader of the Liberal Arts Colleges and Majors Affinity Group (AG). In this group of approximately 400 members, Mandel will connect with colleagues from around the world and facilitate programming around best practices and insights for helping liberal arts students secure the best in career-preparation resources.

Established in 1956, NACE is a professional association that connects over 16,000 college career services professionals, university relations and recruiting professionals, and the business solution providers that serve this community. The association is the leading source of information on the employment of the college-educated, forecasting hiring and trends in the job market; tracking starting salaries, recruiting/hiring practices, and student attitudes and outcomes; and identifying best practices and benchmarks.

“I wanted to serve as the NACE AG co-lead to further my knowledge around the liberal arts ethos and help guide others in the continued conversations on how to best serve our students and alumni,” says Mandel. “I hope to bring new ideas and initiatives to the role that engage colleagues in conversation and discussion as we all continue to grow and learn more about ways to help our liberal arts students.”

For the next two years, alongside co-lead Janet Long from Widener University, Mandel will host meetings to gather all AG members to discuss relevant topics and familiar difficulties, as well as host a breakout session during the NACE annual conference. With this NACE appointment, Mandel looks forward to making critical connections and bolstering the objectives of the CCLP.