Richard Grant is the director of career services at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. Thomas is a small, private four-year college which has a Guaranteed Job program for students who complete internships and graduate with GPAs of 2.75 or higher. Prior to Thomas College, Rich worked in Orono, Maine, at the University of Maine as the director of business graduate programs. He oversaw the MBA internship program and taught the “residency week” course for all business graduate students. Rich also has fifteen years of business experience, as a retail store manager for a shoe manufacturer and a senior planning analyst for a major catalog company. Rich is the vice president of the Maine College Career Consortium, and he serves on the “Road Trips to the Real World” committee of EACE. Rich has his Master of Business Administration and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, both from the University of Southern Maine, in Portland.

Andrea Frost, NEACEFE Vice-President

Andrea Frost is the assistant director of experiential education at Johnson & Wales University in the office of Experiential Education & Career Services (EECS), where she has held this role since 2009.  Her duties include supervising a staff of 12 experiential education coordinators, as well as overseeing the overall internship process for undergraduate and graduate students at the Providence campus.    Prior to joining EECS, Andrea was the associate director of the College Planning Center of Rhode Island from 2007-2009, and managed the financial aid office at Johnson & Wales from 2001-2007.  She holds a BS in Communications from Fitchburg State College and an MBA in Organizational Management from Johnson & Wales University. 

Kate Chroust, NEACEFE Secretary

Kate Chroust is a career advisor at The University of Rhode Island and provides individual consultation and career assessment. She supports students in various phases of the career development process, including career awareness and decision-making and provides in-classroom presentations and workshops. Prior to joining the University, Kate spent three years at Tufts University, The Fletcher School in Career Services as Recruitment Manager. She was responsible for organizing on and off-campus recruiting and career education events as well as conducting employer outreach. She also spent two years at Middlesex Community College as a Youth Program Manager. The program focused on career education to assist students in making better future decisions. In that position she was responsible for business development, teaching workshops, developing curriculum, securing internship and job opportunities. She completed her MA in Counseling at Marshall University and her BA at Denison University.

Richard Powers, NEACEFE Treasurer

Richard Powers is the Coordinator of the Career Center at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, MA. A Career Counselor and Field Experience Coordinator for more than 30 years, Dick currently spends the greatest amount of time at HCC helping students identify career goals and creating education and experience plans through individual consultations and career planning courses. He also supervises co-op students during their work placements and maintains the Career Center web site for career exploration and employment resources. Dick holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from UMass at Amherst and a graduate degree from SUNY Oswego. Dick has been a member of the NEACEFE Board since 1996.

Betsy Dunham, NEACEFE Past President

Betsy Dunham has been the Program Coordinator for the Field Work Term & Career Development Office at Bennington College in Bennington, VT since fall 2006. She is the President of the Staff Association at Bennington College and serves on the President’s Sustainability Committee. Betsy has served on the Executive Board of NEACEFE since 2006, serving as Secretary in 2010. Betsy graduated from the State University of New York at Oneonta with a BS in Communications in 2005. 

Marlene Amato, NEACEFE Executive Secretary

Marlene Amato has been working at Northeastern University for over 40 years, currently in the Division of Cooperative Education where she started her career. For the first three years, she worked with Electrical, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering students and eventually became an administrative assistant working with Dean Sidney F. Austin. In 1976, Marlene worked with Dean Austin to establish a consortium of schools and employers, today known as the New England Association for Cooperative Education and Field Experience (NEACEFE), and since 1987, holds the position of the Executive Secretary. From 1979 to 2003, Marlene worked in Northeastern’s Department of Career Services, with the pre-med advising services and in administrative services with the Dean. She was inducted into Northeastern’s 25-year Associates in 1994 and inducted as an honorary member in NEACEFE in 2001. Marlene returned to the Division of Cooperative Education in 2003.

Nicole Collins, NEACEFE Maine State Director   

Tom Novak, NEACEFE Maine State Director

Massachusetts

Kate Moore, NEACEFE Massachusetts State Director

Kate Moore is the Executive Director for The Academic Internship Council (AIC). She joined EUSA (AIC's predecessor organization) in 2005, spearheading placements and programs in North America. Prior to that Kate served as Director of Internships for American University in Washington D.C. where she oversaw the placement of 1,200 student interns for all Washington-based programs, including six summer and 40 traditional semester programs each year. She has also worked with the Close Up Foundation as their Academic Outreach and Government Relations Manager. Kate is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania and has a Master's degree from Eastern University in Nonprofit Management and a Bachelor's degree from American University in International Studies.

Jessica Paquin, NEACEFE Massachusetts State Director, Chair of Web Committee

Jessica Paquin is the Assistant Director for Academic Internships at Brandeis University and has coordinated academic internships there since 2006.  Now a joint position with the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Career Center, she partners with both Academic and Student Affairs representatives to support and develop credit-bearing internship opportunities.  She is also summer school faculty, teaching an interactive, online, summer internship course. Prior to Brandeis, Jessica worked developing student-based and experiential learning programs at Mt. Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and Mount Wachusett Community College.  Before working in higher ed, she taught public school in South Central, Los Angeles and coordinated outreach and education programs for urban youth in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Jessica holds a M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Bachelor of the Arts in Psychology from Clark University.

Maria Stein, NEACEFE Massachusetts State Director                                      

Maria Stein is the Director of University Career Services at Northeastern University. She manages career services for over 15,000 undergraduates, 5,000 graduate students, over 100,000 alumni/ae and over 3,000 employers that recruit at Northeastern University. She has over 20 years of experience in cultivating strategic partnerships to create quality opportunities for undergraduate, graduate students and experienced alumni/ae in a variety of industries and fields for both co-op and full time employment. Maria has facilitated workshops on career development and co-facilitated diversity workshops. Her areas of expertise include job development and employer relations. She has served in a variety of roles in a number of professional associations. She is very interested in the professional development of students and has taught a Life/Career Planning course to undergraduates. Maria has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston University and a M.Ed. in Industrial Counseling from Northeastern.

Jennifer Landon, NEACEFE New Hampshire State Director

Jennifer Landon currently serves as the Director of Career Advising and Programming at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), located in Manchester, NH.  Her main focus is preparing the traditional undergraduate population for life after college through customized programs, individual counseling and classroom presentations. She assisted with developing the curriculum content for a newly required one-credit course, Life After SNHU, served as one of the pilot instructors and continues to conduct classroom presentations and provide support for current faculty. Throughout her career, Jennifer’s primary passion has been providing services and resources to help individuals make informed decisions about their futures. Prior to SNHU, she was the Director of Career Services for Hesser College, the Director of Corporate and Community Education and Training for Manchester Community College, Director of Continuing Education and Graduate Admission for Notre Dame College and an the ESL Career Awareness Specialist for Central High School. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Manchester Community College in Manchester, NH and is an Ambassador for the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Jennifer received her M.Ed. in Teaching English as a Second Language with an independent concentration in Life Skills and Career Awareness and her B.S. in Business Administration from Notre Dame College.

Tamura Leso currently serves as Experiential Education Coordinator / Liaison for the Office of Experiential Learning and Community Engagement and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Rhode Island (URI).  Recently, Tammy held the role of Senior Experiential Coordinator in the Experiential Education and Career Services office at Johnson & Wales University.  She is also a member of the faculty at the University of Cincinnati as an Adjunct Assistant Professor teaching the on-line Academic Internship Course.  At URI, Tammy taught a leadership course for student mentors and also taught the freshman seminar, URI 101.  Tammy has career counseling experience in areas such as resume development, job search techniques, and interviewing skills.  In addition, she is a Board Member with the New England Association of Cooperative Education and Field Experience (NEACEFE) and is a member of the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA).  Tammy earned her Masters in Science degree from URI in College Student Personnel and a Bachelor of Science degree from Bryant University in Human Resource Management.

Audrey Tessier, NEACEFE Rhode Island State Director                                

Audrey Tessier is the Manager of Employer Services at the University of Rhode Island with responsibilities for managing and marketing all recruitment programs, including job fairs, on-campus interviews, network events, job postings, and the RhodyNet program. She has eight years’ experience in cooperative education/career placement and has served as President of the New England Association of Cooperative Education and Field Experience (NEACEFE).

Vermont

Vacant

NEACEFE Honorary Life Members

Marlene Amato
Marty Ford
Nancy LaVarnway
Frank Lussier
Giles Packer 
Richard Powers
Herbert Robinson 
Kathy Taylor
Audrey Tessier