Director of the UCLA Career Center to retire in June
Kathy L. Sims, director of the UCLA Career Center since 1995, will be retiring in June, according to an announcement made March 24 by Associate Vice Chancellor Monroe Gorden Jr. of Student Affairs Administration.Gorden credited Sims with a long list of accomplishments. During her tenure, she introduced technology that advanced functionality as well as service delivery, he said. She developed collaborative relationships with departments across campus to improve career services for graduate students, international students and specialized populations. She carried out a targeted strategy to engage all students earlier in their UCLA experience in order to increase first- and second-year students’ utilization of the Career Center and develop an overall client base of over 27,000 students. And Sims re-engineered pre-professional services for students pursuing admission to professional schools.
“Kathy directed the center’s move to its current facility and raised funds to furnish the offices and acquire state-of-the-art equipment for staff and student use,” Gorden noted. “She continues to forge collaborative partnerships across campus to customize services to our diverse student body, and expand the Career Center’s capacity to reach students in more meaningful and immediate ways.”
Her commitment to staff development has led to the advancement of many staff into positions of leadership and has attracted experienced talent from other major institutions. “Kathy has been highly influential on a national and international scale as well,” Gorden said. “She was a leader in establishing the web-based service NACElink (adopted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers) which, in the words of one colleague, “revolutionized employer recruitment on college campuses.”
This involvement, along with her global profile as a consultant to employers and campuses abroad, has vastly expanded career opportunities for UCLA students and alumni. She also co-founded the Career Services Institute in 1997, which is now held annually on both coasts, and she is a long-time faculty member of the NACE Management Leadership Institute. She served as president of NACE in 2000-01; was inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows in 2002; and, in 2006, received NACE’s Kaufman Award for “leadership that significantly advanced the career services profession.”
Sims said she plans to return to her home on the East Coast to spend quality time with her parents and family. A search committee will be convened to identify candidates to fill the director position.
Nominations for 2014 Excellence in Leadership Award
Nominations are being accepted for the 2014 Excellence in Leadership (EXCEL) Award, which honors exceptional achievements in management and leadership. It is awarded annually by Campus Human Resources in partnership with UCLA’s Administrative Management Group.
The 2014 EXCEL Award will be presented to an individual who has had a significant and lasting impact on the people that he/she leads, while also making broad contributions to the campus. Campus Human Resources is sponsoring this award in memory of Jeanne Williams, who retired in 1987 following an exemplary career as a UCLA administrator and founding assistant dean of the UCLA school of medicine.
Program criteria and a nomination form for the 2014 EXCEL Award are available here. The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 4, 2014.