In 2018, the Career Development Center launched the Career Champions initiative to streamline communication and formally recognize faculty and staff commitment to supporting student engagement in career services. Since then, the Career Development Center has hosted a breakfast each semester to honor Career Champions, celebrate past success and relay important information about the upcoming semester.

While this semester looks unlike any other, faculty partnership with the Career Development Center continues to grow in new and innovative ways. To kick off the fall 2020 semester, the Career Development Center hosted a virtual "coffee chat" where they were able to congratulate Career Champions on successes from the spring semester and outline the plan to continue to serve students this fall. Despite the cancellation of large in-person events this semester, the University Career Development Center is moving forward with virtual career counseling, professional development workshops and career fairs for students. The Career Development Center has also created new training events to ensure that students are prepared to have success at career fairs occurring on virtual platforms.

Faculty, staff and the Career Development Center continue to deepen their collaboration. This is most evident by the four new classes participating in their Career Track Razorback program this fall. There are 12 total classes that have incorporated this program into their curriculum annually, causing the CDC to be more aligned with student coursework than ever before. To meet this increasing demand for career counseling, the Career Studio, run by student peer mentors, continues to stay busy by providing immediate, basic-level career services to students. As of Oct. 1, 2020, the Career Studio has seen 1,159 student visits and offered 1,448 services since being established in Fall 2019.

Career Champions are in regular communication with their Career Development Center representative and are responsible for relaying career services information to faculty, staff and students in their department. Career Champions are asked to renew their commitment on an annual basis. The 2020-2021 Career Champions include:

College of Education and Health Professions

● Larry Aslin

● Rhett Hutchins

● Kelly Vowell Johnson

● Amanda Sullivan

College of Engineering

● Jason Bailey 

● Ed Clausen

● Mostafa Elsaadany

● Susan Gauch

● Kevin Hall

● Scott Osborn

• Tish Pohl

● Robert Saunders 

Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences

● Lance Cheramie

● Elena Garcia

● Luke Howard

● Dan Rainey

● Sam Rochell

● Jill Rucker

● Lauren Thomas

● Isabel Whitehead

● Lisa Wood

Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design

● Jim Coffman

● Melinda Smith

Graduate School and International Education

● Vicky Hartwell

J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences

● Jane Blunschi

● Alessandro Brogi

● Linyin Cheng

● Matt Clay

● Kathleen Condray

● Lisa Corrigan

● Joe Covey

● Laurence Hare

● Jacob Hertzog

● Mack Ivey

● Donna Jones

● Karen Lentz Madison

● Xavier Medina Vidali Medina

● Nikola Radan

● Gina Shelton

● Chris Shields

● Leigh Pryor Sparks

● Christy Wear