McK Alumni Mentors
by Stephanie (Coartney) Dulaney ’10
From the first campus tour to the excitement and culmination of commencement, McKendree
students are surrounded by a close-knit community of mentors and encouragers, people
who stretch your mind and show you just how much you’re capable of achieving. For
many students, it’s a faculty member who took the time to know them on a personal
level and offer guidance that changed the course of their future. For others, it’s
the Career Services staff whose endless resources and one-on-one assistance opened up job opportunities
they never knew existed. And for some, it’s an alum whose support and advice transformed
them from a mentor to colleague to friend.
No matter how they received it, McKendree graduates understand the rich value of having
a mentor in their life. “One of the things our graduates routinely say is that it
feels like a family here because faculty and staff truly care about students,” said
University Provost Christine Bahr. “They form strong bonds with their instructors,
and many faculty keep in contact with them long after they’ve graduated.” It’s through
these connections students not only gain a quality education in the classroom, but
also countless networking, internship, and job opportunities with professionals in
the community. Whether it’s bringing working alumni back to campus to speak to a class
or connecting students with local internships, McKendree faculty often play a pivotal
role in their students’ first steps in a career.
Similarly, the Career Services staff are dedicated to mentoring students through individual
guidance and the multitude of opportunities they create for students to connect directly
with alumni professionals in their field. The University’s annual Career Conference
attracts a host of McKendree alums, who speak to students about topics such as networking
and job searching while also leading mock interview sessions. An online mentoring
network system provides an easy way for alumni to seek an intern, review a resume,
and offer professional tips to current students. “Our department also organizes a
career fair each year and hosts on-campus interviews with employers seeking students
for internships and full-time jobs,” said Jennifer (Harris) Pickerell ’99, director of career services. “Some alums who don’t typically serve as recruiters
come back to campus just to recruit at our career fair.”
With so many opportunities for growth and guidance as students, it’s no wonder that
many McKendree alumni find themselves giving back and mentoring others later in life, especially those
who share the same alma mater. Their university experience has taught them that they
have more than a McKendree diploma in common; they share the desire to use their talents
to help others succeed.
Brook & Dana
Psychology alum Brook (Lashley) Lynch ’00 may have found her doppelganger when she selected Dana (Maedge) Suhre ’08 as a student intern for her team at Nestle Purina. From academic interests to career
goals and personality traits, these two McKendree grads share a wide range of qualities
that not only inspired a mentoring relationship between them, but also led to their
current work together as colleagues for the same company.
As McKendree students studying psychology, Brook and Dana were both initially interested in pursuing a career in family counseling,
but soon discovered the clinical route was not the best fit for them. At the suggestion
of a family friend, Brook began exploring careers in industrial/organizational psychology,
where she could apply the concepts she learned in class to improve the experience
of employees in the workplace environment. When Dana met Brook years later through
her internship, she also realized her own passion for this area of psychology and
found her niche in the same career. Now, they each have their master’s degree in industrial
psychology and work alongside one another as talent sourcing managers for Nestle Purina.
“We both think strategically and have similar ways of viewing things due to our time
at McKendree.”
“It was an ongoing joke around the office that Brook only recruits people like her
because we’ve had such similar experiences,” laughed Dana. “We both think strategically
and have similar ways of viewing things due to our time at McKendree.” Brook’s work
with Nestle Purina started, not surprisingly, with a student internship as well. She
was a graduate student when she attended a conference presentation by a Purina employee
and was immediately attracted to the company. It wasn’t long before she was hired
as a student intern, then a contractor, and finally a full-time employee in the talent
sourcing department. “I first met Dana when I contacted my former psychology professor
Tami Eggleston as part of a Purina initiative to drive company awareness to local
universities,” said Brook. “We were seeking interns, and I wanted to make sure I was
the one to contact McKendree.” Knowing Dana would be perfect for the job, Dr. Eggleston passed along the internship opportunity to her, and she jumped into her first experience
at Purina working with a fellow McKendree graduate.
Dana remembers her internship being unlike anything she had done before. She was on
the ground floor helping to develop Purina’s presence as a career team on social media
and contributed to the strategies behind it. “I started off working on real world
projects that full-time employees would otherwise be doing,” said Dana. “After a couple
of months, I was presenting to the leadership team about the millennial generation—how
to hire them, how to market to them. It’s what I ended up writing my graduate school
thesis on.” With Brook’s encouragement, Dana followed in her footsteps, earning her
master’s in industrial psychology and eventually being hired as a permanent employee
at Purina.
Today, Brook and Dana share the same job title of talent sourcing manager. Brook oversees
the commercial side of marketing and sales, and Dana is in charge of product supply.
Both manage Purina’s strategies for recruiting the right kind of employees. The guidance
and mentorship Dana received from Brook is something she knows has helped shape the
course of her career, yet it happened so effortlessly neither of them could have predicted
where it would lead. “Brook was my boss when I was an intern, so my mentoring relationship
with her developed naturally. Our similar backgrounds made it easy,” said Dana.
Although Brook has been one of Dana’s biggest encouragers, challengers, and professional
role models, she feels she gained much more from just being a witness as Dana’s life
path has unfolded. “It’s interesting to look back on our relationship and how it has
changed,” said Brook. “Now we are co-workers and managers on the same team. Seeing
people like Dana grow professionally is one of the really cool parts I get to experience
in my role.”
Ultimately, they both look to their McKendree roots when they think about how it all
began. “My relationships with my professors were the most memorable part of my McKendree
experience,” recalls Dana. “I got my internship through a professor, and what I learned
in class was transferrable to my work as an intern and later employee.”
Those unique learning experiences are still influencing their lives and careers today.
Brook says the research she conducted in her psychology classes as an undergrad helped
prepare her for what she would later do in graduate school and in the workforce. “Dana
and I still do a ton of research to drive the strategies we create for our customer
groups. We use applied psychology on a daily basis to improve how our organization
operates,” she said. Whether it’s the real world concepts they studied or the caring
mentors they met along the way, Brook and Dana know they have their alma mater to
thank for introducing them and transforming two would-be strangers into colleagues
and friends.
Bud & Ryan
As one of the chief technology leaders for such major corporations as Disney, Ameritech,
Getty Images, and Music Net, computer science alum Bud Albers ’86 knows what it takes to succeed in an industry that’s always changing. It’s one of
the reasons he chose to seek out a McKendree graduate to join his team at the St.
Louis start-up company Recursive Labs.
“I’m a big believer in having a firm foundation that you can build upon,” Bud said.
“If you don’t learn multiplication and division, you have no chance of doing calculus
one day. I know from experience that McKendree graduates get that strong grounding
in the basics.”
Ryan Vincent ’12 had been a software developer for two years at DuPont Pioneer in Des Moines, Iowa,
when he heard about the job opening from his former computing professor Jim Feher.
Bud had returned to McKendree to give a guest lecture in one of Dr. Feher’s classes
and told him he was looking for a developer who could quickly pick up what they were
doing at Recursive Labs. “Dr. Feher knew I wanted to move back to St. Louis to be
around family and start a life with my new wife,” said Ryan. “I applied for the position,
and it has been a wonderful experience to work with Bud.”
Bud’s 30-year career in the technology industry has seen him take on major leadership
roles in both large and small corporations across the country. After graduating from
McKendree, he started out much like Ryan, a software developer for a local company
in St. Louis. From there, he took a job in Colorado running the research and development/innovation
department at another software company.
In the early 1990s, Bud transitioned to a brand new component of the tech world: e-commerce.
He was the head of technology at Ameritech in Chicago when he decided to relocate
to the west coast. “I interviewed with a company in Seattle and ended up living there
for the next 13 years,” he said. “I remember telling my wife, ‘This silly company
wants to sell books on the internet.’” Bud oversaw the original development of Getty
Images, one of the first profitable online businesses, and went on to work as the
chief technology officer for Music Net and later Disney. He led the launch of video
and music on Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, and Virgin and managed the start-up of Samsung
Mobile. During his time at Disney, he was responsible for the websites of such behemoths
as ABC, ESPN, and Disney.com.
Most recently, Bud returned to St. Louis and started work as a strategic consultant.
It was then he became involved with the start-up community and took on the role of
CEO at Recursive Labs. Bud acquired the funding, built the engineering and sales groups,
and turned what was an idea into a fully functioning product company. He knew he needed
to be selective when hiring staff for the young, entrepreneurial business, and he
trusted the faculty at McKendree to help him fill the need. “Dr. Feher gave Ryan a
high recommendation, and I had confidence in him,” said Bud. “Ryan has proven he is
flexible, can wear multiple hats, and is good with customers.” A vital member of the
engineering team at Recursive Labs, Ryan is responsible for creating innovative high-speed
products, fixing website problems, and coming up with new features for the company.
He has found the perfect mentor in Bud, not only because of his many accomplishments
and years of experience in the computing field, but also due to his personality and
ability to motivate and lead people. “Bud has absolutely been a mentor to me through
his leadership and willingness to reach out and help develop others,” said Ryan. “Some
of the most important things I’ve learned from him are lessons in how to successfully
run a small business and how to lead a group of people towards the same goals.”
“It has been a tremendously rewarding experience to watch Ryan learn and grow, gain
confidence...”
Bud also finds it fulfilling to work with Ryan and observe him rise to meet each new
task. “It has been a tremendously rewarding experience to watch Ryan learn and grow,
gain confidence, and take on more challenges. In computer science, you enjoy development
and seeing your work come to life. When you get into management, you lose that, but
you gain the ability to help others grow in their career.”
Although the McKendree computing program has changed significantly from when Bud was a student, both he and Ryan took away
values and concepts that continue to make a difference in their lives. For Bud, that
strong foundation in the fundamentals gave him the ability to adapt and stay on the
leading edge of technology’s growing presence in the business world.
For Ryan, the real world learning experiences and genuine service attitude of McKendree
professors, staff, and students gave him an important perspective on mentorship and
what it means to be a good leader. “As a student, I witnessed people being responsible
citizens by giving their time to organizations and ideals they believed in,” he said.
“I regularly saw professors engaging their students so thoroughly they would not get
back to their homes until well after hours. This love of serving others is something
I definitely took away from my McKendree experience.”
Kevin & Katie
During her senior year, Katie Dauphin ’14 walked into an on-campus interview with accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen not knowing
she was meeting her future boss and fellow alum, Kevin Meder ’82. Since that day, Katie has not only gained a full-time position as an associate at
CliftonLarsonAllen, but she’s also found a mentor and colleague who has taught her
how life-changing it can be when you take the time to reach out to the next generation
of McKendree graduates.
“When I was a senior at McKendree, I got an internship with a CPA firm in St. Louis
and was offered a permanent position there when I graduated,” recalls Kevin. “I remember
being a graduating senior worried about where I would end up working, so I went back
to my roots and have been helping to place folks from McKendree.”
Today, Kevin serves as principal for CliftonLarsonAllen’s Belleville office and works
with a diverse range of clients in the manufacturing and distribution industries.
His role rests heavily on communication and building relationships with businesses
as he works to help them meet their own unique financial goals. That ability to connect
with people continues to serve Kevin well as he returns to his alma mater each year
to recruit student interns. Interviewing approximately 10-12 students per year, he
leads CliftonLarsonAllen’s on-campus interview sessions at McKendree, working closely
with the Career Services Office to make it happen. Katie credits the faculty and staff
with facilitating so many opportunities for student employment and career development
on campus. “Jennifer Pickerell and Jill Smucker in Career Services are amazing and
so good at letting students know about the companies that come for on-campus interviews,”
she said. “My accounting professors were really encouraging about going to the interviews
too.”
It didn’t take long for Kevin to recognize Katie’s high potential during their interview,
and she soon found herself starting her first day as a student intern with a professional
accounting group. She was purposely hired for the spring semester so she could gain
valuable experience working in a wide variety of roles with tax returns, audits, and
outsourcing during the busy tax season. “We try to give our interns exposure to all
sides of the practice so they can get a definite idea of which areas they like and
don’t like,” said Kevin. Under the philosophy of learning by doing, Katie discovered
she was most interested in auditing and chose to pursue her career path in that direction.
After only four months as an intern, Katie received a job offer upon graduation and
began her career working with the same people who guided and coached her through her
first real world experience in accounting. Kevin praised Katie’s “glowing reviews”
from partners and managers in a roundtable discussion, as they provided feedback on
student interns and evaluated who to select as an associate. “I have not been disappointed
with Katie or any of our student interns from McKendree,” said Kevin. “They’re able
to put what they learn into practice, and it’s very neat to see them growing, learning,
and becoming leaders.It’s a win-win for everyone.”
“They’re able to put what they learn into practice, and it’s very neat to see them
growing, learning, and becoming leaders.”
Currently, Katie spends most of her time traveling to meet with a different client
every week and overseeing each auditing process from start to finish. During tax season,
though, she still makes it a point to come into the office and assist Kevin with the
multitude of tax returns. “Kevin is always checking in with me to make sure things
are going well in my career,” said Katie. “He shows he cares about my success, and
his hard work is inspiring to me.” One of the most fun parts of her job now is one
that she knows came from Kevin and his emphasis on giving back. “Lately, I’ve been
recruiting and working with Jennifer and Jill again to come out to McKendree’s career
fair, this time as an employee representative. I love meeting the new students. The
campus has always had a lot of good, motivated people, and Kevin definitely fits that
description too. McKendree is what brought us together.”
Kevin feels a sense of pride when he meets and works with recent graduates like Katie,
whom he calls “real people with good, solid thought processes, who are energetic and
ready to further themselves and take on challenges.” His time as a McKendree student
also taught him the impact that a personal and professional mentor can have on the
life of one person. To this day, he still keeps in contact with his former math professor
Paul Funkhouser ’70, who retired from teaching and is now a financial advisor. Kevin says his university
experience gave him the confidence to interact with the diverse clients he helps today
and connect with the recent graduates he mentors. As he and Katie have both discovered,
the funny thing about having a mentor is it often inspires you to become one for others
too.