New College of Florida to Host Third Annual International Careers Seminar, October 27

October 23, 2012 — Local college students, high school students and young professionals will learn about international careers at the third annual International Career Development Seminar on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., followed by an informal networking session with the speakers. The event, which is co-hosted by Young Professionals for International Cooperation (UNA-USA) Sarasota Chapter and New College of Florida, will be held at New College’s Sudakoff Conference Center at 5845 General Dougher Place, one traffic light north of the intersection of University Parkway and N. Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41). Click here for a Google map.

Through panel discussions, breakout Q&A sessions and networking, presenters will share their international work experience in business, public health and medicine, the Peace Corps, the United Nations and the U.S. Foreign Service. Registration, which includes lunch, is $10 for college students and high school juniors and seniors and $25 for young professionals and interested citizens. To register, go to ncf.edu/events or contact Dorothy Watson at 941-359-9760 or New College professor Barbara Hicks at 941-487-4373 or [email protected].

FEATURED SPEAKERS (See below for bios.)

• Jeffry Olesen, UNA USA/UNF Sarasota-Manatee Chapter President
• John Ericson, Chief of United Nations Outreach, Office of Human Resources Management
• John Higi, Senior Recruitment Office, Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State
• Christine Prouty, National Peace Corps Representative
• Dr. Lisa Merritt, M.D., International Public Health and Adjunct Faculty at New College
• Lee-En Chung, Columbia University Engineer, Owner of Ivy Ventures, Inc.
• Ambassador James McGee, Retired U.S. Diplomatic Corps
• Dr. Jane A. Rose, USF College of Arts and Sciences

SPEAKER BIOS

Jeffry Olesen, UNA USA/UNF Sarasota-Manatee Chapter President — With more than 20 years in the Foreign Service, Jeffry Olesen has served as minister-counselor for management affairs for the three U.S. missions in Vienna, Austria, and the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In addition to two tours at the State Department in Washington, D.C., he served overseas in Athens, Greece; Almaty, Kazakhstan; Budapest, Hungary; Lahore, Pakistan; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Guadalajara, Mexico.

John Ericson, Chief of United Nations Outreach, Office of Human Resources Management — John Ericson joined the United Nations in Vienna, Austria, in 1982 and later spent five years at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a social affairs officer. He then moved to U.N. Headquarters to work in the Office of Human Resources Management. Ericson has served in peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia and has worked in Bangkok, Thailand, and Nairobi, Kenya. He was involved in the evacuation of U.N. staff from Ethiopia in 1991 and ran a polling station during the elections in Cambodia in 1993. Ericson has also served as a special protocol officer during major U.N. summits.

John Higi, Senior Recruitment Office, Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State — John Higi is currently the deputy division chief of recruitment outreach in the State Department’s Bureau of Human Resources, Office of Recruitment, Employment and Examination. He holds the rank of Foreign Service Officer Class One (FS-01). Higi joined the Foreign Service in 1993 and has served overseas in Kingston, Jamaica; Bridgetown, Barbados; Paris, France; Kuwait City, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Washington assignments have included assignments to the Executive Secretariat, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the Office of International Conferences in the International Organizations bureau, the Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, and special assistant to the undersecretary for management. His next assignment starting July 2013 will be management officer in charge of the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center at Baghdad International Airport.

Christine Prouty, National Peace Corps Representative — Christy Prouty is the current USF Peace Corps representative. She recently spent two years in Uganda working as a community health volunteer where she assisted a women’s group with income generation and animal husbandry and taught construction methods of fuel efficient mud stoves. She helped to develop and direct Camp BUILD, the first Peace Corps National Boys Leadership Conference in Uganda. She also spent several months training field research assistants to conduct community surveys about household water choices and their associated environmental impact. Currently, Prouty is a graduate student in the Peace Corps master’s international program in environmental engineering at USF with plans to pursue her Ph.D. there next summer.

Dr. Lisa Merritt, M.D., International Public Health and Adjunct Faculty at New College — Dr. Lisa Merritt obtained her medical degree from Howard University after completing undergraduate studies at Georgetown University. She trained in family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and then completed her residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Merritt has authored numerous articles in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation and lectured internationally on rehabilitation and multicultural health issues. This semester at New College she is teaching a course titled, “Public Health Disparities and Gender Issues.”

Lee-En Chung, Columbia University Engineer, Owner of Ivy Ventures, Inc. — Lee-En Chung has more than 24 years of construction management experience, including international market research and consulting. Chung is a Sarasota native who attended Pine View and earned a civil engineering degree from Columbia University. She founded her engineering firm, Ivy Ventures, Inc., in 1992. She has participated in international conferences in Morocco, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires and served as a goodwill ambassador in Colombia. In 1993, the American Council of Young Political Leaders tapped Chung for a U.S. delegation to South Africa to witness the political process ahead of Nelson Mandela’s election as president in 1994. In the Sarasota area, she has worked on the Baltimore Orioles’ Spring Training facilities and Tervis Tumbler headquarters. In New York, she assisted the facilities department on projects for NBC Nightly News, NBC Sports and David Letterman.

Ambassador James McGee, Retired U.S. Diplomatic Corps — Prior to his 30 years in the Foreign Service, Ambassador James D. McGee served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses and 16 Air Medals while flying on 471 combat missions. More recently, he served as U.S. ambassador to Swaziland, Madagascar, the Comoros Islands and Zimbabwe. At his last assignment, McGee opened the first political-military office to provide diplomatic advice and guidance to the commander of U.S. naval forces in Europe, Africa and the 6th Fleet. He was also the senior advisor to the director of the African Center for Strategic Studies at the National War College in Washington, D.C. McGee will also present a New Topics New College lecture on March 21, 2013, about “The Problems, Promise and Potential of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Jane A. Rose, USF College of Arts and Sciences — Dr. Jane A. Rose is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. Prior to USF, she worked at Georgia College & State University as assistant to the VP for Acad
emic Affairs, director of assessment, department co-chair and coordinator of Women’s Studies. She has published numerous articles in addition to her book titled Rebecca Harding Davis. Internationally, Rose has been a visiting professor at Palacky University in the Czech Republic and Hosei University in Japan. She has also been a visiting lecturer at the University of Mumbai, India, and a study-abroad professor in Italy.