07/23/2015

WENDY LABENNE

WENDY LABENNE, NCC, MCC

Candidate for Trustee: State Divisions

 

Wendy LaBenne has worked in the career development field over 10 years and currently serves as a Career Development Specialist at Saint Louis University (SLU). She had previously worked in the human resources field. At Saint Louis University, she was selected as one of two people from her division for Saint Louis University’s Exceptional Leadership Program which recognizes individuals with leadership potential for the University. She is a NCDA Leadership Academy Alumna and her leadership project was to revise the State Leadership Handbook. Wendy served as President of the Missouri Career Development Association (MoCDA) in its second year and her team was recognized with the outstanding state CDA award by NCDA. Also, she has been actively involved with NCDA through the Awards and Professional Development committees. She has written several articles for NCDA’s Career Convergence magazine and received the Career Convergence Award for one of the articles. She is a multi-time presenter at NCDA, and this year will co-present on “Reimagining your state CDA”.

 

Wendy received her Master of Science in Education in Counselor Education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She also holds a Master of Arts in Human Resource Development and Management from Webster University. She is a National Certified Counselor (N.C.C.) and a Master Career Counselor (M.C.C.)

 

Goal Statement:

Through my experiences at the state and national level, I am very excited to have the opportunity to represent the state CDAs. It is crucial to have strong representation at the state level for career development. Our state chapters are imperative to conveying the importance of career development whether to government officials, school or university administrators or corporations. We need you, and I want to make your jobs easier by providing the support and resources you need.

 

If given an opportunity to serve in this role, I would like to accomplish the following:

• Reach out to states currently without associations to see what support is needed to start a new state association
• Find ways for state association leaders across different states to connect with each other to brainstorm and learn from one another, perhaps through social media
• Create an Advisory Board of past state presidents to provide strategic guidance on the needs of state CDAs
• Promote the resources and support NCDA can provide to state associations
• Support professional development and membership efforts of state associations through a needs assessment and developing a plan of action for implementation of top needs
• Advocate for state associations to NCDA