Heather Krasna, MS, is a career services professional with over 12 years' experience and the author of Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service. 

Jobs That Matter is the first book to cover meaningful careers in both the nonprofit and government sectors.  It provides tips on landing great jobs that help people, protect the environment, improve international relations, ensure security, and much more.  Join the mailing list for a free download of over 400 public service career resources, or explore the individual and organizational services she provides as Director of Candidate Services for the Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group.

Heather is also Director of Career Services at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, a top-ranked Master of Public Administration Program, where she helps students and alumni find great jobs in public service. Heather has helped over 7,000 job seekers to find jobs and internships. Heather graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Michigan, and has a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, a Certificate in Adult Career Planning and Development from NYU, and has served on several nonprofit boards of directors. 


EXPERIENCE
Director of Career Services, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, May 2008 – Present
  • Lead efforts to produce outstanding employment results for over 440 Master of Public Administration students and hundreds of alumni in a top-ranked graduate program.
  • Build relationships with local, national, and international employers; increased number of employers presenting on campus from 29 to 47 per year; managed the addition of 730 new employer accounts (an increase of 190% from the prior year) and 2,580 job postings (an increase of 16%) in one year.
  • Provide leadership and direction, strategic planning, and outcomes assessment of career services unit. Hire/supervise professional staff.  Serve on Dean’s Management Team to guide School’s direction.
  • Successfully co-wrote Call to Serve grant, given to only five universities in the nation, to promote federal government careers.  Lead a campus-wide committee to promote careers and conduct outreach to federal agencies, and created program to train 13 students to promote federal service.
  • Produce over 30 workshops per year on topics such as networking, relocation, international job search, federal job search, and making the most of job fairs; lead trips to state capitol with elected officials, lobbyists, legislative aides, and agency heads; presented to employers at Washington State Nonprofit Leadership Conference and Global Washington on how to utilize interns.
  • Designed curriculum and taught “Navigating the MPA Job Market” course to 20-30 students yearly.
  • Collected and analyzed statistics on student employment outcomes; reports used in student recruiting.
  • Managed budget, reducing operating expenses by 50% in one year through strategic cost reductions.
  • Increased number of alumni mentors from 300 to 700 using the internet database Linkedin.
  • Wrote and edited new 100-page career manual for students, launched first-ever career services blog and added video profile elements, and created list of over 150 post-graduate fellowships.
  • Organized alumni-student networking events, increasing number of participants in yearly career night from 60 to 200 in one year.   Organized yearly networking visits to Washington D.C. and to state capitol with up to 19 graduate students and 15 elected officials, lobbyists, and agency staff.
  • Served on planning committee for ASPA Public Sector Job Fair; conducted special workshop, "Making the Most of the Idealist Nonprofit Job Fair" for the public.

Internship Coordinator/Assistant Director, Baruch College, CUNY, New York NY, October 2001 – May 2008
  • Provided one-on-one resume reviews, career coaching, and interview practice to up to 25 students per week, in the most diverse college in the nation.
  • Increased reported internship placements from 450 to 1,400/year.
  • Developed relationships with employers; supervised posting of 3,000+ internship listings and on-campus interviews for 40+ companies/year; increased participation at Internship Fair from 36 to 58 employers.
  • Sent targeted emails, built relationships with 45+ faculty, and performed class visits, greatly increasing students' internships applications.
  • Created first-ever survey of students' internship evaluations.
  • Spearheaded two new mentoring programs and solicited over 150 new alumni mentors.
  • Co-created Wall Street Careers Program, a focused program to increase students’ placement in investment banking positions; raised $25,000 in grant support; program was listed as “Career Services Best Practice” by Goldman Sachs; and led to Baruch being identified as a target school for recruitment by two banks.
  • Trained entire staff on new NACELink/Symplicity database and created student and administrator user guides.
  • Created first-ever online internship faculty discussion board to improve information-sharing and development of syllabi.

Instructor, New School University--Eugene Lang College
New York, NY September 2002 – June 2003
  • Taught Academic Internship Program course for students working in internships in nonprofit organizations; created curriculum which was adopted for future instructors.

Founder, Career Counseling for Creatives, New York, NY
October 2000 – October 2001
  • Provided individual career coaching to over 50 creative individuals (artists, actors, musicians, writers, etc.) in career transition, including how to balance building an income with maintaining an artistic vision.

Internship Program Developer, Brooklyn College, Brookyln, NY
1998 – 2001
  • Improved resumes and job search skills for over a thousand students; designed and provided career workshops; received highest possible evaluation rating from 99% of students.
  • Designed marketing plan for services; interviewed and built connections with 35 professors from all departments concerning internships.  Efforts increased program participation by 165%.
  • Created first-ever surveys to gather program outcomes and placement data and evaluative information to support grant proposals; grants raised over $500,000.
  • Implemented web-based database and trained staff in its use; rewrote department's webpages.
  • Wrote grant proposal that raised $20,000 to fund career services for students with disabilities.

Associate Director of Development, National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), New York, NY August 1997 – October 1998
  • Trained staff and Board in solicitation; provided fundraising technical assistance to local chapters; created fundraising reference materials which are still in use.
  • Created first-ever three-year interdepartmental fundraising plan, greatly improving efficiency.
  • Developed pool of 250 prospects with NCJW affiliations. Raised over $250,000 in new money.
  • Created acknowledgments system which reduced turnaround time by a month.

Intern, Support Center for Nonprofit Management, New York, NY
1996 – 1997
  • Assisted with organizing conferences and events for up to 100 participants.
  • Performed extensive market research and surveys of client satisfaction; data were utilized to revamp marketing techniques.
  • Co-wrote grant proposals which raised over $70,000.

EDUCATION
Master of Science, Nonprofit Management; Certificate, Organizational Development, New School University/Milano School of Management and Urban Policy, Received 1997
Coursework included: Management and Organizational Behavior, Theory and Practice of Nonprofit Management, Fundraising and Development, Financial Management in Nonprofit Organizations, Advanced Seminar in Nonprofit Management, Economics, Statistics/Quantitative Methods, Policy Analysis, Urban Policy Analysis, Organizational Assessment and Diagnosis, Laboratory in Issue Analysis, Foundations of Organizational Change, Group Processes, Facilitation and Intervention, Organizational Change Interventions: Theory, Design and Implementation
Honors and Leadership:
  • Received Nonprofit Management Award for top three students in Program.
  • Worked as Teaching Assistant in Micro-Economics.

Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
received 1995
  • Honors and Leadership:
  • Graduated with High Honors, Phi Beta Kappa
  • President of 30-member student housing cooperative and served on Board of Directors of multi-million dollar cooperative housing organization.
  • Performed anthropological fieldwork in Israel for honors thesis.
  • Awarded John B. Angell Scholarship in recognition of two or more terms of all A's.
  • Member of Benjamin Franklin Society (Honors Program)

CERTIFICATIONS AND TRAINING
Dale Carnegie Training, New York City and Seattle
  • Graduated from 3-day "Strictly Business" training, Jan. 2008, and product endorsement/train-the-trainer training.  Won Human Relations Award.
  • Tandem-taught a 12-week modified version of Dale Carnegie Course: Effective Communications & Human Relations to a class of 18 college students at Baruch College.
  • Took 12-week Dale Carnegie Course: Effective Communications & Human Relations in Seattle; won both Human Relations Award and Outstanding Performance (Inspirational Talk).

Certificate in Adult Career Planning & Development, New York University, Received 2000

  • Courses included: Fundamentals of Career Management: Counseling Skills and Techniques, Using Career Assessment in Professional Practice, Techniques for Helping Clients Get Jobs, Internet-Based Job Searching, Generational Differences in Career Advisement, etc.
     

About Heather
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Heather Krasna
Author, Speaker &
Public Service Career Expert