We, as NCDA members, strive to inspire and empower individuals to achieve their career and life goals. Our association's vision is for all people to attain fulfilling career and life goals regardless of age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, creed, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, marital/partnership status, language preference, socioeconomic status, or any other personal characteristic not specifically relevant to job performance. In short, we are passionately committed to making the world a better place.
The deep, altruistic, and purpose-driven qualities inherent in providing career development are critically needed to help the United Nations achieve their 17 Sustainable Development Goals for our global community. As Career Development professionals, we can help unlock, engage and enable solution-based initiatives to global employment issues, questions and concerns. We can enhance the cross-collaboration and partnerships needed to continue to foster our current and ongoing globally-based economy. This Global Connections Committee-developed webinar will: Introduce you to the UN SDGs; Connect SDGs to Career Development and Life Planning; Brainstorm SDGs activities for your students and clients; and Showcase student reactions to SDG-related classroom assignments currently in use.
A progressive and visionary Global Career promoter, Career Mentor and Career Strategist, Soonhoon Ahn currently serves as the Director of the Career and Mentoring Program for the Graduate Fellows Program, United Nations Association of the National Capital Area (UNA-NCA) and Co-Chair of the NCDA Global Connections Committee (GCC). Soonhoon is passionate about helping clients realize their career/life transitions and meet their job search needs. She is a lifelong advocate of international development careers for professionals seeking to advance the quality of human life. Her extensive professional work experience is rooted in her decades-long international recruitment and human resource management experiences with the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank. Additionally, Soonhoon is the Founder, Founding President, and a Legacy Member of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA), which provides an international forum of sharing career development ideas and experience in the Asia Pacific region and ultimately connects with the global career community. She also is a Legacy Member of the Diplomats and Consular Officers, an organization of foreign affairs professionals. Finally, Soonhoon is a proud recipient of both the NCDA Fellow and the International Career Practitioner Awards.
Raza Abbas is a Knowledge Management Advisor and Global Careers Strategist; proudly receiving international outstanding career practitioner awards from both NCDA and APCDA. He also currently serves on three different NCDA committees including GCC. Additionally, he serves as APCDA’s Country/Area Council Representative for Pakistan, the Asian Regional Association for Career Development’s Pakistan Director, and the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance's National Correspondent and Editorial Board member. He works for inclusivity and social justice in career development practice both in Pakistan and globally. He is humbled to be profiled in the Global Best-Seller ‘The World Book of Hope’.
Dr. Candy Ho is the inaugural Assistant Professor, Integrative Career and Capstone Learning in the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada. She also holds teaching positions in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Educational Studies department and in Douglas College's Career Development Practitioner Program and has taught at the University of British Columbia in their Department of Counselling Psychology and Special Education. Dr. Ho currently serves as Vice Chair of CERIC, a Canadian charitable organization that advances education and research in career counselling and career development, in order to increase the economic and social well-being of Canadians.
Panel Moderator: Dr. Lisa Raufman, Past President, California Career Development Association, is a co-author of The Career Fitness Program, Exercising Your Options (Pearson Education Publishers), a popular career book used in community colleges and universities since 1989 now in its 11th edition. Her college positions have included Faculty Development Coordinator and Dean of Counseling at El Camino College as well as an instructor and a coordinator of Career Centers at two different colleges. She is actively involved with the California Career Development Association, NCDA and APCDA (currently serving on the Membership Committee). She is also past President of Los Padres American Society for Training and Development and the California Community College Counselor’s Association (4CA). Her doctoral degree is from the University of California at Los Angeles in Higher Education, Work and Adult Development.
Danita Redd has been a higher education counselor and professor at Moorpark College for 27 years where she counsels students majoring in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) and teaches Career Development and Life Planning. As an ambassador for Shared Hope International, she assists in raising public awareness of the steps one can take to eradicate sex trafficking of children. She is active in APCDA as well as a Lifetime Member. She holds numerous certifications including the CCSCC through NCDA and for helping people with PTSD from the Foundation for Human Enrichment. She is an author and continually has served as an International volunteer mostly in service for the Mexico City Friends.
Hsiu-Lan (Shelley) Tien, an experienced international scholar and distinguished leader, both as an academic and as a practitioner in career counseling, received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education from the University of Iowa. More recently, Shelley was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland. Her current areas of interest are career counseling and studies of vocational behavior, training of counseling skills, working with dreams, and qualitative research. She is also a licensed psychologist in Taipei, Taiwan. Currently, she is a professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at the National Taiwan Normal University and serves as the director of the Community Counseling Center and Vice director of Student Personnel Services at the National Taiwan Normal University. Formerly, Shelley served as the director of the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling. She also served as the president of Taiwan Career Development and Consultation Association, president of Taipei Counseling Psychologist Association, and past president of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association. Shelley is a proud recipient of both the NCDA Fellow and the International Practitioner of the Year Awards. Professor Tien’s research work has been published in professional journals and have been widely cited in Chinese communities as well as in international ones. She also offered training to career development professionals in Chinese societies (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao). Additionally, she served as the external-examiners for University of Malaya, Australian Catholic University and Hong Kong University. Recently, she earned the Distinguished Career Educator Award in Grant Chinese Society from the People Achievement Consulting (PAC) in China.
Sabira Vohra, M.A., FCD-I, GCDF-I, CCSP, MCS, has more than 20+ years of experience in global career development, career transition, strategic career development, training and facilitation. She is a hands on visionary leader and supporter of career services. Sabira is guided by strong intuition, a global perspective and has an open communication & honest style. Through her Private Practice, Career Infusion, she coaches and counsels professionals and job seekers to create effective plans for job searching, career exploration and transitioning and successfully manage and navigate their careers. She meets clients where they are, providing full service customized career services. Sabira also consults with organizations such as higher education institutions and The World Bank; empowering employees to navigate their careers in a diverse global workforce. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Washington Adventist university; teaching career development courses. Previously, Sabira served as Director of Career Services at various Universities within MD and within non-profit organizations. She also served as President of the Maryland Career Development Association.
Amy Zdanowski is both a Career Advisor and Instructor for Montcalm Community College. She currently serves on the Board of the Michigan Career Development Association and as a Michigan College Access Alliance Community Ambassador. Her passion for career development was cultivated from a twenty-one-year background in school counseling. Like many career field professionals, she is motivated by the self-confidence and resilience that the career development process provides individuals in today’s global economy.