Ms. Frances Schmidt has worked as a career counselor for 23 years. Currently serving as the Director of Career Services at D’Youville College, Ms. Schmidt is also a co-founder and volunteer coordinator of St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Back on Track career peer mentoring program. She has taught workshops on career/life planning throughout the WNY area.

Ms. Schmidt holds a Master’s degree in Student Personnel Administration and writes extensively on career planning topics. She is the author of Getting Hired in any Job Market, published in 2001 and is currently completing her second book, Help Wanted: Hiring Handbook for College Graduates.

Mr. Michael Giammusso HHP is a natural health practitioner and founder of Natural Health Center in Williamsville, NY.

Mr. Giammusso provides new methods of preventative health care. His practices emphasize on supplementing human body’s nutrition needs. He also assists people in designing a nutrition program that tailors specifically to personal needs.

Ms. Deborah J. Robinson is currently a Doctoral Candidate, in Higher Education Administration at University of at Buffalo and a Professor at Niagara County Community College.

She has been teaching Career Planning Seminars for many years.Her expertise lies in career planning for allied health and non-allied health curriculums, skill and motivation evaluation, transcription analysis as well as academic strategies initiatives.

Ms. Margot Keysor holds a Master of Arts degree in Communications from Central Michigan University. She has been affiliated with University at Buffalo Educational Opportunity Center for the past twenty years, where she directs the Career Planning and Placement Office.

Ms. Keysor oversees workforce development and job placement activities for adults and facilitates employer relations. As an Adjunct Professor, Ms. Keysor has also instructed Interpersonal Communication, Group Dynamics, Communication Theory, Public Speaking and Literature Interpretation courses at multiple colleges.

Mr. Alex Fernandez is the Director of Recruiting for local company Languatek and teaches at Educational Opportunity Center, University at Buffalo.

An online recruiter, Mr. Fernandez is specialized at online recruiting and job searching process. He is adept at training job seekers to build electronic resume and utilize Internet resources to search for potential jobs. Ms. Fernandez has also worked in multilingual recruiting for more than six years.

Ms. Felicia Beard has worked in executive level positions for the past seven years within the City of Buffalo, communicating and interfacing with many components including banking institutions, schools, churches, community based organizations, businesses, government representatives, community residents, and block clubs all with the intent to grow and stabilize local communities. 

Ms. Beard worked as Project Director for the Buffalo Youth Opportunity Program, in which she enabled the program to help more than 3000 youth to find their career and life path. Currently, Ms. Beard is the business owner of Paper Trails – a writing service and Beard & Associates – a consulting firm focused on not-for-profit development. Ms. Beard is also an instructor in Millard Fillmore College.

Ms. Marion Slaughter is currently an Assistant Professor for the Educational Opportunity Center of University at Buffalo. Ms. Slaughter teaches adults information technology at the EOC, as well as to community youth, adults and seniors at the King Urban Life Center. She is also a corporate technology trainer.

Ms. Slaughter holds a Bachelors’ Degree from D’Youville College and is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Education from University at Buffalo. She is interested in incorporating new instructional design technology and internet tools such as wikis, blogs and podcasts into her teaching.