Parent Career Paths

Puget Sound Parents Council Career Development Committee members, profiled below, have volunteered to share information about their professional expereiences, and also to speak with Puget Sound students about career development issues.

Andrew Bowdle P'16: Professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmaceutics
Betsy Campbell Stone '79, P '14: Independent Consultant
Leslie Ann Howard P '15: President and CEO, United Way of Dane County 
Elizabeth Shreeve P '14: Principal, SWA Group (Landscape Architect Firm) 
Debra Wechter P '16: Breast Surgical Oncologist, Virginia Mason Medical Center

Leslie Ann Howard P '15: President and CEO, United Way of Dane County
Chair, Parent Council Career Development Committee

CES: What are the top three duties and responsibilities in your current role?

LH: Changing the human condition. Leading and Serving the Board, the Staff and the Community. Developing research-based strategies and mobilization plans to address the racial achievement gap, homelessness among families, community safety and senior independence—and developing the resources to deliver on those plans. Assuring the finances and human resources of the organization are managed appropriately. Being accountable for the use of all resources and delivering results.

CES: What was your first job or another early experience that shaped your career development?

LH: I volunteered since I was 14, but my first paid job was at 16 as a lifeguard at Palmer Lions Pool in my hometown.

On the positive side I learned responsibility...for the lives of the swimmers. I took that very seriously and had to rescue several children during my tenure.

On the down side, the manager was inappropriate and irresponsible. He was fired while I was there for throwing the benches into the pool one night! They say you learn the most about management from your first boss...I guess I learned what not to do. But I also learned that I needed to keep doing my job regardless of what the boss was up to. That has served me well over many years!

Also, growing up on the East Coast during times of racial turmoil in the 60's made a huge impression on me. I feel that the racial achievement gap is the most important issue facing our country. This perspective and value has driven me to where I am today.

CES: What advice do you have for students?

LH: Do internships in something close to what you want to do...paid or unpaid.

Networking...everybody does it. And don't be afraid to use your family and friend relationships to make connections. That is how people get jobs. I know you want to do it on your own and that's great, but it's ok to make connections through people you know. Ask for informational interviews, get more names, and talk to those people; take notes at every meeting, and write handwritten thank you notes to everyone you meet.

Find out what your internal drivers and motivators are so you can get a good job match. The idea of a job might sound good, but how will you feel every morning if you have to speak in front of 500 people, or conversely, work at a computer all day analyzing data? You may be able to be good at either one...but one might make you exhausted and one might energize you. If you end up in a job that doesn't fit with your internal drivers, you will be tired every day, not happy, and probably not advance the way you would like.

Interested in learning more about Leslie Ann's career path? Puget Sound students, CES can put you in touch with her.

Elizabeth Shreeve P '14: Principal, SWA Group (Landscape Architect Firm)

CES: What are the top three duties and responsibilities in your current role?

ES: 1. Master planning and landscape design for campuses, civic sites, and mixed use development, mostly in California.
2. Project management, preparation of written reports, organization of community outreach programs, graphics.
3. Manage the SWA Summer Program and coordinate recruiting for the firm's Sausalito office.

CES: What was your first job or another early experience that shaped your career development?

ES: I loved both natural sciences and art when I was at college. Landscape architecture allowed me to integrate the two fields. Also, I was able to travel and explore garden, architectural and landscape architectural design in Europe.

My first job (besides babysitting and garden work!) was with Sasaki Associates, a design firm near Boston. I learned about the environmental design profession—the skills needed, the types of projects, the work/office environment.

CES: What advice do you have for students hoping to break into your career field?

ES: Draw, sketch, and paint. Travel and sketch what you see.

Get a graduate degree in a design field (urban design, landscape architecture, architecture, planning). Pursue an internship with a design and/or planning firm. Build skills in critical thinking, writing, and especially design (form-giving, technical skills such as CAD, sketching, understanding how things get built).

Interested in learning more about Elizabeth's career path? Puget Sound students, CES can put you in touch with her.


Debra Wechter P '16: Breast Surgical Oncologist, Virginia Mason Medical Center

CES: What are the top three duties and responsibilities in your current role?     

DW: I am a surgeon at a multidisciplinary medical center with a residency training program. I take care of surgical patients in the clinic and the operating room, primarily patients with breast disease and breast cancer. I also am involved in training surgical residents. I am Director of the Breast Cancer Team and have administrative responsibilities for program growth and development.

CES: What was your first job or another early experience that shaped your career development?

 DW: There are many experiences from high school onward that led me to where I am today. I was always interested in math and science and was lucky in the 50's, 60's and 70's to be encouraged to pursue my goals. In my junior year of college my first two friends were both premed. I had never thought of medicine as a career, but this path intrigued me. In medical school, my two mentors, both male surgeons, helped me choose to be a surgeon, and helped pave the way for my residency.

CES: What advice do you have for students hoping to break into your career field?  

DW: Be prepared for years of study, but also years of having a wonderful career where you can find your passion. Work hard and stay focused. Choose medicine (or any other career for that matter) only if you love it since you will likely spend more time at work than you will at home.

Interested in learning more about Debra's career path? Puget Sound students, CES can put you in touch with her.

Andrew Bowdle P'16: Professor of Anesthesiology and Pharmaceutics

CES: What are the top three duties and responsibilities in your current role? 

AB: 1. Providing cardiac anesthesiology services at the University of Washington Medical Center, and teaching anesthesiology residents and fellows.
2. Research, mostly having to do with patient safety issues and the use of simulation technology for medical teaching.
3. Editing scientific articles for anesthesiology journals and web-based resources.

CES: What was your first job or another early experience that shaped your career development?

AB: My first real job was doing epidemiological research for a National Institutes of Health project that was carried out at Kaiser Permanente hospitals. I still use skills that I learned in that job.

The person who most shaped my career was a pharmacologist at the University of California Davis, whose laboratory I worked in while I was an undergraduate. It was because of that mentor that I went on to a combined MD/PhD degree with a PhD in pharmacology.

CES: What advice do you have for students hoping to break into your career field?

1. Medical training is a long haul. Pace yourself for the distance.
2. Science and technology are changing at a very rapid pace. Prepare well in the basics because you never know what things will look like by the time you are in medical practice.
3. Never stop learning.

Interested in learning more about Andrew's career path? Puget Sound students, CES can put you in touch with him.

Betsy Campbell Stone '79, P '14: Independent Consultant

CES: What are the top three duties and responsibilities in your current role?

BCS: 1) I assist nonprofit organizations with development of strategic plans based on an environmental assessment, consideration of measurable outcomes, competitive analysis, and an assessment of their capacity. This work includes working closely with paid leadership as well as facilitation of the governance process (Board of Directors).

2) I work with large enterprises (typically healthcare-related) on strategic marketing and communications issues. Strategic marketing work may include qualitative research, assessment of brand image, and assessment of market opportunity/feasibility. Strategic communications work commonly includes brand strategy, stakeholder communications strategy, reputation management planning, and communications audits.

3) I work with companies to develop website strategies as a precursor to website redesign projects. Work includes assessment of the competition and their websites, identification of best practices, analysis of their business model and most important activities that will boost performance, and creation of RFP for website design.

CES: What was your first job or another early experience that shaped your career development?

BCS: From "interdisciplinary writing" at Puget Sound I rapidly identified an interest in using writing (and visual forms of communication) to influence behavior—which led me to an interest in advertising agencies.

My first professional job was "Traffic Coordinator" for a large advertising agency. "Traffic" was the interface between account management, the creative team, and the production team (typically television or radio production for this agency). I learned project management and how to nudge people along to make sure that projects came in on time.

After my life circumstances required me to move away from Los Angeles and the big ad industry there, I ended up having to consider how to engage in marketing and communications in Sacramento. I became intrigued by the establishment of marketing in healthcare and ended up specializing in it. Eventually I became VP of marketing for one of the largest healthcare systems in the US (Sutter Health) and president of my national professional society (healthcare strategy and marketing).

Then I was recruited by an international PR firm to lead their regional healthcare practice. I worked with national professionals on branding, crisis communications, corporate communications and public affairs.

And finally, one of my clients asked me to join them in a leadership role. At Blue Shield of California I led development of corporate strategy, oversaw research, developed new consumer-facing services and led the organization's important alliances.

After leaving Blue Shield to care for my elderly father, I devoted my energies to building nonprofits' marketing and communications capabilities.

CES: What advice do you have for students hoping to break into your career field?

BCS: If you're interested in strategic marketing or communications, you have no inkling of the job possibilities until you just start. You do not have to have a business degree or have taken marketing to get into the field.

Try to go to work for a good company and/or a good teacher. Since most companies now throw you into an entry level position it's important to work for—or have the opportunity to observe—people who really know what they're doing. The names of these people will turn up as you ask questions in networking meetings about who your contact would want to work for in your shoes.

You're going to have to consider whether you are better off in an agency or inside a corporate organization. You get more experience, faster, inside an agency, but they can be a little slapdash about discipline. Corporate organizations tend to be more methodical and you get to stick around for the results.

Do everything you can to learn more. That includes going to evening professional events (e.g. Social Media Club) or spending the money to go to a professional conference if you're not yet employed.

In the current environment, you are your projects. If you need to add some excitement to your "portfolio," consider volunteer projects (nonprofits always need help) or ask to take on something interesting after hours that isn't part of your normal job.

And when you start to get somewhere, help other people on their way up.

Interested in learning more about Betsy's career path? Puget Sound students, CES can put you in touch with her.