Meet the Career Team

Kira joins the Jenkins MBA Career Team from sunny southern California after nearly six years at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. Most recently, Kira served as the Associate Director and Career Strategist supporting students across four MS programs in Marketing, Global Supply Chain, Business Analytics and Finance, as well as MBA students. She initially joined Marshall’s Undergraduate Career Services team in 2016 where she managed an international internship program and served as the employer relations contact for companies in the entertainment, retail, fashion, hospitality, and travel industries. Kira is known as an inclusive and compassionate thought partner, coaching students in crafting their own individualized career search strategies.

Prior to her time at USC Marshall, Kira worked in the entertainment industry in LA for 12+ years. As a campus recruiter with the Walt Disney Studios, she focused on securing MBA, undergraduate and JD talent for the marketing, distribution, sales, strategic planning, legal and production divisions of the studio, including Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in San Francisco. Other industry roles have spanned feature animation production (DreamWorks Animation), HR, TV and commercial casting, and corporate media production.

Kira holds a BA in Theatre and TV Production from Pepperdine University and will complete her Executive Master of Leadership (EML) at the Price School of Public Policy at USC in May, 2022. She is a Student Affiliate Member of the International Ombudsman Association.

In her spare time, Kira enjoys perfecting shots of delicious foods on Instagram (@cleverfoodie), attending live theatre shows, and working on creative writing projects. She loves Tillamook caramel pecan ice cream, pancakes, and fluffy puppies.

Dave is a human-centered educational leader with 3,000+ teaching and 4,000+ coaching hours. His career highlights include designing enterprise-wide manager and leadership programs at Fidelity Investments, directing career services at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and writing 3 job search guidebooks for Vault Career Intelligence. Dave has experience coaching all aspects of the MBA job search across sectors and levels. He loves helping others identify and articulate the unique value they add. He also enjoys coaching individuals who want help developing a job search strategy, preparing for interviews, navigating personal leadership transitions, or customizing their onboarding strategy.

Lisa is the founder/CEO of Capital Coaching, LLC.  She established her coaching practice to support mid-career business and IT professionals to manage their careers and help them apply lessons she learned from developing her staff members at Fidelity as well as from her own multiple internal IT and managerial promotions.

Lisa has over twenty-five years of technology experience in the chemicals, state government, supply chain management, and financial services sectors.  She launched her career transition from chemical engineering to IT as an entrepreneur and web developer then expanded into corporate roles of analysis, project management, before moving into a leadership position as development manager and then as director of quality assurance engineering at Fidelity Investments. Strong relationships have been a hallmark of Lisa’s career – whether it be in a service or sales capacity working with clients or as a manager and leader of onshore and offshore teams across the US, China, India and Ireland.  In her corporate career, she was a mentor, advocate and coach for her many team members.  As a volunteer career coach at Dress For Success and as a private practice executive coach, Lisa has provided the insight, advice and inspiration that has helped her clients to achieve their goals.

Lisa received her MBA in 2012 from North Carolina State University – Jenkins Graduate School of Management with a concentration in Finance & Marketing. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University. Lisa has also completed training as an Authentic Leadership Coach at Raleigh Coaching Academy.

Ed has more than twenty-five years of experience within the talent acquisition, staffing, recruiting, and human resources environment with additional experience in project management, business management and recruiting management. Much of Ed’s career has been working with clients and candidates matching the two together to help clients grow their businesses and to help candidates grow their careers. Ed has been the co-founder and the founder of four entrepreneurial companies in his career and has worked in the big business corporate environment as well as in the small business environment. His experience includes supporting talent acquisition programs in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, India, and China.

​Ed received his MBA in 2010 from North Carolina State University – Jenkins Graduate School of Management with a concentration in Services Management & Consulting. He received his BS in Business Administration from North Carolina Wesleyan College and he attended Appalachian State University and participated in the Industrial Technology program. Ed is a certified Professional in Human Resources and he is a certified Project Management Professional.

Jacob is an independent consultant, career advisor, and startup mentor who has helped over 500 candidates get jobs in consulting. He began his career with McKinsey & Company and held a variety of corporate strategy roles before leading Cornell University’s consulting career preparation for MBAs from 2015-2022. As a consultant, he has worked with clients ranging from a global automotive manufacturer to Series A statups. In his free time, he is an active fight choreographer and solves the New York Times Crossword puzzle every day. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Jacob’s specialties include case and behavioral interviewing, working with executive search firms, landing jobs in consulting and corporate strategy, and resume/cover letter reviews. He is particularly adept at helping candidates identify the areas in which they can stand out even in a highly competitive field.

An ICF Professional Certified Coach and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, Tracy brings over 20 years of corporate and start-up experience in marketing, management, and mentoring to her work in career and leadership coaching. She brings diverse experience across sectors, with leadership positions in technology and retail and early-career experiences in advertising and training and development.

Tracy is passionate about helping her students, clients and teams define and communicate what makes them unique and build upon those strengths to achieve their goals, and founded her firm Strength-Powered Strategies to support that mission. Her work involves individual coaching, team coaching, teaching workshops and speaking on leadership topics to diverse audiences ranging from students to CEOs. In addition to her work at NC State, she works across MBA programs at UNC Kenan-Flagler and taught presentation techniques to first-year MBA students as an Adjunct Instructor at the SMU Cox School of Business.

Tracy earned her M.S. in Management Science with a concentration in Organizational Behavior and Executive Coaching at The University of Texas at Dallas and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia with a B.A. in Economics. When she’s not coaching or leading workshops, she is spending time with her family: her husband, teenage son and daughter and beloved dog Tex.