Heather Krasna, MS, is 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. 
 
She is the author of the upcoming book, Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service.  This is the first book of its kind, covering both the nonprofit and government sectors, providing tips on landing great jobs that help people, protect the environment, improve international relations, ensure security, and much more.  Real-life examples of people who landed great public service jobs are highlighted throughout.  Published by JIST, a well-respected career book publisher.
 
Heather has eleven years of experience as a career advisor and employer relations specialist in colleges and universities, and has helped over 7,000 job seekers to find jobs and internships.  She has a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management from New School University, 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
  • Serve as a career consultant to students pursuing MPA degrees, with interests in public affairs, government service, nonprofit management, international development and policy analysis, legislative affairs, environmental policy, urban policy etc. 
  • Act as liaison with employers seeking MPA students from a top-ranked school of public affairs. 
  • Provide leadership and direction, strategic planning and evaluation of the career services provided to Evans School students. 
  • Provided career coaching to over 110 students and alumni, and met with over 40 employers, in the first four months of service. 
  • Organized City of Seattle alumni networking event with 30 participants including elected officials; created special alumni job search workshop with 15 participants; organized numerous career-oriented events for students; led field trip to state capitol with 19 graduate students and 15 elected officials, lobbyists, state legislative aides, and state agency heads. 
  • 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, November 2001 – May 2008
  • Provided one-on-one resume reviews, career coaching, and interview practice to up to 30 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 new mentoring program 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. 
  • Trained entire staff on new NACELink/Symplicity database and created 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; developed a syllabus for the course that is still in use.
 
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
  • Performed research to gather first-ever data about program outcomes and effectiveness.
  • Provided internship workshops and individual counseling for students, receiving highest possible service evaluation rating from 98% of students.
  • Wrote grant proposals that raised over $500,000 for internship program and stipends to students with unpaid internships.
 
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, TRAINING, CERTIFICATIONS
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.
 
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/Q uantitative 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)
 
Biography
Career Services Professional
Writer
Public Speaker