National Association of Colleges and Employers
NACE welcomes Niesha Ziehmke, Ph.D., as its first Director of Career Readiness. She will lead NACE’s career readiness strategy and initiatives to support all members as they engage students and candidates in their college-to-career journeys.
Dr. Ziehmke brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that is perfectly aligned with advancing NACE’s mission critical career readiness strategies, programs, and services. Her career is centered around equitable and inclusive educational and industry experiences for students, which supports NACE's mission to achieve equitable employment outcomes for all.
Dr. Ziehmke also brings with her a deep commitment to educational and labor market equity. She earned her Master's in Education from the New School for Social Research and taught Spanish in NYC public high schools. She then completed her Ph.D. in linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Dr. Ziehmke spent much of her career working in higher education within the City University of New York system where she became an avid student of and advocate for systems change focused on racial and social justice.
In 2017, she joined Guttman Community College and served as their Dean for Academic Innovation and Career Success. It was at Guttman that she began to focus her work on the career learning space where she oversaw the career center and was champion for career education grounded in the curriculum.
Most recently, Dr. Ziehmke served as the senior director for career pathways at the New York Jobs CEO Council, a nonprofit organization led by the CEOs of 30+ of the largest employers in New York whose goal is to provide access to living wage jobs for 100,000 New Yorkers from under-resourced communities, especially for Black, Latinx, and Asian communities.
She has published in the areas of system change and equity in higher education, innovative models for career development in the curriculum, faculty professional development around career in the curriculum, and, most recently, she contributed to the
NACE Journal by sharing her perspective on the bridge between higher education and industry.
Following are two pieces she authored:
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Ziehmke to the NACE team!
