She co-edited a book on educational and career assessment, and is author of four McGraw-Hill test preparation books for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a book on vocational interests, and one on interactive web tools for the job seeker. She is a trainer, distance educator, conference presenter, conference keynoter, and writer of articles, reports, and monographs. She has been instrumental in the development of the ASVAB Career Exploration Program and ACT’s DISCOVER, as well as three online courses used for counselor and facilitator certification.
At the current time she is President of Sage Solutions, her consulting firm with clients having needs in career development and assessment. She serves on the advisory board for Syracuse University’s National Security Studies Program, and Americorps*National Civilian Community Corps.
Karol Taylor
Karol Taylor is the founder and owner of Taylor Your Career, a federal resume-writing, career and educational advising service. With more than 28 years of federal service, including 17 years of career advising, academic advising, and tutoring, Karol brings a broad perspective and considerable expertise to the job search, federal job search, and college admissions process.
In addition to writing resumes, Karol writes cover letters, college essays, qualifying statements (KSAs), and biographies (bio). She helps clients to identify their career competencies and skills, and provides job search tips and techniques for the federal and private sector. Karol is certified to provide career assessment feedback, and interview coaching. Karol has served as a career/outplacement counselor for FAA, Department of Treasury, Census Bureau, and has taught career-related workshops for the USDA Graduate School, and the Baltimore County Workforce Development office.
Karol was the 2005-2006 President of the Maryland Career Development Association (MCDA), where she successfully planned and implemented the annual conference, and changed the look of the MCDA web site. In 2007 Karol served as Program Chair for the Association of Career Professionals, International – DC. In 2008, Karol served on the Nominating Committee for the National Career Development Association. Karol is currently Secretary for the National Employment Counseling Association.
Karol Taylor has been a presenter at numerous professional career conferences, including the National Career Development Association, the Association for Job Search Trainers, and the National Employment Counselors Association, and the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers. She regularly teaches Career Advising Courses at a local Community College, and federal job search courses there, as well.
Karol completed her M.A. in Counseling Psychology 1996 with a concentration in Adlerian Theory at Bowie State University. During her tenure at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Karol was selected as a Fellow for the prestigious DHHS Women’s Management Training Initiative. Karol received two of the highly coveted DHHS Secretarial Awards for outstanding service.
Celeste Hall
Celeste Hall, CDFI has worked as a teacher, school counselor and career counselor in Hanover County Public Schools for a total of 31 years. She was a member of the curriculum development team that created a career guidance curriculum in Hanover County and established career counseling programs in two high schools. She has a depth of experience using career development and planning tools including ACT’s DISCOVER program, the Kuder Career Planning Program, the O*NET, Virginia Career VIEW, and The Virginia Wizard programs.
While working at Hanover High School, Celeste initiated the event that has become the annual Hanover County Curriculum/Career Fair. An important community outreach activity to which she has contributed is Hanover Career Student Resource, Inc. (HCSR), a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting secondary students to workplace learning opportunities offered by community businesses. She has served in a variety of leadership positions on the Board of Directors of HCSR which provides this local career information to students through the web site, www.hanovercaeers.org.
In 2001 she was named Secondary School Counselor of the Year by the Virginia School Counselor Association, achieved national Board Certification in the school counseling area in 2006, was named Division Member of the Year by the Virginia Career Development Association (VCDA) in 2008 and currently serves as president of the VCDA. Other professional experience includes teaching the Career Information & Exploration course as an adjunct professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University counselor education program since. 2003. Technology is incorporated into the course through the use of Blackboard to post assignments and engage students in discussion of career development topics through the Discussion Board.
