Empowering Student Futures

Bauer College has named longtime Rockwell Career Center staff member and supporter Stacey Piefer as the new Senior Director of Graduate and Alumni Services, where she plans to continue giving back to students and supporting them on their career journeys. 

Piefer is an alumna of University of Houston, and said that post-graduation she always knew she wanted to return to her alma mater to contribute to its mission. She began volunteering at RCC in 2014 and used her experience in corporate marketing and branding to teach students industry-level knowledge.  

Throughout the six years of volunteer work, she said she became an unofficial mentor to a few Bauer students who she still works with today. In 2021, she officially became a part of the RCC team as a career coach. 

Her position evolved from career coaching into developing marketing strategies to advance the services RCC offered. She found ways to complement the traditional career services like résumé building with soft skills development to advance students into the next stage of networking and presence.  

“Her leadership has made a meaningful impact through innovative programming and dedicated support that continues to elevate the student experience,” Rockwell Career Center Executive Director Kelly Collins said. 

Piefer said that she hopes to bring a new perspective into this position by understanding how her colleagues handle career coaching. One of her short-term goals is to evaluate how they are working with students and adapt to meet their needs, and the needs of the evolving job market.  

She said she is grateful to all the people she works with at RCC and that she hopes to continue the trajectory that her predecessor Collins established.  

“We really are impacting lives,” Piefer said. “Money can’t buy that feeling of when you see a student who is in a phase of their life where the world is a blank canvas for them. You can help put things together for them to start painting a picture of what the future will look like. That’s invaluable.”