Lexie Avery, MS '15

Senior Associate Director, Student Engagement and Career Readiness

About Lexie

Lexie is an alumna of Binghamton University having completed her Masters degree in Literacy Education in 2015. Her background in education and passion for career services inspire her to teach students how to use their experiences and skills in order to explore and create action plans for their futures. As the Senior Associate Director of Student Engagement and Career Readiness, Lexie focuses on efforts to engage and educate students in career services and has developed and led several strategic initiatives in this area. She leads strategy and goal setting for the following areas; career consulting and exploratory initiatives, career education and outreach, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, career preparation, career experiences and experiential education, and faculty/academic integration. She is the main author of the Career Exploration Guide and has managed several early engagement programs including Kickstart and Exploration Day. Additionally, Lexie meets with students one-on-one to support their individual needs and help them get to the next step in their career development journey.

What is your favorite thing about working at Binghamton University?
My favorite thing is how creative the students are and how passionate they are about reaching their goals. I love connecting with a student and helping them understand how their involvement and passions can translate to meaningful career choices. I also love working with our student staff that work so hard to educate and support their peers through their career development.

What was your first internship or job?
I babysat a lot but my first job was working at Aeropostale in the mall (I didn’t last long there).

What are you passionate about?
With a background in teaching, I love helping students think and engage differently with their experiences. I love the ‘lightbulb’ moment for students when something clicks and action can come from that.

What is your best piece of career or professional advice?
Never put yourself in a box. You’ll always be asked to pick a path or commit to a major, but there are so many possibilities and opportunities to use your unique experiences and skillsets in…so think beyond the box!

Achievements

Awards
Lexie has been recognized for her work supporting students at Binghamton University and for her contributions to career services at the university, state, and national levels:

• Bearcat Award for Outstanding Service and Support- 2021-2022
• SUNY Career Development Organization President’s Award for Exceptional Service- 2019-2020
• Bearcattitude Award-Binghamton University Athletics- 2018-2019
• Connections for Success-Silver Award for Excellence 3/2018
• ASPIRE- Career Leadership Collective Participant 2022

Presentations
Lexie is a leader and innovator in the career services sphere and has had the opportunity to show others her work at the following conferences:

• Career Services and Leadership Collide: Transforming Sophomore Student Engagement-12/2018 , NASPA Leadership Educators Institute
• Creating Transformative, High-Impact Career Development and Leadership Retreats-3/2018, NASPA Annual Conference
• Early Career Engagement: The Journey to Reach 100% of First Year Students- 6/2022, Career Leadership Collective
• Kickstart Your Career: A First Year Student Pre-Arrival Career Program- 3/2020, NASPA (conference cancelled due to COVID)
• Leveraging Students for Career Services Initiatives: High Impact Student Engagement, 3/2020, NASPA (conference cancelled doe to COVID)