Karen Weiss
Director, Career Readiness & Employer Engagement
Karen is the Director of Career Readiness and Employer Engagement and in this role she leads outreach and employer engagement activities as well as implementing career development strategies to increase students’ career readiness across all programs. Karen is a proven relationship builder and cultivator of a robust network that she calls upon to implement scalable pathways for recruiting of Pepperdine graduate business talent. Using a high touch approach with employers, alumni and other external partners, Karen’s creativity and relationships have led to embedding key leaders into the student experience for things such as case competitions, career panels, speaker events with student organizations, and more. Using her vast knowledge of business career paths and market trends, Karen works diligently to foster mentoring and targeted networking connections for students while disseminating that knowledge into action for the CPD staff. Additionally, Karen prioritizes impacting students’ success through individual coaching by providing insightful and caring career guidance.
In her free time Karen enjoys a variety of outdoor sports and activities, along with cooking, reading and “watching shows”. She holds a BA in Sociology from UCLA, an MS in Counseling with an emphasis on Organization Development from CSUN and a Dimension Coaching career coach certification.
Lauren Nakano
Senior Employer Engagement Specialist
Lauren is a Senior Employer Engagement Specialist with PGBS. In her 20 plus years of student services at Pepperdine, she started in recruitment and has worked in various capacities in career services. While her main focus is on employer engagement, Lauren has been a career coach, event manager and international student advisor. She partners with employers and alumni to support their recruiting needs and is dedicated to providing students with connections to career opportunities. Lauren received her BA in Sociology from UCSB and is a fellow Wave with an MA in Psychology from Pepperdine. She loves to try new recipes and restaurants and spend time with family and friends.