Career Management Center Staff

The director of the Mays Business School Career Management Center, Kim Austin has more than 13 years of experience leading university and business school career services.  Prior to joining Texas A&M, she led career centers for the SMU Cox School of Business as executive director for the MBA, MS and BBA career centers and at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus and directed a global employment initiative for students from Asia and the Pacific Rim countries. She is certified as a Job and Career Transition coach and is trained to administer and interpret the MBTI and Strong Interest Inventory assessment tools.

Kim has more than 20 years of experience as a marketing strategist in the health care industry, government sector and the apparel industry.  She spent 12 years working in Asia, including five living and working in China.

Austin holds a M.Ed.in cooperative business education and a BBA in marketing from the University of North Texas. In addition, she is a graduate of the Executive Program in Health Care Administration at The Ohio State University. She is actively involved in the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance (MBA CSEA), the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). She has served in a wide variety of leadership roles in both professional and community organizations. She is currently serving on the board of directors for the National Association of Women MBAs.  In her spare time, Kim enjoys international travel and family history research.

Upon graduation from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing and Management in 2004, Sarah Bugh accepted a position in retail banking in Houston, Texas. After completing the Retail Leadership Development Program and serving as a Branch Manager Designee, she returned to academia and obtained a Master of Labor and Human Resources from The Ohio State University in 2008. Sarah subsequently began working in the oil and gas industry as an HR Advisor and Site Recruiting Coordinator with ExxonMobil where she supported a client group and managed programming for summer co-op students. She now works in the area of career advising and employer development. Previously, Sarah served as an Assistant Director with the Career Management Center at Mays Business School, Texas A&M University and with the MBA Career Management Team at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. Having returned to Texas A&M University, Sarah supports the graduate business students as an Associate Director with the Career Management Center, Mays Business School.

Sarah earned a Master of Labor and Human Resources degree from The Ohio State University and a B.B.A. in Marketing and Management from Texas A&M University.  She is a member of the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance and the National Association of Colleges and Employers

In her downtime, Sarah enjoys quilting and crocheting.

Sarah David, Ph.D., specializes in executive coaching, career advancement and entrepreneurial development.  She helps leaders advance, transition or reinvent their careers leveraging social platforms to get hired or find clients. She offices at the Mays Business School City Centre location in Houston where she works primarily with the working professional and executive MBA students. She also travels to College Station two days per week to meet with specialty Masters students.

Dr. David was named by Forbes as a Top 75 Resource for Careers. She is the founder of NICE-The National Institute for Career Empowerment where she helps professionals “reinvent work.”  With 20 years of experience, she is a personal branding and career success authority, award-winning author, and sought after speaker and trainer.  Most recently, Dr. David was an executive career consultant with the internationally-known talent development firm, Lee Hecht Harrison.  She also has extensive experience in higher education leadership and career services.

Sarah holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education from The University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Education in Counseling from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication from Louisiana Tech University.  She is a member of the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance and the National Association of Colleges and Employers.  A self-declared military brat, Sarah has lived in many different places including Okinawa. She is a “foodie” and loves trying new dishes but still rates crawfish as one of her favorites.

Mitch Lederman brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the team.  In addition to prior roles providing higher education career services, Mitch has experience as a nuclear engineer with the Bechtel Power Company, a global Fortune 50 company and as a licensing engineer and financial/treasury analyst at Northeast Utilities, a Fortune 500 company and the largest nuclear utility in New England in the 1990s.  He later segued from those roles to managing director positions with two executive search firms, each having a national scope across multiple industries and functional disciplines.

Complementing these experiences, Mitch holds a Master of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Virginia and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  He and his wife, Cheri, relocated to College Station from Cleveland, OH after previous stops in Florida and New York.  He and enjoys exploring new places, taking nature walks, and scouting antiques.

As the Coordinator for the Career Management Center, Sandy is responsible for the day-to-day management of the office, including first point of contact as reception, appointment scheduler, as well as serving as employer relations and event coordinator.

Sandy has more than 35 years of experience in office administration and management.  She has worked in manufacturing, service, insurance and sales administration businesses.  Prior to her employment with the Career Management Center, she worked at the Texas A&M University System in the Office of the Treasurer.

She graduated from Pearland High School.  It was there while enrolled in a Vocational Office Education program that she fell in love with office administration work and decided to pursue that as her career. She has had the opportunity to travel to China and Hong Kong.  She has also lived in Colorado and New Mexico before setting in Hilltop Lakes, Texas with her husband.  In her free time, Sandy enjoys gardening, working on the family farm, and spending time with her two children, their spouses and grandchildren.

A career employee of Texas A&M, Patti Urbina has led efforts in a number of ventures in academic program evaluation and assessment; engineering and computer security research and education; and, coordination of industry consortia.  Prior to joining the Career Management Center team, Patti served as Director of the Texas A&M at Qatar’s Qatar Support Office for four years and the Director of the Full-Time MBA Program for two years.  In her current role, Patti travels extensively meeting and developing relationships with prospective employers of Mays graduate business students.

Patti holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in History with a focus on Management. She completed over 70 hours of Ph.D. level study in Education & Human Resource Development. The first Communications Chair of the inaugural University Staff Council, Patti has been a longtime advocate for staff representation and also served a term as the secretary of the Women’s Administrative Network.  She is an alumni of the Center for Leadership in Higher Education’s leadership development program in which she represented TEES in a one-year internship with then Chancellor Barry Thompson.  She was a member of the 1991-92 Brazos Leadership class.

A fifth generation native Texan, Patti enjoys travel abroad. She is married to Hispanic Studies Professor Emeritus, Eduardo.  When not watching Aggie sports, she enjoys visiting family in Spain, and domestic travel to spend time with her three children and the families of her three stepchildren, including six grandchildren.

Des Wilson serves as the Associate Director for Employer Relations and Recruiting Services position in the Career Management Center.  In this role, Des assists employer clients with talent acquisition needs including both on and off campus recruiting and hiring, interview scheduling, and development of employer partnerships for the Mays Business School graduate programs.

She has a 30+ year managerial career in technical project management and customer services for companies such as Mobil Oil, First American Bank, AMS, Avinext and others.  She has worked in a variety of industries including information technology, banking, oil and gas and consulting where she utilized her expertise in leveraging technology to streamline processes, improve productivity and reduce costs.

Des holds an MBA in Information Systems from the City University of Seattle and a BBA in Marketing from Texas A&M University.  She is a member of the MBA Career Services and Employer Alliance, the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Women’s Administrator Network.  Des enjoys an active lifestyle. She and her husband both compete in triathlons on a regular basis.

Donna is a seasoned professional who brings significant expertise in finance and consulting, primarily in the energy industry, to her role as a career consultant. During her career, she advised on numerous M&A transactions, completed company valuations and management consulting projects and served as an expert witness with legal testimony. Just prior to joining the career center team, Donna had spent the last 10 years in London where she led major fundraising initiatives for the American School of London.  She is well-known in the international community for her role in creating impactful community building activities and leading major philanthropic endeavors.  She holds both US and UK citizenship status.   She is a two-time Aggie holding both an MBA from the Mays Business School as well as a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering.

Shanna Upchurch is a native of the Midwest and attained her Bachelor of Music Performance from Indiana University. When the musician’s lifestyle didn’t suit her, she changed directions with an MBA from Brigham Young University. That launched her to an internship with Campbell’s Soup Company and then to a full-time role with General Mills. Thanks to her time on the Old El Paso brand, she can tell you more than you care to know about sourcing green chilies!

For the last ten years, Shanna has devoted herself to a career in higher education, both in admissions and then career services. Most recently, she was with SMU for six years. As a Certified Career Management Coach, she has worked with students in all disciplines but focused on analytics, marketing and operations.