Staff

The Office of Career Services staff is dedicated to linking our students and alumni with our all-important employer constituency. Career Services strives to do everything possible to bridge the gap between our students and alumni and employers, utilizing many and varied creative means of communication with students and alumni in an effort to achieve this linkage with employers.

 

Ken Ridgedell
Ken Ridgedell, MBA
Director
Phone: 985-549-2121
Email: Kenneth.Ridgedell@southeastern.edu

Meet the Director

Ken Ridgedell has been serving students, alumni, and employers as director of Career Services since 2001.  Under Ken's leadership and direction, the University's annual, university-wide career fair has consistently become one of the largest and most successful career fairs in the state.  Other event initiatives worthy of special note are the establishment and offering of part-time job fairs every fall and spring semester (since 2005) and specialized career fairs each spring semester in technology (since 2013) and in business (since 2017).  Ken has been instrumental in Career Services' adoption of technology to assist in providing many of its services over the years, with one of the latest advances being the adoption of Handshake in Fall 2019, the custom-branded recruitment software system that serves as a one-stop career shop for many students and employers.
 
Since beginning in Career Services, Ken has been actively involved in national, regional, and state associations affiliated with career services offices.  Most notably, Ken has served in several officer positions and the board of his state association, the Louisiana Association of Colleges and Employers (LACE), over the years.  As conference chair and president-elect in 2016, Ken was instrumental in hosting the largest annual LACE conference in the organization's 50-plus year history, also hosting the event at Southeastern for the first time.  Ken has also been instrumental in establishing LACE's mid-year events and introduced the concept of employer site visits and tours as part of annual conference offerings.  Ken is currently serving on the LACE Board as immediate past-president.
 
A Southeastern alum in business, Ken previously served as an Instructor of Marketing in the College of Business, maintaining some of the highest Student Opinions of Teaching (SOT's) at the department, college, and university levels throughout his nine year tenure.  Ken also served as faculty adviser or co-adviser to the Southeastern Chapter of the American Marketing Association for seven of those nine years, helping the organization achieve and maintain outstanding chapter awards during this time.  Ken also established the Finance Internship Program and served as the Academic Internship Coordinator for Marketing, as well as Finance, for many of those nine years.
 
Ken is married to his loving wife, Melissa, and they are the proud parents of two children, Taylor and Kade. Outside of work and professional associations involvement, Ken enjoys spending time with family and friends, and being involved with the Hammond and Northshore communities through his church and various community and national organizations such as the Hammond Kiwanis, Hammond Chamber of Commerce, United Way, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the Alzheimer's Association.

 

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Carmen Maillet

Assistant Director of Employer Services & Systems Management

985-549-2121

carmen.maillet@southeastern.edu

Craig

Craig Marinello

Manager of Student Employment & Internship Development

985-549-2121

craig.marinello@southeastern.edu

 

                                  H                                                       am

    Jenna Lostritto-Simmons

       Career and Job Search Consultant

      985-549-2121

        jenna.lostritto@southeastern.edu

 

 Abbigail Moonshower

  Administrative Assistant 2

   985-549-2121

     abbigail.moonshower@southeastern.edu