LB Alumni 2024: Professional Development Series - Elevate Your Professional Image

Description

Join us on July 25th from 11:30am to 1pm for an empowering professional development session in the Cardinal Room at the Lamar University Montagne Center. 🎓

• Educational Insights: Discover practical tips and strategies to enhance your professional image.
• Delicious Lunch: Savor a delicious lunch while networking with fellow professionals prepared by Two Magnolias.
• Free Headshots: Strike a pose! Photographer Morgan Miller from Leo Weeks Photographers will capture your best side. 📸

Remember, a great professional image starts with you! 😊

Our speakers are:

Craig Escamilla, Keynote Speaker - Elevate Your Professional Image

Craig Escamilla is the owner/CEO of CAE Solutions, LLC. He helps business leaders increase proactive, strategic decisions in their organizations while reducing daily dependence on them. With nearly twenty years of consulting, teaching, and senior management experience, Craig brings practical experience to his clients. He has published works on strategic planning, leadership, ethical behavior, and nonprofit management.
 
Prior to launching CAE Solutions, LLC, Craig held various management roles. As Executive Director at the Symphony of Southeast Texas, Craig oversaw budget, ticket sales, and individual contributions increases, a Music Director search, and the elimination of all financial debt. Craig also served Lamar University as a management instructor and Director of Accreditation and Assessment in the College of Business and as the Executive Director of Retention and Student Success.
 
Craig earned a B.M.-Music degree in 2006 and an MBA in 2009 from Lamar University. He was selected as one of thirty participants in the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management Seminar in 2008 and was named a 2014 SETX 40 Under 40 Professional by SETX YPO. Craig is actively involved in the Southeast Texas community, specifically with the Rotary Club of Beaumont and the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.



Jamie Hogge, Presenter - Elevate Your Dining Etiquette

Jamie Hogge’s Southeast Texas roots run deep. Her father, Dr. Jerry Johnson, was a beloved Ophthalmologist, and her mother, Sug Johnson, was a local business owner. She attended All Saints Episcopal School, Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School, and earned her B.S.- Criminal Justice in 1990 and M.P.A. in 1995 at Lamar University.
 
Through their parents' example, Jamie and her sisters learned the importance of community service. After earning her bachelor’s degree, and prior to attending graduate school, she spent a year on tour with Up With People, performing, and doing community service projects throughout the United States and Europe. She has been a volunteer with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for over 20 years - working with abused and neglected children in foster care. For 20 years she has served as a member of the Workforce Solutions Board of Directors. She has worked with BASF and TotalEnergies for 24 years overseeing the Miracle Match for Life partnership, grossing over $2.4 million for local charities. 
 
Jamie lives in Beaumont with her husband, Mark, a 39-year veteran of the Beaumont Police Department. For close to two decades, she has been employed as a Patient Advocate at Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas. For over 25 years she has worked with her sister, Sydney Matthews, at Beaumont Junior Cotillion – founded by her sister. Through their efforts, thousands of local children have received training in dining and social etiquette, and ballroom dancing.



Sharita Gardner, Presenter - Elevate Your Professional Style

Sharita Gardner, a Houston native, graduated from Lamar University with a B.S.-Corporate Communications in 2012. She considers Southeast Texas home because she has been here almost 20 years. Sharita is the Corporate Affairs Manager for Bayou Bend CCS – Chevron New Energies (CNE).  She believes in servant leadership and is actively engaged in her community serving as: LU Alumni Board President, Rotary Club of Port Arthur President-Elect, Port Arthur Chamber Board Member, SETX YPO (Past Chair), Young Emerging Leaders (Past Chair), Junior League of Beaumont Member, Press Club of SETX Member, etc. She was named a 2024 Remarkable Business Woman on the Rise by the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce, named a Young Emerging Leaders Rising Star in 2022 and 2023, a 2022 Young Trailblazer by the Beaumont Chapter of NAACP, recognized by the 100 Plus Black Women Coalition as a Young Leader to Watch in 2022, named September 2020 Woman of the Month by the Black Business Professionals of SETX, and named a 2017 SETX 40 Under 40 Professional by SETX YPO. Her favorite hobby is “fooding”, and she loves new adventurous experiences. Sharita hopes to one day travel the world inspiring the masses, one conversation at a time!


Hannah LeTulle, Presenter - Elevate Your Professional Communication

Hannah LeTulle graduated Summa Cum Laude from Lamar University with a B.S.-Communication-Corporate in 2018, focusing on journalism and public relations. During her time at Lamar University, she served as photo editor for the University Press newspaper, an intern at the Cat 5 magazine and the Beaumont Enterprise, intern with the Lamar University Public Relations department, President of the Professional Communication Association, Student Government Association Public Relations Committee member, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society member, and Lambda Pi Eta Honor Society member. She is the Director of Communications and Marketing at Lamar Institute of Technology since January 2023. She previously served as Sales and Marketing Specialist at Beaumont ISD from November 2018-January 2023.  Hannah is actively engaged in her community serving as a board member of the Press Club of Southeast Texas, SETX YPO member having served as Vice-Chair from 2022-2023 and Social Media Chair from 2021-2022, United Way of Greater Beaumont Local LINC Steering Committee Member, member of the Rotary Club of Beaumont, Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce Mentorship Program Graduate, and ExxonMobil Beaumont Community Advisory Panel.