DEI Symposium Series - Employment Barriers and the Importance of Neuro-inclusive Career Advising

This episode continues our series of DEI conversations that were originally featured at the NCDA 2024 Global Career Development Conference's DEI Symposium in San Diego, CA.

This episode - hosted by Reuben Britt and featuring Lauren Standish - focuses on employment barriers and the importance of neuro-inclusive career advising. Lauren shares her non-linear career journey and insights on neurodiversity, explaining terms such as neurodivergent, neurotypical, and neurotype. The conversation delves into the significant challenges neurodivergent individuals face, with unemployment rates higher than the national average. Both Lauren and Reuben emphasize the need for tailored career advising practices to support neurodivergent students, considering their unique strengths and challenges.

Resources: Click to access the PDF resource list from this symposium presentation.

Lauren Standish is a graduate student pursuing her master's degree in adult, continuing, and higher education administration at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). In addition to her studies, she works in Career Services, a segment of UWM's Center for Student Experience and Talent (SET). Lauren considers herself a jack of many trades, some of which include career advising, training and development, and instructional design. Her passions include mental health advocacy, accessible educational and professional development opportunities, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, making music, and spending time with her cats, Tucker and Jack. You can reach Lauren at: www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-standish

Ruben Britt, Jr. is an author, lecturer, career coach, and educator. He is a National Certified Counselor who has over 47 years of experience in education as both a career planning counselor and as a teacher. A nationally recognized expert on issues related to career coaching and educational issues, he has worked as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Education, the Educational Testing Service, the New Jersey Department of Higher Education and several colleges and community organizations. He is an author who has written a book on the social issues entitled Winter in America: The Social and Moral Decline of a Great Nation; a self-empowerment book entitled Reflection and Restoration: Quotes for Self-Empowerment and Motivation, a career planning guide for high school and college students entitled Black and Powerful: The Career Guide for Tomorrow’s Top Leaders, and he has written a children’s book on cultural diversity entitled Lakota. Ruben also wrote two chapters for the book The Last Job Search Guide You’ll Ever Need--"Networking: A Proven Tool for Job Seekers" and "The Portfolio: Your Ticket to Successful Interviewing." Ruben is also the co-author of the textbook Don’t Dismiss My Story: The Tapestry of Colonized Voices In White Space. He has been a contributor, and he has written a number of articles related to education, career development and social issues for such publications as Black Issues in Higher Education, Upscale Magazine, Black Enterprise, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Diversity in Ed Magazine. Ruben was a teacher in the Boston Public School District (MA), the director of Cooperative Education at Bloomsburg University (PA) and the coordinator of Career Services at Stockton University (NJ). Presently, he is a career planning coach at Rowan University and the host of Career Talk on WGLS-FM a show offering tips and advice on career planning and finding employment.