Moisey starts at Northern Career Center

Montana State University-Northern has a new career services and industry relations director.

"I'm looking forward to continuing that tradition of building and strengthening partnerships with our industries, it is such a key component to the success of our program and the opportunities for our students," Lisa Moisey said. "I'm excited to continue working as that liaison in bringing our business and industries and connecting them with the great Northern students that we have here, and continuing to grow opportunities."

Prior to this position, she worked at Bear Paw Development Corp. as the director of community development and, before that, in Missoula County for the local government as the program manager for county parks, trails and open lands, she said.

She said she is originally from Minnesota, where she graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis with a bachelor's degree in geography.

Moisey said Northern's mission statement, "MSU-Northern provides higher education to students for professional and technical careers through an institution dedicated to teaching the pursuit of knowledge," is really important to what she does at the Career Center.

"Basically, we're education that works," Moisey said. "We work with our students and industry to make those connections, so that way we can help prepare our students for job opportunities, earning while they learn through cooperative education and they also get those jobs right out of college."

She said the Career Center is like the liaison between the students and the industry.

Montana State University, she said, has an emphasis on career and technical educational development.

The way they do that is through their history of developing and maintaining industry partnerships, she added.

"We have industries who've worked with in the past and support our efforts in what we're doing, they sit on our program advisory boards, they've made significant financial and equipment contributions, and I think that's testament to the value they place on our Northern students," Moisey said. 

She said students come to them throughout their educational training. they have opportunities to apply for cooperative learning, in which the students earn while they learn.

Last year, Northern's students made $524,000 in co-op jobs and that's just through the credits taken, she said.

"Our program that we have here sets up an opportunity. ... It makes us a more affordable place when you look at financial aid packages and concert with those cooperative learning opportunities we work with through our industry partners," she said. "Northern is well-situated in that we are training essential people in essential careers."

The Career Services has a new and improved CareerExpress program, she said, which is a portal that businesses, industries and students use to either post a job for a cooperative education credit or post-graduation jobs - students use that to look for jobs.

She said CareerExpress is going through a transition right now with new features.

"I'm excited to work with that," Moisey said. "And, also, we are living in different times, so we have to pivot working out ways to continue to deliver a career fair and engaging industry and students. It all might look different, but it's a new challenge and I'm excited to keep that momentum rolling, and to see some students on campus that'll be great."

"We are working to keep face-to-face this semester and it's going to be great to see students here," she added. 

Northern has a strategic plan, she said, and her work is institutionalized through that plan in their goal for collaboration and partnership.

"I think it's exciting to see how important that collaboration and partnerships are from an institutional perspective and what a significant role that building those industry partnerships and maintaining those relationships plays in implementing that strategic plan," she said.