Addye Buckley-Burnell, the new Center for Career Development executive director, will oversee opening a student-conceived service providing free or inexpensive professional dress for job-seeking BU students. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

New Appointment

New Center for Career Development Director to Provide Additional Help for Job-Seeking Terriers

Addye Buckley-Burnell’s initiatives will include new drop-in assistance, making CCD more accessible to students

The Center for Career Development (CCD), which helps Terriers find that dream job or internship, has a new leader, and she plans to dress students for success—literally.

Addye Buckley-Burnell was recently appointed executive director, succeeding Lou Gaglini.  A student-conceived initiative that she’ll see through to fruition, she says, is a CCD campus “career closet” this spring. The closet will provide students with used, low-cost or free professional clothing, and clothing care, for job interviews and related purposes. The closet was the brainchild of Tima Dasouki (Pardee’22).

“Because of my history launching a similar project at Auburn University,” Buckley-Burnell says, “I have been working on the implementation and launch here at BU and on maintaining the program in the coming years.”

The CCD is collaborating on the project with BU’s Newbury Center, which supports first-generation college students.

Buckley-Burnell comes to Boston after nine years at Auburn. “My career has allowed me to work directly with students, alumni, and employers to build meaningful connections and programming,” she says. “It was clear from the position of the Center for Career Development…that Boston University values the contribution of career services and the success of their students. 

“The opportunity to lead such a dynamic team in the CCD at such an innovative university was one I was not willing to pass up.”

“With 14 years in the college career services field, Buckley-Burnell brings a wealth of experience, including her record of examining services and practices for inclusivity and equity,” says Denise Mooney, associate vice president for enrollment and student administration, who oversees the CCD.

The CCD responded to the pandemic last year with expanded programs and online services, including Launch Your Career, an on-demand job search Blackboard course open to students and alumni. “The lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic have allowed us to adapt our programming to increase access to students and employers,” Buckley-Burnell says. “Handshake [a career-related appointments and networking tool] continues to enable us to offer both virtual and in-person options, enabling students and employers to connect with each other and with our team seamlessly. Appointments will continue to be offered in the CCD along with virtual meeting options to meet the needs of our busy students.”

The CCD also will bolster résumé and reviewing of cover letters this semester, as well as drop-in assistance, the latter one of Buckley-Burnell’s proposals. “Starting at the beginning of February, BU students can drop by Room 101 in the Yawkey Center and get immediate assistance with their résumés and cover letter reviews on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from noon to 3 pm,” she says. “These are efforts to make the CCD services more accessible to BU students and remove obstacles for getting this help.”

A St. Louis native, Buckley-Burnell earned a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Central Missouri and a master’s in counseling from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Last month, she was awarded a doctorate in adult education from Auburn.

She is a licensed professional counselor and a global career development facilitator, the latter a designation conferred by the North Carolina nonprofit Center for Credentialing & Education. When not advising students, she enjoys spending time with her family and crafting.