NEXT Career Design is a Movement Connecting People Transforming Careers and Creating Lifestyles They Love!

I had a protracted job search. Along the way, I met many who shared experiencing loneliness and wanting to connect with people on a human level versus typical networking events.

My "search-mates" and I discovered the new variety of options from contract employment to traditional corporate positions and entrepreneurship could be overwhelming. We all learned that determining a career path and applying it to our searches was not so simple. We also wanted easily accessible tools, techniques and tips to get us to the next step. 

We could be resigned to loneliness, lost in the morass of career options and out of touch with meaningful resources or, take action.

We decided to take action. 

Together we are connecting people, creating a community, giving knowledge generously and supporting each other.

I hope you find something here to power your journey. 

June M. Archer

Meet the Project Team

June M. Archer | The Puzzle Maker

June is an agile global executive whom colleagues often refer to as the “Puzzle Maker”. Recently, she joined newly merged Hackensack/Meridian Health as the system wide Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.
She is recognized for her outstanding ability to motivate and inspire diverse teams to link strategy and systems together to drive transformational growth. She has crafted vision and strategies to build and lead new businesses, along with creating high-impact change for familiar brands and at some of the world’s leading Fortune 500 global entities such as Bloomingdales, The Walt Disney Company, Sesame Workshop and Godiva Chocolatier.
June is an active alumna of her alma mater, Princeton University. She serves as Chair of the University Store Board of Trustees and has leadership roles on the Race Relations Prize and Alumni Schools Committees. Her philanthropic endeavors include serving on NJPAC’s Women’s Association and Advisory Council’s Jazz Committee. 
As a continuous learner, June inspires others to fall in love with the process of life-long education and iterating to stay on top of their game. While June has an array of interests outside of work, her passion lies in the world of sports. She can actually name the starting line-up for the 1978 NY Yankees. She resides in West Orange, New Jersey.

Donna Edbril | Seminar Captain

Donna Edbril is a General Counsel with a wide breadth of experience working for global, omni-channel, private and public, large and small, consumer goods companies.  Sheis known for providing decisive and practical counsel to the CEO, Board of Directors and senior executives on all legal matters and forging strong relationships with the business team while minimizing business, operational and reputational risks. Donna’s area of expertise includes, litigation, arbitration and mediation, regulatory compliance, risk management, commercial and financial transactions, corporate governance, corporate securities, international transactions, employment, intellectual property, licensing and real estate.  

Donna has demonstrated her executive agility by utilizing her extensive experience and expertise in diverse business situations and cultural environments.  She has lead teams in a multi-billion dollar global company and has also worked as General Counsel at smaller entrepreneurial companies where she rolled up her sleeves to support the implementation and execution of business strategy and objectives.   She has been successful at creatingan in-house legal function which adds value and facilitates corporate business objectives.

Donna is recognized not only for her strong technical legal skills, but also for her emotional intelligence, team orientation and positive leadership competence.  She has a strong sense of ethics, loyalty and inspires trust and confidence in those around her.  She is passionate about maximizing the value of the legal department to the entire organization and shareholders.

Donna graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA degree in History, and earned a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.  She has been a Board member of the Gina Gibney Dance Company and a mentor for the last four years to three teenage girls at the Harlem Village Academy. 

Rich Keller | Change Agent | Appreciation Captain

Rich Keller is a marketing executive that is recognized as a passionate, collaborative and motivational change-agent who drives transformational growth by inspiring high-performance global teams to reach their maximum potential.  He is a proven disruptive thinker with a unique skill-set blending emotional brand building, financial acumen and motivational leadership across large, medium and start-up enterprises in the global luxury retail, consumer packaged food and beverage and intimate apparel sectors.

Rich’s career-to-date has been spent leading high-performance global teams for some of the world’s most iconic brands: Godiva, Planters and Chips Ahoy! to name a few.  His business approach hinges on relationship building, utilizing internal and external engagement to create a collaborative process.  He brings people together by creating dialogue to share experiences, connect thoughts, debate ideas, develop solutions and ultimately bridge gaps.  He believes that this philosophy helps companies deepen the emotional connection between brands and consumers to create magic.  At Godiva, Rich was awarded the “Offering Passion” CEO award for demonstrating, on a daily basis, how these values and behaviors can drive success for a global company. 

Rich is equally passionate about making an impact on his community.  After overcoming cancer at age 26, he fulfilled his dream of crossing the finish line of the New York City Marathon.   His marathon medal is a daily reminder that one can find the strength from within to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.  In 2014, he launched a 501c3 sports charity called S.C.O.R.E. 4 The Cure.  S.C.O.R.E stands for Support, Cancer, Outreach, Research & Education.  The charity’s mission is “To inspire kid & teen athletes to use their passion for playing sports to conquer cancer, one S.C.O.R.E at a time”.  All proceeds benefit pediatric cancer charities.

Rich has his MBA in Marketing & Strategic Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his Executive Mini-MBA in Digital Marketing from Rutgers University.  He resides in Florham Park, New Jersey with his wife Sharon, an Obstetrician-Gynecologist who is a breast cancer survivor, and his two children, Zachary (17) & Samantha (14).  

Cheryl D. Pollard | Event Captain

Cheryl D. Pollard is Principal and Founder at CdP Consulting a boutique management consulting company that provides event planning,  product development, brand and project management, and business development to for profit and not for profit organizations.  With over 25 years of retail experience, Cheryl’s background is a unique combination of project management,  product development, retail merchandising, sourcing and logistics having worked for leading department, specialty, and global sourcing companies such as Bloomingdales, Coach, Marshall Fields, and AMC-Target Sourcing.

Cheryl was Vice President of Product Development and Merchandising for Waterworks a global luxury brand of bath and home furnishings products with a dedicated focus on design, quality and craftsmanship. At Waterworks, she created  transformative product strategies, launched a template for the innovation pipeline, established new product categories and channels of distribution by working collaboratively with leading architects and designers, resulting in awards for the premium lifestyle brand.

Cheryl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Wheaton College.  She is a lay leader at The Riverside Church in the City of New York, a board member with Project People Foundation, an organization committed to enriching the lives of women and children in sub-Saharan Africa, and a video mentor with Infinite Family, an organization that builds self-esteem in children orphaned by HIV-AIDS in South Africa.   

Chaun Willis | Seminar Supervisor

Chaun's professional background is financial management and accounting in the retail, insurance, and real estate industries. If you to ask him what he is most passionate about it is the events he manages.  

As an event manager, Chaun has extensive experience in planning and managing small to large scale projects. His job is to have people walk away uplifted and inspired by what they can create for themselves. His biggest devotion is in service to a personal growth and development company. Participants in their programs produce extraordinary results for themselves and their lives beyond what they can imagine.

Chaun Willis is the possibility of joyous self expression.

Ester Rodriguez | Digital Connector

Ester Rodriguez grew up in southern California but has lived in every region of the U.S. since her college days. As a former reporter and as someone who considers herself pro-people, she learned early on that everyone has an interesting story to tell. Now, as a seasoned marketing and PR professional, she applies that sentiment to the businesses she works with now.

Her PR efforts have been picked up by media outlets like the New York Times, USA Today, NBC World News Tonight and the Associated Press.

When she’s not juggling real world tasks in the corporate sector, you can find her volunteering for her favorite causes and spending time with her fur baby, Gino, a young Boston Terrier who keeps her on her toes.

Abby O'Neill | Event Day Supervisor 

Principal of Abby O’Neill Consulting LLC, providing guidance for philanthropies, nonprofits and companies that seek to create economic, health, educational and cultural opportunities for all citizens. 

Previously, O’Neill served as vice president of communications and programs at the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation. In addition, she built and led the New Jersey corporate giving, sponsorship and employee-volunteer programs at Bank of America and its predecessors, Fleet, Summit and NatWest.

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