This event is open to all U-M students, faculty, and staff.

Title:
Adulting: Preparing for the Working World

Abstract:
Are you wondering how to make professional contacts or what the first step is in getting your first internship or job? This session will cover topics such as how to network, how to prepare for an interview, which position to accept if you have multiple offers and most importantly how to build confidence to ensure professional success. We can’t wait to discuss these topics with you in an engaging format.

Bio:
Debra Levantrosser has over 27 years of executive level international leadership and management experience in many industries. She is currently a Lecturer at the University of Michigan (U of M) in the College of Engineering, Industrial and Operations Engineering department where she teaches lean manufacturing, leadership for engineers, senior design and coordinates career readiness workshops. She has also been a faculty advisor for the Tauber Institute for six years.

She is the founder and lead adviser of Arbed Solutions, a consulting company dedicated to helping and teaching businesses to make positive, productive and strategic changes to their work. She is the hostess of The Leaning Edge radio show (podcast) on The Michigan Business Network and is the founder of the Michigan Lean Consortium, an organization utilizing Lean principles statewide to help rebuild the state’s economy
(www.michiganlean.org) .

Levantrosser is the majority owner of Shimmy Shack, Michigan’s first and only 100% vegan and gluten-free restaurant and food truck based in Plymouth, MI. She has been vegan for 30 years and ran a vegan catering business out of her apartment at Michigan State University in the early 1990s.

Before coming to U of M, she was The Change Leader for Johnson & Johnson leading the transformation of the global supply chain organization and she was also the Executive Director of Lean Strategy and Deployment for the corporation. Prior to that, she was Director of the Southeast Asian Automotive Practice in Bangkok, Thailand for PricewaterhouseCoopers helping to build it to the top firm in Asia. She has held leadership positions at Ford, Exide Technologies, Vassar Brothers Hospital and her own companies, leading strategic and tactical problem-solving efforts using a continuous improvement mindset. She is a Lean Master Black Belt and enjoys teaching others about lean thinking; especially the change management, coaching and leadership aspects of it. She has worked with many senior leadership teams around the world to focus on the true meaning of lean and the role of leadership in a transformation.

She has lived on three continents and worked in 50+ countries. She attended Michigan State University where she received two undergraduate degrees in German and in Political Science with a minor in health studies. She attended Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY for her MPA degree and has remained very active with Marist by being a member of the School of Management Advisory Board and establishing a scholarship for women entering leadership positions. She has completed three years of studies towards her PhD. She lives in Plymouth, Michigan with her three dogs and enjoys dark chocolate with peanut butter as a daily treat, especially after yoga.