Cecilia Avery
Leesburg,VA
Summary
Strategic and collaborative HR professional with over 15 years of experience in full-cycle recruiting, employee development, and career coaching. Passion for identifying and connecting with talent drives a personalized, people-centered approach, establishing a reputation as a trusted HR business partner to senior leadership. Expertise spans diverse industries, including higher education, banking, healthcare, IT, architecture and design, hospitality, finance, retail, and air transportation, with a proven track record in sourcing director-level and executive talent. Bilingual in English and Spanish, committed to fostering inclusive environments while mentoring new recruiters and enhancing processes to elevate employer branding and candidate experience.
Overview
29
29
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Talent Acquisition Partner
Strategic Education - Strayer University
01.2023 - 07.2025
- Led end-to-end recruiting for diverse faculty positions across disciplines, including Healthcare, Finance, and IT, supporting multiple campus locations and online programs.
- Partnered with academic leaders to pinpoint talent needs in areas like Healthcare, Finance, and Information Technology.
- Improved recruitment strategies, which reduced time-to-fill for key faculty roles.
- Built strong relationships with candidates, ensuring a positive hiring experience and high retention.
- Revamped sourcing methods and launched targeted outreach campaigns, cutting the time-to-fill for high-priority faculty positions.
- Established structured interview procedures and candidate scoring systems to boost consistency, fairness, and data-based hiring decisions.
- Conducted training sessions for hiring managers on recruiting best practices, compliance, and inclusive hiring protocols.
- Produced monthly dashboard reports with funnel metrics and hiring KPIs, equipping executive leadership with actionable insights for talent forecasting.
- Fostered a high-touch candidate experience, resulting in increased faculty retention and referrals.
- Filled over 100 roles per year and supported up to 20+ managers at any given time, depending on the roles.
- Used multiple sourcing tools to drive passive candidate engagement, such as LinkedIn Recruiter, Indeed, and Seekout.
- Evaluated and tested new recruiting system features and ATS enhancements before rollout, providing user feedback to improve functionality, streamline workflows, and ensure successful adoption across the TA team.
- Designed and implemented streamlined recruiting processes to enhance efficiency, consistency, and compliance across the Talent Acquisition team, reducing time-to-fill and improving candidate experience.
- Oversaw credentialing compliance across all roles, ensuring alignment with regulatory standards and organizational policies to mitigate risk and maintain operational integrity.
- Partnered with department leaders to update job descriptions, aligning role expectations with compliance requirements and supporting talent acquisition and workforce planning efforts.
Talent Recruiting Manager
Strategic Education - The Jack Welch Management Institute/Strayer University
09.2016 - 01.2023
- Led full-cycle recruitment for faculty across diverse disciplines at JWMI and Strayer University, including Leadership, Healthcare, LPN, Operations, Finance, Economics, Human Resources, Strategy, Writing Coaches, Admissions Officers, and Student Advisors—managed credentialing for specialized programs.
- Monitored new faculty onboarding and training; tracked talent metrics and conducted classroom observations to assess performance and recommend continued employment.
- Oversaw the faculty employee lifecycle, including promotions, offboarding, and exit interviews, ensuring smooth transitions and retention of top talent.
- Planned and executed annual and quarterly faculty retreats, managing site selection, contract negotiations, scheduling, catering, and on-site coordination.
- Partnered with business leaders to develop customized workforce performance measures aligned with strategic goals.
- Supervised a team of two recruiters and served as the primary point of contact for over 100 faculty members, resolving inquiries and fostering engagement.
- Collaborated with the compensation department and leadership to create and standardize job descriptions for JWMI faculty roles.
- Contributed to JWMI’s recognition in The Princeton Review’s Top 25 Online MBA Programs (#16) and CEO Magazine’s Top 10 North American Online MBA Programs (#2) through strategic talent initiatives.
- Acted as an internal career coach and mentor, supporting employee development and career progression.
- Responsible for full life cycle recruiting for Faculty for all different disciplines for JWMI and Strayer University in the following concentrations: (Leadership, Healthcare, LPN, Operations, Finance, Economics, Human Resources, Strategy, Course Leads, Writing Coaches, Admission Officers, Student Advisors, including the credentialing process for specialized programs.)
- Responsible for monitoring new hire faculty training, tracking and analyzing new hire talent metrics, observing faculty in the classroom to make recommendations to leadership of new hire faculty's continued employment.
- Responsible for the faculty’s employee life cycle, including promotions, overseeing the off-boarding, and exit interviews of faculty.
- Managed and planned yearly and quarterly faculty retreats, which included site selection, contract negotiation, scheduling, meal planning, and on-site staff coordination.
- Worked with business leaders to help customize measures that assisted in the development of the workforce and its performance.
- Oversaw a team of 2 and became the main POC for over 100 faculty members’ general inquiries.
- Worked with the compensation dept. and business leaders to create and standardize job descriptions for the JWMI brand.
- Helped drive The Jack Welch Management Institute (JWMI) to its fourth consecutive appearance on The Princeton Review’s Top 25 Online MBA programs (#16), and the Top 10 North American Online MBA programs by CEO Magazine (#2).
- Internal Careers Coach/Mentor for Internal Employees
Talent Recruiter
Strategic Education - The Jack Welch Management Institute/Strayer University
12.2014 - 08.2016
- Managed full life cycle recruiting for faculty positions and developed proactive, creative strategies to attract candidates. Utilized the ATS system, social media, and other recruiting tools to identify qualified applicants.
HR Professional/Senior Recruiter/Benefits Manager
Cardinal Bank
06.2010 - 12.2014
Human Resources Specialist and Recruiter
Gate Gourmet
06.2009 - 06.2010
HR Coordinator/Executive Assistant to V.P. of Design Operations
Sunrise Senior Living
11.2006 - 04.2009
Sales Finance Lender
BB&T Bank
10.2005 - 11.2006
Executive Administrative Support Supervisor/Collections Dialer System Administrator
BB&T Bank
08.1999 - 10.2005
Administrative Assistant
BB&T Bank
09.1996 - 10.1999
Education
A.A. - Computer Information Systems
Strayer University
B.B.A. - Human Resources Management
Strayer University
01.2009
Skills
- Workforce planning expertise
- End-to-end recruitment
- Talent acquisition strategy
- Diversity hiring strategies
- Workforce planning
- Proficient in ATS and HRIS systems: Workday, Taleo, PeopleSoft, UltiPro
- Recruitment analytics
- Recruitment strategy development
- Candidate sourcing and identification
- Direct talent sourcing
- Community outreach coordination
- Candidate experience management
- Employer branding strategies
- Personalized candidate engagement
- Interview process design
- Collaborative leadership
- Stakeholder collaboration
- Strategic communication
- Coaching expertise
- Organizational change management
- Interdepartmental teamwork
- TA Project Management
Accomplishments
- Reduced faculty time-to-fill through sourcing strategy revamp
- Led training initiative for 20 hiring managers to improve interview equity
- Trusted advisor to senior leadership on workforce planning and succession
Languages
Spanish
Native or Bilingual
Timeline
Senior Talent Acquisition Partner
Strategic Education - Strayer University
01.2023 - 07.2025
Talent Recruiting Manager
Strategic Education - The Jack Welch Management Institute/Strayer University
09.2016 - 01.2023
Talent Recruiter
Strategic Education - The Jack Welch Management Institute/Strayer University
12.2014 - 08.2016
HR Professional/Senior Recruiter/Benefits Manager
Cardinal Bank
06.2010 - 12.2014
Human Resources Specialist and Recruiter
Gate Gourmet
06.2009 - 06.2010
HR Coordinator/Executive Assistant to V.P. of Design Operations
Sunrise Senior Living
11.2006 - 04.2009
Sales Finance Lender
BB&T Bank
10.2005 - 11.2006
Executive Administrative Support Supervisor/Collections Dialer System Administrator
BB&T Bank
08.1999 - 10.2005
Administrative Assistant
BB&T Bank
09.1996 - 10.1999
B.B.A. - Human Resources Management
Strayer University
A.A. - Computer Information Systems
Strayer University