News

St. Olaf College alumna Kirsten Cahoon ’98 is the new director of the Piper Center for Vocation and Career.

Cahoon has more than 20 years of professional career coaching experience, including 15 years at St. Olaf, where she has provided guidance to thousands of Oles. She has been serving as the interim director of the Piper Center since June, when Leslie Moore ’77 left the role to become the college’s Vice President for Human Resources.

“Kirsten was prepared to take the helm and has done a magnificent job in this role,” says Vice President for Advancement Enoch Blazis. “Her management skills, combined with her forward thinking, will enable her to lead this accomplished team and deliver the center’s next exciting and important initiatives to our students.”

A psychology and exercise science double major at St. Olaf, Cahoon earned a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Minnesota. She served as a career counselor at the University of Minnesota and Colby College and as an assistant director of career services at St. John’s University before returning to St. Olaf to serve as the senior associate director of the Career Connections Program. In that role, she collaborated with academic departments and programs to embed experiential learning and career development into St. Olaf’s curriculum. She also partnered with colleagues to establish the college’s outcomes initiative as well as a pre-law internship program with local law school clinics.

For the last decade, Cahoon has been the senior associate director of employer and alumni relations in the Piper Center. In this role, she directed the corporate on-campus recruiting program and developed programming to foster connections between students and alumni through events such as Ole Biz, Ole Arts, Ole STEM, and Ole Law. She also oversaw the Connections externship program, traveling with students throughout 10 cities across the U.S.

I am thrilled by the opportunity to continue to advance our programs and services for all students.Piper Center Director Kirsten Cahoon ’98

In addition to her work with the Piper Center, Cahoon has been an adjunct instructor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she taught various career courses. She also traveled to Berlin as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to study Germany’s higher education system through the International Education Administrators (IEA) seminars.

Cahoon is looking forward to advancing the work of the Piper Center in this new leadership role. “I am thrilled by the opportunity to continue to advance our programs and services for all students,” she says.