Director of Graduate Career Development
Dr. Gaeun (Gwenn) Seo is a career development professional with over a decade of dedicated experience in career services, specializing in guiding Ph.D., Master’s, and international students on their path to successful careers. Currently serving as the Director of Graduate Career Development at Georgia Tech, she oversees a graduate career development team to provide comprehensive career support to Master’s and Ph.D. students.
Previously, Dr. Seo served as the Senior Associate Director for Graduate Student Career Development at Princeton University, where she spearheaded all career development initiatives for Ph.D. students. Before her tenure at Princeton, she provided graduate student career development services at various institutions such as Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Seo also has an impressive research and publication history of doctoral students, including her recent peer-review publication, “Pursuing careers inside or outside academia? Factors associated with doctoral students’ career decision making.” She has also held leadership positions in the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and the Graduate Career Consortium (GCC).
Dr. Seo earned her BA and MA in International Office Administration at Ewha Womans University in South Korea and her PhD in Human Resource Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Seo’s research focuses on career development and learning across educational and workplace contexts, with particular attention to graduate education and adult learners. Dr. Seo studies how experiential learning and organizational structures shape career decision-making, professional growth, and advancement. Much of her work bridges research and practice through the design and evaluation of institutional programs, including graduate internship courses and career development interventions implemented at scale. Through program evaluation, survey research, qualitative inquiry, and mixed methods, Dr. Seo investigate how structured reflection, mentoring, and institutional support influence learning outcomes and career trajectories.
TEACHING INTERESTS
Dr. Seo’s teaching centers on learning through professional experience across educational and workplace settings. Her teaching interests include career and leadership development, project management, instructional design, educational technology, and applied research methods that support learning through professional experience. She emphasizes reflective practice, mentoring, and the application of theory to real-world contexts to help learners translate experience into professional growth and adaptability. Dr. Seo currently serves as an Instructor of Record for INTN 6003, 6004, 6006, 6009, and 6012.
EDUCATION
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) Champaign, IL
Ph.D. in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership 2017
Human Resource Development Concentration
Ewha Womans University Seoul, South Korea
M.A. in International Office Administration 2013
B.A. in International Office Administration 2008
SELECTED RECENT SCHOLARLY OUTPUT
- Seo, G., & Elrath, M. (2025). Career crossroads: Guiding clients through transition and reinvention. Career Convergence. National Career Development Association (NCDA).
- Seo, G. & Hall, C. (2025, June). Personalizing career services at scale: Group-focused targeted workshop strategies. Roundtable at the 2025 NCDA Global Conference, Atlanta, GA.
- Seo, G. & Hall, C. (2025, June). Career support beyond campus for online students with flexible and targeted approaches. Roundtable at the 2025 NCDA Global Conference, Atlanta, GA
- Seo, G. (2024). Enhancing negotiation skills: a step-by-step guide for graduate students. Times Higher Education & Inside Higher Ed
- Seo, G., Ahn, J., Huang, W., Makela, J. P., & Yeo, H. (2021). Pursuing careers inside or outside academia? Factors associated with doctoral students’ career decision making. Journal of Career Development, 48(6), 957–972.https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845320907968
- Seo, G., & Yeo, H. (2020). In pursuit of careers in or beyond the professoriate: What matters to doctoral students when making a career choice? International Journal of Doctoral Studies. 15, 615-635. https://doi.org/10.28945/4652
- Seo, G., Huang, W., & Han, S. H. (2017). Conceptual review of underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions from a perspective of gendered social status in the workplace: Implication for HRD research and practice. Human Resource Development Review, 16(1), 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317690063
- Seo, G., Hedayati, A. M., & Huang, W. (2017). Identifying core competencies to advance female professors’ careers: An exploratory study in U.S. academia. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 41(6), 741-759. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2016.1177167
- Mehdiabadi, A. H., Seo, G., Huang, W., Han, C. H. (2017). Building Blocks of Contemporary HRD Research: A Citation Analysis on Human Resource Development Quarterly between 2007 and 2013. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 29(4), 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1002/nha3.20197
- Han, S. H, Seo, G., Yoon, S. W., & Yoon, D. (2016). Transformational leadership and knowledge sharing: Mediating roles of employee’s empowerment, commitment, and citizenship behaviors. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(3), 130-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-09-2015-0066
