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Kristen McMains
Assistant Director of Career Development at Central College - People, Purpose and Passion
Professional Background
Kristen McMains is a dedicated professional with a passion for supporting individuals in their personal and professional journeys. With a robust career rooted in human services, Kristen has spent many years working in various capacities, leveraging her expertise to strengthen the connections between people through their skills, abilities, and education. Her experience spans across the non-profit sector and federal grants to higher education, where she has made a significant impact by mentoring and partnering with students.
As the Assistant Director of Career Development at Central College, Kristen plays a pivotal role in guiding students as they navigate their career paths. Her commitment to fostering student success is evidenced by her collaborative approach, as she works closely with individuals to help them identify and achieve their career goals. By seeing the 'good, the bad, and the beautiful' in each student's journey, she cultivates an environment where growth and learning flourish.
Prior to her current role, Kristen contributed her talents to Indian Hills Community College in various capacities, including as a TRIO Student Support Services Specialist and Integrated Student Services Specialist. These roles allowed her to focus on enhancing the educational experiences for underrepresented and disadvantaged students, reinforcing her dedication to equitable educational access.
Education and Achievements
Kristen's educational journey is as impressive as her professional trajectory. She earned her Master’s degree in Business Leadership from William Penn University, where she honed her leadership skills and deepened her understanding of organizational dynamics and team building. This advanced education has equipped her with a unique perspective that she applies to her work, particularly in developing programs and support initiatives for students.
Her Bachelor of Science in Child, Adult, and Family Services from Iowa State University further complements her career in human services. This degree has provided Kristen with a comprehensive understanding of the social variables affecting individuals and families, allowing her to approach her work with empathy and competence. Additionally, she holds an Associate of Science degree in Social Work from Ellsworth Community College, which laid the foundational knowledge for her commitment to supporting both individuals and communities. Kristen also received her Diploma from Ballard High School, a stepping stone that initiated her educational endeavors.
Professional Experience
In her various roles, Kristen has gained extensive experience that showcases her versatility and depth of knowledge. At Indian Hills Community College, she served as a Student Development Specialist with the TRIO Student Support Services program, where she was instrumental in providing personalized support tailored to the needs of her students. This included academic advising and career counseling, as well as connecting students with necessary resources both on and off campus.
As an Integrated Student Services Specialist at Indian Hills, Kristen streamlined processes to enhance student experiences, ensuring that resources were efficiently aligned to meet the needs of the student body. Her time at Ottumwa Job Corps as a Career Preparation Specialist/Pre-College Specialist allowed her to work with young individuals, guiding them in their educational and career pursuits and preparing them for success after program completion.
Moreover, Kristen's background at Kennybrook Village as a Guest Relations Coordinator and Business Office Manager equipped her with crucial administrative skills and customer service expertise that she harnesses to create supportive environments for students and staff alike.
Further enriching her professional portfolio, Kristen worked as a Job Coach, Employment Counselor, and Employment Specialist at Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa. In this multifaceted role, she assisted individuals in overcoming barriers to employment, offering guidance and support in their job search and professional development journey.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Kristen has earned recognition for her unwavering dedication to student success and her creative approaches to career development. She is highly regarded for her ability to connect with diverse student populations, ensuring that every individual feels valued and supported in their educational pursuits.
Kristen's work in higher education has led to the development of innovative programs aimed at enhancing career readiness among students. Her strategies focus on integrating practical experiences with academic learning, helping students to prepare for their future careers in a competitive job market. Her collaborative efforts with faculty, staff, and community partners have strengthened the pathways for student success at Central College and other institutions where she has worked.
In addition to her professional achievements, Kristen continues to prioritize personal growth and lifelong learning. She actively engages in professional development opportunities, staying abreast of emerging trends in higher education and workforce development. This commitment ensures that she remains a highly effective advocate for her students and a vital resource in her institution's career services.
Kristen McMains exemplifies passion, purpose, and a deep commitment to people. Her journey through education and various roles in the human services and higher education sectors underscores her belief in the transformative power of support and guidance. As she continues to make strides in career development and student advocacy, there’s no doubt she will leave a lasting impact on those she serves.
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.