Brittney Billszar, Panelist
Brittney Billszar graduated from UC Irvine with a Bachelors in Sociology. She later obtained her Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education from Cal State Fullerton. She has worked at a variety of public institutions with diverse student populations, ranging from community college students to graduate students. Brittney is honored to work with the students here at UC Irvine. She serves as the liaison for the Arts, Humanities and the Office of Student Success Initiatives.
Karissa Sorenson, Panelist
Karissa Sorenson joined the School of Social Sciences as the Director of Social Sciences Academic Resource Center (SSARC) in April 2019. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the daily operations and programming aimed at connecting students to career opportunities, graduate school, and research. Previously, she served as an Honors Advisor for the UCI Campuswide Honors Collegium. In 2021, she was awarded the Dynamic Womxn of UCI Ally Award for her commitment to creating a space to advance womxn in higher education.
The first in her family to attend university, Karissa received her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a minor in public relations from Cal Poly Pomona and her master’s degree in college counseling and student development from Azusa Pacific University.
Belinda Ho, Panelist
Belinda Ho has made her career telling stories through numbers in the food & beverage industry. She’s currently a business analysis manager on the North America and US Retail Finance team at Starbucks, bringing their North American story to life. Before Starbucks, Belinda started her career in tax accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and spent 8 years at Taco Bell and Yum! Brands (parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger), where she had the chance to live in Louisville, KY and travel the world. Belinda holds a Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California, a B.A. in Business Economics with a minor in Accounting from the University of California, Irvine, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Saira Fazil, Panelist
Saira Fazli is the Associate Director of Program Services for the Master of Professional Accountancy and Master of Finance programs. Before she joined the team at Merage, Saira was a Client Relationship Senior Manager at Kforce, where she oversaw staffing and recruiting subject matter experts within Finance, Accounting & Data Analytics. Prior to that, Saira spent nearly a decade championing diverse talent in the media and entertainment industry, notably as a creative executive at Comedy Central and also as a comedy TV agent. She received her Bachelor’s degree from UCI in Film & Media Studies, minoring in Business Management with a Marketing emphasis at the Merage School.