MEET KIZMET MILLS – SENIOR DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL UNIVERSITY RELATIONS AND RECRUITING PROGRAMS
She understands that there are circuitous routes to get to your passion. Mills, the Senior Director of Global University Relations and Recruiting Programs for NIKE, Inc., is something akin to a polymath, the kind of person that can succeed in many fields of study.
Kizmet is a proud HBCU graduate and an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
As an undergraduate student at Howard University, she was a Biology major and on her way to dental school. She’d applied to Meharry Medical School of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee and to the Howard University College of Dentistry in Washington, D.C. Her goal was to own her own dental practice. While she waited for decisions from both schools, she thought that it would be a smart idea to take some business courses. As she talked to friends in the business school at Howard, she found out about a business fellowship that would pay for an MBA and eagerly applied. Soon thereafter, she found herself in a quandary when she learned she had received the fellowship. By then, she had also received an acceptance from Meharry. Mills followed her true passion and made the decision to attend the Howard School of Business – MBA Program.
“I started my MBA studies at Howard and discovered Human Resources through internships and I said, ‘The world of Human Resources is vast and exciting,’” Mills remembered.
She never looked back.
Now at Nike, she leads global talent strategies and talent pipelines for early career emerging leaders for Nike, Jordan and Converse brands. She’s the head of a global team comprised of North America, EMEA, Greater China, and Asia Pacific Latin America geographies.
“I focus on collegiate and university talent – undergraduates at the junior level is a sweet spot and graduate students in the first year of their masters program. The philosophy is that we create internship opportunities with the goal to convert to full-time employment,” said Mills.
Students that complete the internship program successfully could potentially be offered full-time employment upon graduation.
The recruitment process is competitive with numerous applications and Nike hiring about 400 – 500 early career candidates globally.
There are various innovative talent programs where Nike works in partnership with elite athletes to create apprenticeship and fellowship opportunities to build business capabilities.
There’s also an additional segment of the pipeline that focuses on direct hires where Mills targets graduating seniors in college as well as second year master’s students. They recruit those students to start at Nike full-time. Mills’ team hires across the Nike, Inc. enterprise for various disciplines from engineers, designers, and technologists to finance, human resources, marketing, and data analytics to name a few.
For Nike, there’s also a continued focus to deepen their relationships with HBCUs, says Mills. “There is amazing talent on our HBCU campuses. We are looking for students with potential to grow and develop their career at Nike,” says Mills. “STEM talent is a huge area of excitement and is critical to Nike’s tech, digital, and sustainability initiatives.”
Mills was introduced to global representation as a student at Howard University being in classrooms with students and professors from a variety of countries around the world.
“Howard is called ‘The Mecca’ for a reason,” said Mills. “It peaked my interest to think globally and prepared me to launch my professional career.”
To date she’s visited over 35 countries.
Howard University, she says, also had professors that not only taught the theory of her academic discipline but also logical and strategic thinking – how to properly network and establish relationships and navigate her corporate career as a Black woman.
Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, she was immersed in HBCU culture from the Atlanta University Center – Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta University.
“I was drawn to the culture, the traditions, the authentic family and belonging that an HBCU experience brings,” Mills remembers. “I had so many strong positive influences that instilled in me the importance of education and using that as a tool for empowerment.”
Her main educational influence before local HBCUs and Howard University was her mother, a young, single mother, who would go on to take her along to college classrooms as she continued her education.
“I literally had a front row seat as my mother navigated her college education and her professional career. She finished at a 4-year university and was my first inspiration in knowing that college would be in my future,” Mills remembers.
Mills now uses her platform to give back to students and young adults and help them realize their potential in her work at Nike.
“I have the honor to lead and influence in a space where I also have the opportunity to introduce students to their dream job,” said Mills who helps to demystify the process of getting a job and the job itself. “My role is to pull back the curtain and to let students know and understand that they can do it.”
Her ideals correlate with the mission of Nike “to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.” Nike deems everyone an athlete – “if you have a body, you are an athlete” is Nike’s motto.
“I’ve been with Nike for over 5 years and during that time I’ve been able to establish strong innovative talent pathways. Early career and students and universities are such critical pipelines for talent,” said Mills. “Over the course of those years, I have been able to expand Nike’s reach by creating a comprehensive global university relations and recruiting program framework and amplifying additional diversity programs where we are activating our diversity and inclusion commitments. I’m thankful I get to do this work for a company that lives up to its mission.”