Early Careers Program Manager & Digital & Technology Recruitment Lead, Pfizer
Rasheedah Collins is the bridge between universities, employers, and emerging talent—blending higher‑education roots, corporate talent strategy, and equity‑centered program design to build early‑career ecosystems where every learner belongs and every leader is equipped to grow future‑ready teams.
With more than two decades of experience, Rasheedah has dedicated her career to helping people navigate education, work, and the transitions in between. Holding dual master’s degrees in Human Resources Management and Higher Education, she brings a rare blend of academic insight and real‑world talent expertise to the evolving world of work.
Her work centers on designing equitable recruiting systems, elevating employer branding, and coaching Gen Z and emerging professionals as they enter and advance in their careers. She has led talent strategy, program design, manager readiness, partnership engagement, and AI‑enabled learning across financial services, higher education, K–12, nonprofit, tech, and pharmaceutical sectors. At Pfizer, she leads recruitment and stakeholder engagement for the Digital & Technology Rotational Program, also serving as a coach and champion for first‑year associates.
When she’s not deep in campus strategy or early‑talent design, you can find Rasheedah curating loose‑leaf tea blends, coloring in her adult coloring book, or being a cool auntie—her favorite role to date.
Based in Philadelphia, she is a proud graduate of the HBCU - Lincoln University—and an equally proud member of Generation X.
Referrals are often treated as the gold standard of hiring, but when they become the default, they can quietly narrow your talent pool, skew evaluation, and undermine broader sourcing efforts. As referral pipelines grow, recruiters spend less time engaging new candidates, and teams risk over-indexing on familiarity over potential. This session explores how leading teams are rebalancing their approach: maintaining the strength of referrals while protecting space for diverse, high-potential talent from outside existing networks. We’ll discuss how to set clear guardrails, align stakeholders on when and how referrals should be prioritized, and design processes that ensure fairness and consistency across all candidates. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to keep referrals as a powerful input ~ not the entire pipeline.