Our Team
Marcelle Yeager
Marcelle is an award-winning entrepreneur and expert in helping professionals take the next step in their career. Her work has been published in the U.S. News and World Report On Careers blog and ClearanceJobs, and has been featured on the podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz. She has also been published in Forbes, MONEY Magazine, Business Insider, The Ladders, Monster, and FlexJobs. In 2018, she was a semi-finalist in Hera Hub D.C.’s Inaugural Pitch Competition. She is a regular speaker and author, available to share her expertise on podcasts and at events.
Marcelle launched Career Valet in 2012 and co-founded and ran ServingTalent, a boutique recruiting firm for military and government spouses posted overseas from 2015-2019. She is an advocate for Foreign Service spouses in Congress, and her initiatives led to the introduction of the Foreign Service Families Act in May 2019 by Senator Van Hollen (D-MD) and Senator Sullivan (R-AK). A Foreign Service spouse herself, she has grown Career Valet’s revenues by up to 51% per year while raising three children through six international and U.S. moves.
Prior to this, Marcelle spent 10 years in strategic communications in Washington, D.C., and overseas. She worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, devising internal and external communications for a federal government director during a period of major transition, including staff reduction and reassignments. She also worked as a civilian for the Department of Defense and later in public affairs for the Department of State in Tashkent, Uzbekistan while launching Career Valet. While at public affairs firm APCO Worldwide, Marcelle worked closely with international clients in private investment, energy, and mining to promote their business interests in the U.S. among diverse groups of stakeholders.
Marcelle has an MBA from the University of Maryland and a BA from Georgetown University. She is active in her international communities, serving on the board of the American International School of Vilnius from 2021-2024, including as board chair from 2023-2024. She’s lived and worked in Chile, Hungary, Lithuania, Panamá, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Marcelle loves to dance tap and hip hop.
Kristal Alley
Kristal is a senior writer at Career Valet whose work as a freelance analyst, published writer, and editor has led her to develop and implement strategies for multi-faceted policy and communications initiatives. Kristal has worked with governments, corporations, and major international business associations in Kuala Lumpur, Brussels, Athens, Mexico City, Paris, and Washington, D.C.
Prior to joining Career Valet, Kristal served as a trade remedy consultant and a communications strategist for corporate and think tank clients. In Europe, she worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, first as their permanent representative to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, and later as a special advisor for the U.S. Chamber’s International Division. During her time with the U.S. Chamber, Kristal advised Chamber leadership and corporate members on transatlantic policy issues, spearheaded the European intellectual property rights campaign, and launched the Eurasia Business Platform initiative.
While living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kristal led the American-Malaysian Chamber of Commerce as executive director. She began her career in Washington, D.C. where she worked for the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and the U.S. Department of Commerce-International Trade Administration. There she investigated some of the Commerce Department’s most complex and politically sensitive countervailing duty cases earning her the Bronze Medal Award for Superior Federal Service.
Kristal is originally from Lexington, Kentucky. She obtained her MA in International Political Affairs and International Economics from the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce and her BA in Political Science from the University of Kentucky. With a passion for adventure, Kristal counts riding a camel around the Great Pyramid of Giza as one of her favorite experiences.
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Carla Gray
A counselor at heart, Carla is passionate about helping others navigate their career path well. She holds degrees in psychology and business administration and understands that communication is one of the most valuable skills in today’s market. Carla is motivated to wield her 10+ years of writing experience to build a cohesive and comprehensive career story for each client.
Throughout her career, she has crafted lesson plans, created social media content, launched newsletters, published blog posts, wrote copy for marketing material, drafted executive-level emails, proofed books for self-publishers, and authored devotionals, poems, and flash fiction stories.
Carla first joined Career Valet in 2018 and has contributed on an intermittent basis until recently. She is thrilled to be on the team now as a regular writer. To further develop her skills, she is currently pursuing a certification in Career Coaching and Navigation. Her journey with Career Valet has revealed how much she loves being part of the discovery phase and facilitating the process of taking a client from insight to action.
In her free time, she plays horrible golf, makes beautiful flower arrangements, and coaches her teenaged daughter and young adult son on how to reach their future career aspirations.
Belinda Knudson
Belinda is a certified career coach with extensive experience helping clients develop future-focused readiness. Belinda’s work has been primarily centered around supporting clients in exploring career possibilities and then empowering them with the resources and skills to achieve their career and personal goals.
As a content creator, Belinda has written for print and social media outlets. She’s presented information on the college-going process to hundreds of students, families, and community members. And she’s designed and delivered lessons and workshops on all aspects of college and career attainment that have been instrumental in helping advance client career decisions.
Belinda has a reputation for excellence in identifying client and organization needs, as well as designing high impact intervention strategies. She has worked on national and local college campaigns, and her work has had a significant impact on improving equity and access for students from first generation, low income, and vulnerable backgrounds.
Belinda has been a valuable member of the administration teams at the secondary and collegiate level in Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan, and Virginia. She serves on the board of directors at the American Overseas School of Rome and is a regular volunteer in the community.
A graduate of both Wheaton College and the University of Oklahoma, Belinda currently calls Rome, Italy, home, where she writes an occasional blog, eats a lot of pasta amatriciana, and is learning Italian along with her husband, two of her four children, and one spoiled dog.
Lauren M. P. Derby
Lauren is an award-winning writer, professional editor, and freelance artist. Her career has carried her around the world, where she has written on subjects as diverse as early Irish feminism and gold mining in Suriname. She also understands that clear writing is a powerful tool for helping professionals attain their career aims; to that end, she has levied her editing and writing skills as a freelancer to pen professional portfolios, graduate school applications, and resumes that have netted her clients new jobs, promotions, and school acceptances.
Most recently, Lauren served as the Political Associate at the U.S. Embassy to Burundi, where she covered food security, religion, and other humanitarian issues; her reporting series on refugee issues netted her an unprecedented award from the Department of State. She previously served at the U.S. Embassy to Suriname and the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, China, where she respectively spearheaded an international conference on environmental issues and served as a key advisor ahead of a visit by the U.S. Special Advisor on International Disability Rights. Lauren has penned speeches and talking points for four ambassadors or chiefs of mission.
She has also published extensively, including short stories, articles, and reviews. Her literary criticisms have appeared as chapters in several award-winning anthologies. As a professional watercolorist, her work has appeared in numerous galleries in Texas and Maryland.
She holds a BA in Professional Writing and an MA in English and American Literature. She is a certified TESOL instructor and speaks conversational French. When she’s not nerding-out over books, she can be found stuffing herself with sushi or surfing… while trying to coax her husband and young son to join in.
Ann Tropea
Ann brings many years of professional and academic writing experience to her current position as consultant. As a defense litigation attorney in New Orleans, Ann drafted both federal and state legal arguments as well as publishing legal articles in professional journals. She is also the former editor-in-chief of the online news website TheLatest.com, where, in addition to managing the editorial staff and contributing writers, she was the regular food and lifestyle section writer. Additional writing and publishing experience include: editing and self-publishing a community cookbook for the (now former) U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, serving as the managing editor of the Law Journal for the Loyola University Chicago School of Law, the editor-in-chief of the magazine for the New York University Department of Culture and Communication, and the associate publisher for the New York City lifestyle publication GO Magazine. Ann currently runs her own business as a certified birth doula, where she provides birth support and childbirth education.
Ann holds a law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and graduated magna cum laude in mass media communication studies from New York University. She is proficient in French. In her free time, Ann enjoys traveling, exploring local food cultures, and practicing yoga.
“As a diplomat spouse who had my communications career disrupted when we chose to follow my husband’s dream career, I hire diplomat and military partners and spouses to work for Career Valet. As you can see from their backgrounds, they are experts with years of experience across diverse disciplines which isn’t something you find in a typical resume writing company. I am proud to support these individuals and enable them to continue their careers as they move with their families.”