Office of CaneCareers

Kristin Ferrell, Ph.D., completed her B.A. in psychology at the University of Oklahoma and her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Temple University. She previously served as the director of education research at the University of Chicago and director of research content and development at Western Psychological Services.

As director, Ferrell provides strategic leadership and operational oversight to the Center for Career Development and Professional Engagement. She works closely with faculty, staff, and industry partners to create innovative and data-driven career initiatives that support meaningful career readiness and pathways to success for students and alumni.

Siduri Purnell joined The University of Tulsa’s CaneCareers as the events and media coordinator in August 2021.

Purnell is a Chicago native, new to the Tulsa area. She earned her B.S. in public relations with a minor in fashion from Ball State University in 2017. She’s also currently working on her master’s in human resource management from Capella University.

Before relocating to Tulsa, Purnell worked as the director of marketing for an events company, Poppin Events Company, located in Chicago. As marketing director, she created, planned and executed events, created marketing material, and managed social media.

Outside of work, Purnell lives in Broken Arrow, OK. She enjoys traveling, attending concerts, shopping, and spending time with loved ones.

Consulting focus on business related professions

Tom Trimble joined The University of Tulsa’s CaneCareers as a career coach for Collins College of Business students in November 2021.

Trimble earned a B.S. in business administration from The University of Tulsa. He also holds a MBA with an emphasis in information systems management. Additionally, Trimble has two Lean Six Sigma certifications and successfully completed the program to be a certified master gardener through Oklahoma State University.

Trimble has held highly challenging roles in both the public and private sectors. He retired from Tulsa County government after approximately 23 years of service where he served primarily as the chief information officer. Recognized during this period as a digital technology leader, he was invited by the Chinese government to be the keynote speaker at the Global Economic Summit in Harbin, China, in 2011, and has spoken at the Pentagon to defend funding for cyber-security initiatives at the local government level. Under his leadership, Tulsa County ranked from 2004-2014 among the top 10 most technologically efficient counties in the U.S. among more than 3,000 counties nationwide. Further, their efforts were recognized nationally by the Sunshine Review Board with an A+ rating for transparency in government from 2009-2014.

In the private sector, Trimble’s roles have included chief technology officer for a medical company, managing director of a consulting firm, and ICQA manager for Amazon where he was responsible for leveraging technology to insure superior inventory control and quality assurance of all products sold at the TUL2 fulfillment center.

Trimble’s current passion is to be a resource for students to realize their full potential both throughout their careers and life. Empowering students to achieve their goals through supportive systems is his metric of success. Trimble considers his life experiences to be a resource of resilience toward his professional and personal mission to encourage similar success for future graduates at The University of Tulsa.

Outside of work, Trimble enjoys soccer, gardening, music, and playing competitive trivia with friends. He sat on the board of directors of Volunteers of America from 2004 to 2016, and has been a lifelong volunteer for Junior Achievement with their business curriculum education program. Trimble has also been recognized for performing stand-up comedy for almost 10 years over a four-state area during which time he was voted runner-up as Tulsa’s Funniest Comedian in 2018.

Josie Uerling joined the CaneCareers team at The University of Tulsa in August
2025 as the coordinator of pre-health careers. In this role, she supports pre-
health students as they plan out their health career pathway, obtain pre-health
experience on and off campus and prepare to apply for health profession
graduate programs. She also engages with campus and community partners to
develop experiential learning opportunities, organizes events and workshops for
pre-health students and uses data to evaluate student success and drive
continuous improvement of university pre-health programming.

Before moving back home to Tulsa, Uerling was a Program Evaluation Fellow at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, working in
environmental health policy. Prior to that, she graduated from Emory University
with her B.S. in Neuroscience and her MPH in Behavioral, Social and Health
Education Sciences.

Consulting focus on the engineering and computer science related professions while also supporting related applied sciences career paths

Chris Wong joined The University of Tulsa’s CaneCareers as a career coach for students in the College of Engineering & Computer Science in September 2019.

Wong earned a B.S. in chemical and petroleum refining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He entered the petroleum refining industry as a process development and field services engineer for universal oil products and completed start-up and optimization engineering for eleven refineries in the United States and Europe.

In 1995, Chris and his family settled in Claremore, OK, and Chris managed capital projects for Allied Signal’s catalyst production facility, where he had the opportunity to join and lead engineering teams that built new process lines in Shanghai, China; Florange, France; San Luis Potosi, Mexico; and Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Next, he engineered modular process units for John Zink Company’s fuel vapor control division. Wong also took an assignment as senior process engineer for Orica USA, and their production of advanced explosives and detonation technologies for the mining industry.

In 2006, Wong earned the level of Black Belt in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma, a rigorous statistics-and-design-tools training regimen for professionals in the manufacturing industry. This honor allowed him to work as continuous improvement engineer for steel and plastics manufacturing, as well as the production of ultra-high purity acids for the microelectronics industries. It was during this time that Wong found his calling to be a team motivator, mentor and technical coach.

Wong has taken to the country lifestyle on his small acreage in Claremore, where he and his family enjoy gardening, homebrewing, herbology for homeopathic remedies, equestrian activities, soapmaking, and other sustainable initiatives.

Reese Merriman joined the CaneCareers team at The University of Tulsa as a
career counselor for the Kendall College of Arts & Sciences in May 2026.
Prior to this role, she spent two years in University Advancement at UTulsa where
she partnered closely with alumni, donors and campus leaders to build
meaningful connections through events, engagement initiatives and community
partnerships.

She holds a B.A. in Strategic and Organizational Communications from the
University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, OK.

As a career counselor, Merriman is committed to serving as both a trusted resource
and an advocate for students. By meeting students where they are and tailoring
her approach to their individual needs, she aims to empower them to take
meaningful steps toward achieving their full potential.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with friends and family (including her
golden doodle, Macie), trying new restaurants, attending concerts, traveling and
running a small side business painting banners for various occasions.