Stephen Tucker

President & CEO

Northland Workforce Training Center

Stephen Tucker is the inaugural President & CEO of the Northland Workforce Training Center responsible for the management, oversight and day to day operations of a new 90,000 square foot facility focused on training and preparing Western New Yorkers for careers in advanced manufacturing and clean energy. Mr. Tucker, a veteran of the United States Air Force also previously served as the Assistant Executive Director with Partners for a Competitive Workforce and the Vice President of Workforce Development with the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati.

His educational achievements include an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University, a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Wilberforce University and an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Tucker is a 2008 graduate of the Urban League’s African American Leadership Development Program, the 2009 recipient of the State of Ohio Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Economic Opportunity, a 2010 YMCA Black & Latino Achiever, and a graduate of National Urban League’s Emerging Leaders Program. Stephen is also a Murano Fellow as a graduate of Aspen Institutes’ Sector Skills Academy and an Adjunct Business Professor at Central State University and Cincinnati State.

Catrina Crane

Director of Workforce & Business Solutions

Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc

Catrina Crane is the Director of Workforce & Business Solutions for the Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc (MVP). In her current role she provides support to 100+ businesses by building strong linkages between Valley employers and workforce development entities, educational institutions, government and neighborhood partners that support the economic stability and vitality of the 100+ businesses and the over 8,000 employees. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Communication/Human Resource Management from UW-Whitewater and a Master’s Degree in Business Management from Cardinal Stritch University. Passionate about Milwaukee, Catrina has held a variety of positions and board memberships that has enabled her to be a part of community uplift from housing to education to workforce. She is also the proud mother of a 17-year old daughter, Cheyenne.

Erica Staley

Executive Director

Manufacturing Renaissance

For the last twenty years, Erica has worked serving communities, youth development, social and environmental justice efforts. Erica’s most prominent role has been through working with Manufacturing Renaissance (MR) since 2008 to develop, manage and expand the Manufacturing Connect (MC) program. Manufacturing Connect has provided nearly 600 work experiences (internships, job shadows and summer jobs) in manufacturing for youth on the west and south sides of Chicago. Through MC youth and young adults have earned nearly 300 nationally-recognized industry credentials, secured over 100 full-time jobs, with 80% of placements reaching a minimum of 90-days on the job with an overall average retention of 12 months. Erica also plays a major role in grant writing and has helped MR raise approximately $7 million over the last 10 years to support MC program operations. Before joining MR, she worked in California serving low-income, people of color communities as an organizer and project manager engaging youth and grassroots leadership to address environmental, social, and economic justice issues. After completing her B.A. at the University of California Berkeley, Erica served two years in the Peace Corps, Paraguay, and eighteen months in the AmeriCorps. She later earned her M.A. degree in Ecology from San Francisco State University.

Guy Loudon

President

Jane Addams Resource Corporation

Guy Loudon is President of Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) and has served as JARC’s CEO since 2009. JARC’s job training and workforce development programs target strategic skills gaps in the manufacturing sector such as CNC Machinist, Welder and Press Brake. Guy was a CNC machinist before joining JARC as a machine trades instructor in 1995. Guy co-authored the nationally-recognized Metalworking Skills Assessment test and developed much of JARC’s technical curriculum. As Director of Training Services, he expanded capacity in the Careers in Manufacturing Programs by implementing an open entry-open exit enrollment model that stresses competency-based curricula and the attainment of industry credentials.

As President, Guy has led JARC through two strategic plans emphasizing scalability, program synergy and bundled support services. JARC’s combined agency budgets have grown from $1.4 million to $4.5 million over the last decade. With a deepening focus on racial equity and inclusion, JARC has replicated its Careers in Manufacturing Programs in the Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore and the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s west side. Guy is active in a number of policy and advocacy efforts and has a specific interest in distilling best practice models for the workforce system. In FY21, Guy will step away from the CEO role to focus on industry partnerships, program design and curriculum development, and supporting JARC’s replication efforts in Chicago and Baltimore.

Jacqui Mieksztyn

Program Manager, Talent

LIFT

Jacqui Mieksztyn is a workforce and talent strategist specializes in aligning the private and public sectors to solve workforce issues by leveraging her knowledge of federal, state, and local workforce development, education, and economic development systems and policies. Having spent more than 11 years in workforce and economic development, Jacqui has held leadership positions with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the State of Michigan Workforce Development Agency where she led data-driven strategies to develop, attract, and retain talent to support Michigan’s growing industry sectors. Jacqui also served as Director of Business Strategy for Thomas P. Miller & Associates, a workforce and community development consulting firm, where she provided program development, research and policy analysis, strategic planning, training, facilitation, and grant writing services to clients across the country.

She holds a Master of Arts in Organizational Communication from Western Michigan University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Michigan State University.

Jacqui works with communities to address workforce needs through: Talent Strategy Development * Program Design and Management * Stakeholder Engagement* Partnership and Collaboration Building * Grant Writing and Resource Development *Work-based Learning Strategies (Apprenticeships, Internships, etc.)

Rhandi Berth

Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP)

Chief Innovations Officer

For more than 25 years, Rhandi Berth has been instrumental in developing and pioneering WRTP/BIG STEP; she is regarded as one of the foremost experts on industry-driven workforce strategies in the country. As Chief Innovations Officer, Berth has spearheaded the development of the Industrial Manufacturing Technician apprenticeship and serves as president of Triada Employment Services Inc., a nonprofit subsidiary of WRTP/BIG STEP that provides workforce solutions to the manufacturing and construction industries.

Lizabeth Stuck

Head of Engagement & Workforce Development

MxD

Lizabeth Stuck is the Head of Engagement & Workforce Development at MxD. In this role, Lizabeth has oversight of the development and execution of the organization’s partner engagement strategy, including partner relations, event management, and the development of partner initiatives.

Prior to joining MxD in April 2015, Lizabeth was the Deputy Director of the Office of Advisory Committees at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She also has held roles at the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. Lizabeth has a master’s in Business from DePaul University and a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Indiana University. In her free time, Lizabeth enjoys traveling and has had the opportunity to visit more than 25 countries and counting.

Abbie Langston

Senior Associate

PolicyLink

Abbie Langston, Senior Associate, conducts research to inform and support transformative, community-driven efforts to build an equitable economy for all. As part of the All-In Cities initiative, she supports the work of local leaders advancing economic and housing justice, and leads the development of the All-In Cities online policy toolkit. Through the research partnership between PolicyLink and the Program for Regional and Environmental Equity (PERE) at the University of Southern California, she collaborates with communities across the country to produce data and analyses that make the case for racial equity. Abbie joined PolicyLink as a 2015-2017 Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow and previously served as the editor of the America’s Tomorrow newsletter. She holds a PhD from the Graduate Program in Literature at Duke University, where she specialized in American studies and critical race and ethnic studies. Outside of PolicyLink, she’s working on two book projects: a study of the racial dynamics of American neoliberalism and a science fiction novel.

Bernadine Hawes

Senior Research Analyst

Community Marketing Concepts, Inc.

When Bernadine began her career as a senior member of the University City Science Center in 1975, programming large-scale databases, researching, and developing new technologies, there were no other people of color there. She felt alone, but over the following 26 years, advancing to Vice President, she determined to make more space at the table for people who looked like her. Today, the Science Center has more people of color working there and participating in its wide scientific and tech programs than ever before.

For much of her life, Bernadine has been part of the vanguard pursuing racial equity in places where it wasn’t present. She has always been a changemaker. As a teen, she sat in at the White House without getting arrested. She confronted DC school administrators over its curriculum. In sports, she got to the semi-finals of a local tennis tournament in the early 1960s because she was inspired by Althea Gibson’s first Wimbledon singles championship. Leading change with grace is part of her personality.

Bernadine has led many entrepreneurship programs in underrepresented communities. She was drawn to UMA because it’s a mission-driven nonprofit and she saw the mission of pulling manufacturing back into urban areas as critical to economic development especially in under-resourced communities. 

When she’s not changing the world, she collects books by African American authors from 1920-1950s, the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance, observes the universe from a telescope in her office, and until a few years ago continued her mean drop shots on the tennis court. Her favorite vacation destination is Destin, Florida, where upon arrival she rents a convertible, and drives it top down immediately to the beach.

Emily Stover DeRocco

Founder & CEO

E3 Engage Educate Employ

In April 2012, Emily DeRocco launched a Washington, D.C.-based strategic consulting practice focused on linking education, workforce and economic development assets for competitive advantage. From 2013 – 2018, she served as Director of the National Network of Business and Industry Associations for Business Roundtable. DeRocco is directing the Education and Workforce strategies for the Detroit-based, Department of Defense-funded, American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute. In December 2016, she was appointed to the Australian Naval Shipbuilding Advisory Board by the Australian Secretary of Defence. In January 2018, she accepted an appointment to the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion. And, in December 2019, she became the Senior Advisor for Education and Workforce Development, Office of the Secretary of Defense – Manufacturing Technology.

DeRocco is the immediate past president of The Manufacturing Institute where she designed and implemented a strategic national agenda focused on education reform and workforce development, innovation support and services, and research on behalf of U.S. manufacturers.

Prior to her leadership in U.S. manufacturing, DeRocco was nominated by President Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Assistant Secretary of Labor in 2001. In that position, DeRocco was responsible for managing a $10 billion investment in the nation’s workforce. She created and implemented regional economic development initiatives in 39 regions across the nation during her tenure, using talent development strategies to drive competitive advantage for America’s businesses.

During her tenure with the Labor Department, DeRocco chaired or vice-chaired numerous boards and commissions, including the Education and Workforce Committee of the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the Education and Workforce Committee of the Department of Commerce’s Interagency Working Group on Manufacturing, and the President’s Committee on Economic Adjustment for the Defense Department’s Base Realignment and Adjustment Commission.

DeRocco has represented the United States at the G-8 Labor Ministerials, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Western Hemisphere Competitiveness Forum, U.S.-Canada Policy Forums, and U.S.-EU Dialogues.

DeRocco is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University and received her Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown Law Center. She currently serves on the boards of the University of Mississippi Center for Manufacturing Excellence and New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Innovation Institute.

Elmer Moore Jr.

Executive Director

Scale Up Milwaukee

Elmer Moore Jr. is the executive director of Scale Up Milwaukee, an ecosystem project using Dan Isenberg’s proven model for infusing growth into an ecosystem. Scale Up Milwaukee runs a number of programs including the Scalerator, CEO Forum for Growth, Meet the Masters series and a growing membership platform. Scale Up Milwaukee has helped create more than 150 new jobs in the region.

Elmer came to Milwaukee as the director of business development for Allen Edmonds Corporation, a manufacturer and retailer of premium men’s footwear, apparel, and accessories. He previously led multicultural student recruitment as associate dean of admissions at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and has traveled extensively speaking and teaching on the topics of admissions, diversity and public speaking. Elmer also teaches entrepreneurship at Marquette University.

Elmer serves on the board of Make a Difference Wisconsin, an organization teaching financial literacy to teens. He earned his B.A. from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, and his MBA from Columbia Business School in New York City.

Keenan D. Grenell, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Manufacturing Diversity Institute

Keenan D. Grenell, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Manufacturing Diver-sity Institute (MDI) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. MDI is a 2016 Small Business Administration nationally recognized growth accelerator established to ensure that individuals from underserved communities are successful in the manufac-turing industry as employees, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

Grenell is CEO and a founding partner of Global Capital Group, LLC a consult-ing firm in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin that provides strategic solutions to its cli-ents in the form of entrepreneurship and economic development research, competitive intelligence information, market research and workforce devel-opment strategies.

Grenell is also Co-Founder and Business Strategist for Intelligemini a business intelligence strategy consultancy firm in Madison, Wisconsin that creates value for customers by providing them with rich, consumable, reliable just-in time information and a guide toward business success.

Grenell is the former Vice President and Dean of Diversity and Associate Pro-fessor of Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University, Associate Provost for Diversity and Associate Professor of Political Science at Marquette University, the Interim Assistant Provost for the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Director of the Master of Public Administration at Auburn University.

Grenell is the President of the Board of Directors for the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp., and a member of the Board of Directors for the Milwaukee Re-gional Innovation Center, Inc.

He earned a B.A. in Political Science from Tougaloo College, a Master of Public Policy & Administration (MPPA) from Mississippi State University, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northern Illinois University.

Hector Huezo

Senior Workforce Equity Coordinator

Jobs to Move America

Hector Huezo serves as the Senior Workforce Equity Coordinator with Jobs to Move America, a strategic policy and action center who works with public agencies and manufacturers to ensure that public investment in transit results in high quality employment and training opportunities for marginalized communities and disadvantaged workers.

Hector joined JMA as the California Organizer in 2016 and, with a coalition of labor, environmental, community, faith and workforce organizations, won commitments from Southern California transit agencies to transition their fleets to 100% zero-emissions by 2030; adopt jobs-creating policies and practices in procurement contracts; and negotiated legally enforceable community benefits agreements with manufacturing companies to ensure that hiring, training and recruitment practices prioritized populations with barriers to employment.

Prior to JMA, Hector directed employment and training programs across Southern California for nearly a decade and has dedicated his career and personal activism to leveling the playing field for at-risk youth and communities of color to achieve a high quality of life, regardless of the systemic inequities that make that difficult for far too many.

The product of two Salvadoran immigrants and a native Angeleno, Hector is the first of his family to earn an undergraduate degree from the California State University, Los Angeles and a graduate degree from California State University, Northridge. In his free time, Hector reluctantly herds a few house cats with his wife Nicole.

Jason R. Drake, Ph.D.

Director of Education and Workforce Development

Dan T. Moore Company

Jason joined Dan T. Moore Company, a Cleveland-based portfolio of small to mid-sized manufacturing companies, in 2014. He currently serves as the Director of Education and Workforce Development. In this role he works closely with leadership and staff to bolster recruitment pipelines for the portfolio of companies, and to develop and execute incumbent worker training programs, including apprenticeship models. Jason is also the Co-Founder & Executive Director of the WorkRoom Program Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that specializes in delivering educational and training experiences to underserved school-age populations in the Cleveland area, helping to build the manufacturing workforce of tomorrow. He is currently working with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to re-imagine a high school blocks from the Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center, DTM Co.’s manufacturing facility in the Collinwood neighborhood. The goal is to design and launch a “Community Career Academy” that will deliver CTE pathways, foundational and advanced training, and support services to emerging, transitional and incumbent workforce using a multi-generational approach. Jason holds a B.A. from Rutgers College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, where he also taught for over 10 years.

Montez King

Executive Director

NIMS

Montez King is the Executive Director of NIMS, the nationally-recognized organization responsible for developing national standards and competency-based credentials in manufacturing trades. Mr. King is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the NIMS operation including administration, programs and strategic planning.

In October 2017, Mr. King was appointed to the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion, formed by the Secretary of Labor “to identify strategies and proposals to promote apprenticeships, especially in sectors where apprenticeship progress are insufficient.” Prior to his promotion into the Executive Director role, Mr. King was the Credentialing Director at NIMS and led all technical support, data analytics and quality assurance activities for global credentialing.

Before joining NIMS, Mr. King served as Training and Technology Manager for Magna International, one of the world’s largest OEM automotive parts manufacturers. At Magna, Mr. King oversaw training and technology development for the organization’s manufacturing training facility in the United States. He directed overall planning, development and implementation of their curriculum and instructions. He also directed the training, coaching, mentoring and evaluating of all instructors. Previously, as a CNC Programming Manager at Kenley Corporation, Mr. King managed the development and implementation of all manufacturing processes, CNC programming, and fixture design for the aerospace and medical device industry. He led a team of manufacturing specialists in developing reliable manufacturing process and work instructions to produce high precision parts and complex assemblies.

Mr. King launched his career at Teledyne Energy Systems as a Machinist Apprentice, where he earned his Maryland State Journeyperson Machinist certificate.
Compelled to give back to his hometown of Baltimore and his alma mater, Mr. King taught at the Community College of Baltimore County for nearly a decade. He designed and implemented instructions for advanced manufacturing courses: CNC Machining Applications, CNC Programming, Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerancing and taught two to three courses per semester. His academic background includes a B.S. degree in Information Technology and M.ED degree in Adult Education from the University of Phoenix as well as his 4-year apprenticeship in Machine Tool Technology at the Community College of Baltimore County.

Sarah Krasley

CEO

Shimmy Technologies

Sarah Krasley is a mission-driven entrepreneur and CEO of Shimmy Technologies, an early stage company focused on an equitable, efficient, and fun future of work for the apparel industry.

Sarah’s worked at the intersection of design, manufacturing and technology for over a decade. Prior to starting Shimmy she launched an AI-driven custom swimwear line and led an emerging technology group at Autodesk where she and her team built Industry 4.0 design tools for hundreds of thousands of engineers, industrial designers, and factory owners.

Sarah has a BFA from Pratt Institute, an MBA from the University of San Francisco and joined the adjunct faculty of New York University ITP in 2015. She serves on the World Economic Forum Taskforce for Advanced Manufacturing and loves Brooklyn, swimming in interesting places, intoxicating scents, and laughing with gusto.

Teresa Córdova

Director of the Great Cities Institute (GCI)

University of Illinois at Chicago

Teresa Córdova is the Director of the Great Cities Institute (GCI) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also Professor of Urban Planning and Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA). Professor Córdova received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.

Córdova has been an elected and appointed member and/or chair of national, regional and local boards, commissions and steering committees of federal, regional, county and city governments, community development corporations, grassroots organizations, editorial boards, research centers, professional associations, planning organizations, policy groups, civic and advisory councils, coalitions, and campus committees. She has been instrumental in affecting economic development policy and projects, the provision and design of infrastructure, local governance, and neighborhood change. As an applied theorist, political economist, and community-based planner, Professor Córdova approaches her work as a scholarship of engagement in which research, pedagogy, and service are integrated. Throughout her career, Teresa has engaged with communities in and outside the university and is an expert in community/university partnerships. Her analysis of global/local dynamics, including impacts of global economic restructuring and community development, informs her work.

Dr. Córdova is Chair of the Chicago Plan Commission, sits on the Cook County Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC), and served on the transition committee for Governor J.B. Pritzker on Job Creation and Economic Opportunity. She is a member of The Board of Directors of the Illinois Humanities Council and Illinois Voices for Children’s Thought Leaders of Color Advisory Committee. Recently, she also served on the Board of Directors of Manufacturing Renaissance as well as LUCHA (Latino United Community Housing Association). She is an Associate Editor for Economic Development Quarterly and sits on the inaugural editorial board of Local Development and Society and Latinos in the United States Book Series (Michigan State University Press). She recently completed terms on the editorial boards of State and Local Government Review; Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies; and Latino Studies. She is an affiliate faculty of UIC’s Departments of Sociology; Gender and Women Studies; and Latino and Latin American Studies. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of UIC’s Institute for the Study of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP).

William B. Bonvillian

Senior Director for Special Projects

MIT’s Office of Digital Learning

William B. Bonvillian is a Lecturer at MIT, and Senior Director for Special Projects at MIT’s Office of Digital Learning, co-leading a major research project on workforce education, with a focus on the manufacturing workforce. From 2006 until 2017, he was director of MIT’s Washington Office, supporting MIT’s longstanding role in science policy at the national level. He served as an advisor to MIT’s major cross-campus policy initiatives on energy technology, advanced manufacturing, life science convergence and online education. He was an MIT representative to the President’s industry-university Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (“AMP”) which formed recent U.S. manufacturing policies and was an advisor to MIT’s “Production in the Innovation Economy” 2-volume study of manufacturing. He teaches courses on innovation systems and science and technology policy at MIT in the and Science Technology and Society and Political Science Departments. He is coauthor of a recent book on manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturing – The New American Innovation Policies, released by MIT Press in 2018. He is also coauthor of Technological Innovation in Legacy Sectors (Oxford University Press 2015) and Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution (MIT Press 2009), and coeditor of The DARPA Model for Transformative Technologies (Open Book Publishers 2020). Previously, he worked for over 15 years on innovation issues as a senior advisor in the U.S. Senate, and earlier was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation. He serves on the National Academies of Science standing committee for its Innovation Policy Forum, chairs the Committee on Science and Engineering Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and serves on the board of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, was awarded IEEE’s public service award, and has written and spoken extensively about science and technology and innovation policy issues, with a focus in recent years on manufacturing. Further information is available at: www.bonvillian.org

Dan Swinney

Founder

Manufacturing Renaissance

Dan founded Manufacturing Renaissance (MR) in 1982 in response to the thousands of manufacturing plant closings in the Chicago area. At the beginning, the organization’s work was focused on industrial retention efforts, but for the past 10 years it has expanded to include education and training. Dan’s goals are to fuel innovation and competitiveness; to fill the skills and succession gap; and to build stable, thriving communities. Prior to founding MR, Dan worked for 13 years as a machinist in the Chicago area. He organized Steelworker Local 8787 at G+W Taylor Forge in Cicero, Illinois and served as Vice President. Taylor Forge closed in 1983. Dan went to the University of Wisconsin, graduating with a B.A. in history in 1967. He writes and speaks regularly for manufacturing trade associations, universities and colleges, community development networks, unions, and others interested in promoting advanced manufacturing and its intersection with public interests domestically and internationally.

Chauncy Lennon

Vice President, The Future of Learning and Work

Lumina Foundation

Chauncy Lennon, Ph.D., joined Lumina Foundation in 2018 as a New York-based vice president for the future of learning and work. He brought corporate philanthropy and workforce experience to Lumina, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis that is committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all.

Lennon came to Lumina after nearly five years as a managing director and leader of workforce strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he drove the firm’s $350 million investment in philanthropic initiatives. He previously led large portfolios of work at the Ford Foundation related to economic advancement and workforce development.

Since 2015, Lennon has served on the national advisory board of the College Promise Campaign, a nonpartisan national initiative to build public support for funding the first two years of higher education for working students, beginning with community colleges. He also serves on the New York City Workforce Development Board, providing oversight of the city’s policies and services for youths, adults, job seekers, and employers.

Lennon is a graduate of Williams College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. He holds a master’s in social sciences from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University. He taught urban studies at Barnard College and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.