CSG East’s 2022 Annual Meeting

Meet the 2022 Annual Meeting Speakers

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Devon Barnhart
Devon Barnhart, Director, OneRail Coalition will join the panel discussion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act:  What it Means for the States on Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m.
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Tom Bollenbach
Tom Bollenbach, Chief Technology Officer, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) will conduct an  education and workforce development tour of ARMI on Tuesday, August 16 at 2:00 p.m. (Please sign up in advance for this tour, when you register for the
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Annual Meeting.)
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Representative Pat Brennan, Vermont; Chair, CSG East Transportation Committee
Representative Pat Brennan will preside at the Transportation Committee meeting on Monday, August 14 at 8:00 a.m., and at the concurrent session Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act:  What it Means for the States on Monday, August 14 at 2:30 p.m.
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Karen Bussey, Ph.D.
Karen Bussey, Ph.D., is a policy advisor with New Jersey's Office of the Secretary of Higher Education (OSHE). Her portfolio focuses on postsecondary education and workforce initiatives supporting employer engagement and talent development needs, as well as work-based learning across
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the state.   Before joining OSHE, she was the project manager for research and special initiatives at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. Karen holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies from Howard University. She earned a Master’s in Education from the University of West Georgia and a Bachelor of Science in marketing from South Carolina State University.
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Brian Campion
Senator, Vermont
Senator Brian Campion was elected to the Vermont State Senate in 2014. Prior to joining the Senate, Campion served two terms in the Vermont House of Representatives, where he was first elected in 2010. While a member of the House
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of Representatives, Campion served on the House Education Committee. He is also a full-time faculty member at Bennington College, where he serves director of public policy programs in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action. In that role, Campion facilitates all programs and initiatives connected to state and federal policy Senator Campion holds a B.A. and M.A. in History. Campion is a trustee of the Bennington Museum, Threshold Collaborative, and Green Mountain Express Network, and is a Member of Catamount Rotary. Senator Campion will speak at the education policy committee meeting on Monday, August 15 at 8 a.m.
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Florence Chen
Florence Chen, Associate Director for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Implementation, United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) will join the panel discussion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act:  What it Means for the States on Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m.
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Richard Cloutier
Richard Cloutier is a community health expert and has advised several municipal, provincial, and state governments on harm reduction. Richard implemented the first needle exchange program in Montréal in 1989. Between 1991 and 2022, Richard was employed by the Québec
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Ministry of Health and Social Services, where he held numerous planning, research and advisory roles. During this period, Richard authored Québec’s harm reduction policy, ultimately leading to the establishment of supervised consumption services in Montréal beginning in 2017 and in other cities after. He coordinated the implementation of Québec’s overdose prevention Strategy in 1998. From 1990-2007, he was a Consultant on HIV prevention for the Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organization. In 2009, he was a Consultant for the United Nations Population Development Fund and for the National Family and Population Office of Tunisia. Richard holds an M.A. in nursing with a specialty in community health.
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Catalina Cruz
Assemblywoman, New York
Catalina Cruz represents New York State Assembly District 39, the most diverse district in the nation, which encompasses the neighborhoods of Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and
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a Juris Doctorate from the City University of New York School of Law. She is speaking at the session titled Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in Employment and Hiring Efforts on Wednesday, August 17 at 11:20 a.m. Catalina was born in Colombia and came to Queens at the age of nine. Catalina grew up as a DREAMer; she lived in the United States for more than 10 years as an undocumented American. Catalina was raised by a single mother who, like many immigrants, had to work multiple and menial jobs to support her family. As a single mother of four children, she worked long hours during the week as a nanny, cleaned offices at night, and sold tamales and empanadas at the soccer fields on the weekends. Inspired by her mother’s perseverance, Catalina has committed her career to fighting for our community and to ensure our workers, neighbors and families not only survive, but thrive. Catalina is an experienced attorney and a leader for tenant protections, immigration reform and workers’ rights. Prior to becoming the Assemblywoman, she most recently served as the Chief of Staff to the New York City Council Finance Chair, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland. Catalina worked to help pass key legislation protecting workers, women and small-business owners. She previously served as the Director of the Governor’s Exploited Workers Task Force, helping New York become a national leader in the fight against worker exploitation and human trafficking. This first-of-its-kind task force conducted statewide outreach and enforcement within key low-wage industries, including car washes, restaurants and nail salons, where workers are often victims of wage theft and subject to unsafe working conditions, but do not come forward for fear of retaliation. Catalina also served as Counsel to the New York City Council’s Immigration Committee, where she helped write and implement legislation that led to New York City becoming a Sanctuary City. She also worked on projects such as the Detainer Law and IDNYC (municipal identification). Additionally, Catalina served as Counsel to the New York State Department of Labor’s Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs, where she helped this agency become a leader in combating labor trafficking. Catalina began her career as a Staff Attorney, representing low-income, rent-stabilized tenants in New York City housing court, ensuring that they received the full protection of the law under their leases.
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David Donaldson
David Donaldson is the managing partner of the National Center for Grow Your Own, a partnership between school districts and educator preparation providers to select candidates (para-professionals, graduating high school seniors, career changers) from local communities to earn their degree
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and educator license in order to teach. David was the lead author on the approved application by the U.S. Department of Labor to federally recognize the “K-12 teacher” occupation as eligible for registered apprenticeship. His work has been recognized by The White House, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh for creating opportunities for aspiring educators to become a teacher for free and get paid to do so. Previously, David served as the Chief of Human Capital at the Tennessee Department of Education. He has also been a teacher in Baltimore, principal in Detroit and administrator in New York City.
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Garry Douglas
Garry Douglas, president and CEO, North Country Chamber of Commerce, will join the panel Bilateral Relations and the U.S.-Canadian Border: Putting the pieces back together post-COVID at the Canada - U.S. Relations Committee meeting on Tuesday, August 16, at 8:00
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a.m.
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Tara Dowdell
Tara Dowdell is the Founder and President of TDG Speakers, a boutique speakers bureau, and Tara Dowdell Group, a public relations and marketing agency driven by a passion for promoting organizations and businesses that are engaged in social good. In
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addition to her business ventures, Tara is a respected television commentator and speaker. She appears on MSNBC and PIX11 News where she provides progressive analysis on a range of political, government, and business topics. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Tara served as a senior manager at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey where she was responsible for directing the government and community relations strategy for the multi-billion dollar redevelopment of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Before joining the Port Authority, Tara was the first Black American and youngest person to serve as Director of Appointments in the Office of the New Jersey Governor. In this role, she led the office responsible for gubernatorial appointments to over 550 statewide boards and commissions. She began her career serving as a District Representative and Scheduler for Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. Tara is very active in her community. She is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of WBGO, a public media and global jazz radio station. She also serves on the boards of New Jersey Policy Perspective and Greater Newark LISC and is on the Steering Committee for the Center for American Women and Politics “Ready to Run” Conference. Notably, Tara had the distinction of competing for a job on the third season of NBC’s hit show, “The Apprentice.” Tara has been honored by Rutgers Business School, Colorado Black Women for Political Action, the NAACP, and more, and she has been named to the ROI-NJ People of Color Power List several years in a row. Tara is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government. Dowdell will speak at the Council on Communities of Color meeting on Sunday, August 14, at 2:30 p.m.
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Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Erica Armstrong Dunbar is an award-winning historian, Rutgers University professor, accomplished author, and executive producer on HBO Max’s The Gilded Age. In her work she focuses on the uncomfortable concepts of slavery, racial injustice, and gender inequality. She is the author of Never
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Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, which was the finalist for the 2017 National Book Award and received the 2018 Frederick Douglas Book Award, and She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman, which underscores many of the lesser-known aspects of Harriet's life and illustrates how her activism still resonates today. Professor Dunbar will present the story of Ona Judge on Monday, August 15 at 12:30, p.m. Photo credit: Whitney Thomas
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Matt Dunne
Matt Dunne, Founder and Executive Director at the Center on Rural Innovation joins the panel COVID-19 and Challenges in Workforce Development and Education on Tuesday, August 16 at 12:15 p.m.
Charles D. Ellison
Policy consultant, Council on Communities of Color
Charles D. Ellison, CPM is the policy consultant for the CSG East Council on Communities of Color. He brings nearly two decades of applied expertise in the area of politics, public policy, messaging, crisis management, and emerging/digital media strategy. He
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is also a 2023 Emerson Collective Fellow and Managing Editor and executive producer of ecoWURD, an environmental and climate justice focused initiative on WURD in Philadelphia. Ellison resides in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area with his family.
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Miriam Farnbauer
Miriam Farnbauer leads the Skills Initiative, an effort that promotes apprenticeship training based on the German Dual Education System in the US. To help tackle the global skills shortage in the tech and manufacturing industry, Farnbauer leads a number of
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projects to enable dialogue and cooperation between the US and Germany. Her focus is to bring stakeholders at a local, regional and national level together to create a sustainable pipeline of talent and solutions. She is a participant of the 2021/22 cohort of the NextGen Initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany and serves as a board member of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Council on Germany. Farnbauer holds a master’s degree in Education and Intercultural Communication from the University of Augsburg, Germany.
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Marie-Claude Francoeur
Appointed as Québec’s Delegate to New England in May 2014, Ms. Marie-Claude Francoeur serves as Québec’s representative in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island & Vermont. This is her second term in Boston. Ms. Francoeur’s career is one of
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public service, working to shape and promote Québec’s policies on climate change, energy, transportation, labor and francophonie, both at home and internationally.
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Paul Garnett
Paul Garnett is the founder and CEO of The Vernonburg Group. He has over two decades of experience in telecommunications and technology law and policy, market development, and technology and business model incubation. For seventeen years Paul worked “inside the
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beltway” for a top management consulting firm, law firm, communications regulator, and trade association, and eleven years “outside the beltway” for one of the biggest technology companies in the world. He also conceived of, launched, and led Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, leveraging a partner-driven approach to extending broadband access to unserved communities in the U.S. and globally. He speaks at the session titled Rural Broadband: Helping States Fund the Final Mile on Tuesday, August 16, at 7:30 a.m.
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Joseph Gianni
Joe Gianni is the President, Bank of America - Greater Hartford, Connecticut and serves as the company’s enterprise leader in Hartford. As president, Gianni works across the region to connect businesses, families and individuals to Bank of America’s banking and
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investment teams. He is also responsible for leading the effort to direct the Bank’s resources in the region to address critical needs, affordable housing, workforce development, and help build strong communities.
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Jennifer Gillis
Jennifer Gillis is the Superintendent for the Manchester School District. She previously served as assistant superintendent in charge of operations and facilities for the district and as a middle school principal. She was recognized by the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation
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for her utilization of partnerships with community-based organizations and response to COVID-19 school closures. Her work with SNHU’s Meals for Manchester helped lead to nearly 200,000 meals being distributed to food insecure families. Dr. Gillis holds an MBA in Leadership, a certificate in Advanced Graduate Study in Educational Leadership, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership.
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Jay Golden
Jay Golden is the Pontarelli Professor of Environmental Sustainability and Finance at Syracuse University and directs the Dynamic Sustainability Lab. Golden will participate in the Transportation Committee Meeting on Monday, August 15 at 8 a.m. Jay Golden is an internationally recognized
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researcher and academic regarding the dynamics of the global sustainability transition. Golden uses big data, modeling, and analytics to analyze the risks, unintended consequences and opportunities of government policies and corporate actions to meet sustainability challenges.  Golden’s work is used to support government policies as well as the development of a new generation of sustainable technologies and organizational strategies. Golden is the recipient of the Faculty Pioneer Award from the Center for Business Education at the Aspen Institute. In 2017, Golden was appointed to the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where he still serves. Golden received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Cambridge and his master's degree in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development from a joint program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge. He also holds a Professional Mastery of Project Management Certificate from Stanford University, an MLE in Higher Education from Harvard, and has a B.A. degree in Management.
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Commissioner Bob Gordon
Bob Gordon is a commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. He was nominated to serve on the five-member board by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on April 5, 2018, and was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate
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on April 12, 2018. In 2020, he also became a board member of N.J. Transit. At the time of his BPU nomination, he had served more than 14 years in the state legislature — ten of those in the Senate, where he attained the positions of Majority Conference Leader and Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. Gordon is the author of Governing New Jersey, a 300-page book describing the skill requirements of key executive branch positions. He earned his undergraduate degree in political economy and environmental studies from Williams College and also has a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA in finance and health care management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Gordon resides in Fair Lawn with his wife Gail, an attorney.
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Lori Gramlich
State Representative, Maine
Lori K. Gramlich is serving her second term in the Maine House of Representatives. She is serving her fourth year as a member of the Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, and also serves on the
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Joint Standing Committee on Taxation. Lori earned her master’s degree in social work from the University of New England and has more than 35 years of experience in non-profit prevention-based social work, advocacy and social justice initiatives.
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Art Guzzetti
Art Guzzetti, Vice President, Policy & Mobility, American Public Transportation Association (APTA) will join the panel discussion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act:  What it Means for the States on Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m.
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Rayanne Hawkins
Rayanne Hawkins is a policy program manager in the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute.  Her work focuses on performance management, workforce development, upward mobility, and criminal justice. She provides training and technical assistance to employers looking to start
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apprenticeship programs. Hawkins received her MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, where she studied alternative financing for social programs.
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David Hayes
David J. Hayes is a Special Assistant to the President for Climate Policy. He is a senior member of National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy’s White House team, which is advancing the Biden administration’s climate, conservation, and clean energy priorities. Immediately
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prior to joining the White House, Hayes was Executive Director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at the NYU School of Law, where he worked with state attorneys general on climate, environmental and clean energy initiatives. He previously served as Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of the Interior for Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. He was a climate policy advisor for the Biden-Harris Transition in 2020, and led the energy and environmental agency review teams for the Obama-Biden Transition in 2008. Hayes is a former Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Stanford Law School; a former Fellow at Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy and Woods Institute for the Environment; and the former Chairman of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute. Hayes is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Stanford Law School.
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David Hollinger, Ph.D.
Dr. David Hollinger is director of the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, providing expertise on the impacts of a changing climate on agriculture and forests in the Northeast, and ways for landowners to increase climate resilience. He is a Supervisory Plant Physiologist
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for the USDA Forest Service and Team Leader within the Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Sciences group of the Northern Research Station. His recent research interests include cost-effective and practical responses to changing climatic conditions in forests and on farms across the northeastern United States. He has led long-term research into impacts of climate on forest growth and water-use at the Howland forest in Maine and helped found the AmeriFlux network of research sites. He received a B.A. in Biology from Dartmouth College in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Ecophysiology from Stanford University in 1984. Dr. Hollinger will speak at the session titled Climate Change and Its Impact on Northeastern Agriculture on Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m.
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Susan Howard
Susan Howard serves as Director of Policy and Government Relations at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), a nonprofit, nonpartisan association representing transportation departments in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. She
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works to advance AASHTO’s federal legislative and policy efforts and serves as a key liaison between AASHTO and Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other national organizations. Susan previously held the position of Program Director for Transportation Finance and Program Manager for Freight at AASHTO. Ms. Howard speaks Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m. at the session titled Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: What it Means for the States.
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Billy Jones
Member of the Assembly, New York
Billy Jones was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2016 to represent the 115th District, which includes Clinton and Franklin counties, as well as several towns in St. Lawrence County. After graduating from high school, Assemblymember Jones ran his
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family’s dairy farm and in 1996 started work as a corrections officer with the New York State Department of Corrections. He served as mayor of Chateaugay from 2009 to 2013 and as a Franklin County legislator starting in 2010, becoming chair in 2013. During his tenure, Billy successfully reformed ethics laws to make government more transparent. Assemblymember Jones is active with various organizations throughout the North Country, including the Chateaugay Rotary Club; he is also a board member of the United Way of the Adirondack Region. He was a member of the North Country Economic Development Council, where he supported numerous projects that help local businesses grow the region’s economy. Assemblymember Jones remains very engaged with issues facing the Canada-U.S. border and was named the honorary co-chair of the Quebec-New York Corridor Coalition, and serves as chair of The Council of State Governments Eastern Region’s Canada-U.S. Relations Committee. He chairs the Task Force on New York Canada Relations and the Subcommittee on Agriculture Economic Development and Farmland Protection. He is a member of the Committee on Agriculture; the Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry; the Committee on Small Business; the Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development; the Committee on Veterans' Affairs; and the Committee on Governmental Employees. In the Assembly, his legislative priorities are lowering taxes for middle-class families, improving the education system, rooting out government corruption, and creating good-paying jobs so North Country families can thrive for generations to come. Assemblyman Billy Jones is the proud father of a daughter, Ella Liberty Jones, born on July 4th.
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Thomas A. Kochan
Thomas A. Kochan is the Post-Tenure George Maverick Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a faculty member in the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. Kochan focuses on the need to update America's work and employment policies, institutions, and
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practices to catch up with a changing workforce and economy. His recent work calls attention to the need for a new social contract at work, one that anticipates and engages current and future technological changes in ways that build a more inclusive economy and broadly shared prosperity. Through empirical research, he demonstrates that fundamental changes in the quality of employee and labor‐management relations are needed to address America's critical problems in industries ranging from healthcare to airlines to manufacturing. His most recent book is Shaping the Future of Work:  A Handbook for Action and a New Social Contract (Routledge, 2021). He is a member of the National Academy of Human Resources, the National Academy of Arbitrators, and past president of the International Industrial Relations Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association. Currently he is member of the MIT Task Force on Work of the Future. Kochan holds a BBA in personnel management as well as an MS and a PhD in industrial relations from the University of Wisconsin​.
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Dean Kamen
Dean Kamen is the innovative entrepreneur businessman and inventor best known for the Segway and iBot, as well as for his humanitarianism and philanthropy. Among his many accolades Kamen has received the National Medal of Technology in 2000 from President
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Bill Clinton; was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005; and in 2006 he was awarded the Global Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations. Kamen is the featured speaker at the Executive Committee luncheon on Sunday, August 14.
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Nicol Turner Lee
Nicol Turner Lee, senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation, co-editor-in-chief of TechTank, Brookings Institution joins the panel COVID-19 and Challenges in Workforce Development and Education on Tuesday, August 16 at 12:15 p.m.
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Amelia Manning
Amelia Manning is the Chief Operating Officer at Southern New Hampshire University, a title she has held since 2017. She first joined SNHU as an advisor for the university’s distance education program in 2004 and has been a critical part
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of the organization’s growth story ever since, growing into leadership roles overseeing student experience, then leading the online organization, and now as Chief Operating Officer. As COO, Amelia is tasked with ensuring that the organization delivers upon both its vision and mission, but her passion continues to be on creating experiences that lead to increased student success and a supportive culture for all students and employees. Her team oversees most aspects of the university’s day-to-day work, including academics, student experience, analytics, planning, and global operations. Amelia has a Bachelor’s degree from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont and a Master’s degree from University of New Hampshire.
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Laura Maristany
Laura Maristany is the vice president of external affairs for Bitwise Industries, where she leads outreach and partnerships with government and community leaders to build tech economies in underestimated cities across the country. Laura will speak at the session titled
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Training, Reskilling and Upskilling the Workforce: Utilizing Apprenticeships to Fill Employment Gaps on Wednesday, August 17 at 12:30 p.m. Before joining Bitwise, Laura served as Associate Director for Constructive Politics at Democracy Fund, where she created and carried out the foundation’s constructive politics strategy to explore what unites us, while helping institutions that govern become more diverse, inclusive, and better able to serve all Americans. Laura also has extensive Capitol Hill and policy-making experience, having led advocacy and coalition building strategies as head of National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) DC office and Executive Director of Legislative Affairs at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).   Laura is a GMF 2018 Memorial Fellow, and a recipient of the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit bestowed by the Spanish Crown. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus, and a master’s degree in international commerce and policy from George Mason University.
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Brandon Marshall
Brandon Marshall, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health. He is also founding director of the People, Place & Health Collective at Brown University. Dr. Marshall’s research focuses on substance
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use epidemiology, with a specific emphasis on harm reduction and overdose prevention. He is passionate about conducting research that improves the health and well-being of people who use drugs. Marshall will present
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Angela V. McKnight
Assemblywoman, New Jersey
Angela V. McKnight is the first African American Assemblywoman to serve the 31st District of the New Jersey State Legislature, a post she was first elected to in 2015. She is a Democratic lawmaker representing towns in Hudson County, including
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Bayonne and Jersey City. Assemblywoman McKnight will speak at the session titled Training, Reskilling and Upskilling the Workforce: Utilizing Apprenticeships to Fill Employment Gaps on Wednesday, August 17 at 12:30 p.m. She is the Deputy Majority Leader for the General Assembly, as well as chair of the Aging and Senior Services Committee, vice-chair of the Women and Children Committee, and a member of the Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee. She is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of AngelaCARES, an advocacy and support organization for senior citizens, based in Jersey City. She is an advocate for senior care, social justice, and cultural fairness in Black communities. Assemblywoman McKnight has sponsored several social justice bills to include the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) bill to allow municipalities to establish a civilian review board to investigate complaints against members of the police force; the hair anti-discrimination bill to prevent discrimination of certain hairstyles such as dreadlocks, and legislation to legalize adult-use of cannabis. As a mentor and educator, McKnight serves as an adjunct faculty member at New Jersey City University (NJCU), and as an instructor at the Rising Tide Capital Community Business Academy. She holds a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Phoenix and has 25 years of experience in the customer service and technology arena. As an activist and social advocate, McKnight serves as a Board Member on several boards to include the Jersey City Community Charter School, the United Way of Hudson County, and the NJCU Health Sciences Undergraduate Advisory Board. She has received several honors for her advocacy and accomplishments to include the US Senator Robert Menendez 2019 Community Outreach Award, and the 2019 Community Impact Award from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.  
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Andrew McLean
Andrew McLean is a Transportation Policy Specialist at CDM Smith, providing a variety of financial, policy, and transportation advisory services to public transportation agencies and private clients. He specializes in helping clients plan, strategize, and develop new and innovative transportation
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funding mechanisms, including distance-based road charging. Prior to joining CDM Smith, Andrew served for eight years as a legislator in the Maine House of Representatives, during which he was Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation for six years. There, he gained a national reputation as a leading transportation policy expert, working to build bipartisan support for revenue-generating initiatives for transportation projects and new and innovative ways to reform states’ transportation funding models. He also served as Chair of the Natural Resources and Infrastructure Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and as Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Public Policy Committee of the Council of State Governments (CSG). In these national leadership positions, he worked with some of the nation’s top lawmakers and industry stakeholders to develop creative funding mechanisms and new technologies to help build a modern and sustainable transportation system. Andrew lives in Portland, Maine, is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law, and is a practicing attorney and former law clerk for the Maine Superior Court. He will speak on Monday, August 15 at 2:30 p.m. at the session titled Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act:  What it Means for the States.
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Delores McQuinn
Delegate Delores L. McQuinn is a native of Richmond, Virginia and represents the 70th district in the Virginia House of Delegates. She has been a trailblazer in local and statewide politics, serving on the Richmond City School Board, the Richmond
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City Council and since 2009, and as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. She was the chief sponsor of legislation that created a commission to study the impact of slavery and its long-term impact on African Americans in Virginia; she chairs the Richmond Slave Trail Commission; she introduced legislation to establish the Virginia African American Cultural Resource Task Force in 2017; and she was chief patron of a bill prohibiting discrimination based on natural hair styles and textures. Delegate McQuinn is an ordained minister and assistant pastor at her home church, New Bridge Baptist in Richmond, Virginia. She is an international speaker, Christian disciple and faith leader, cancer and COVID-19 survivor, wife, mother, sister, and proud grandmother.
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Joshua Miller
Senator, Rhode Island
Senator Joshua Miller represents the 28th senatorial district (Cranston, Providence) in the Rhode Island Senate. First elected to the Senate in November 2006, he has been particularly active in health care reform efforts, as well as environmental initiatives. He chairs
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the Committee on Health & Human Services and previously served as chairman of the Committee on Corporations, now known as the Committee on Commerce. Sen. Miller has been involved in legislative efforts to make health insurance more affordable to ratepayers and employers and sponsored a bill that successfully eliminated health status as a factor in insurance rates. Recently, he sponsored legislation to establish a pilot program for harm reduction centers in Rhode Island. That measure was signed into law.He was a member of the Governor's Overdose Commission and the Governor's Reinventing Medicaid Task Force. Sen. Miller chaired commissions reviewing the prospect of legalizing marijuana for recreational use. He sponsored the law, enacted in 2011, decriminalizing possession of small quantities of marijuana, and has since sponsored bills to legalize and regulate marijuana in the state. Sen. Miller has been honored by Rhode Island Communities for Addiction Recovery Efforts (RI CARES) for his frequent advocacy for treatment for those struggling with addiction, as well as the Mental Health Association of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Association of Nurse Anesthetists.
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Marc Pacheco
Founding Chair and current member, Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, Massachusetts
Senator Marc R. Pacheco (D-Taunton) is Dean of the Massachusetts Senate, and serves as Chair of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight; Chair of the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management; Vice Chair of the Joint Committee
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on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy; Founding Chair and current member of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change; and member of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. Senator Pacheco has been appointed by the Council of State Governments (CSG) as Co-Chair of the Eastern Regional Conference (ERC) Energy & Environment Committee and to the National ‘Future of Work’ Task Force serving as Chair of the Subcommittee on Smart Government. He has also been appointed to the CSG/ERC Territorial Relations Committee and the National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) Task Force on Energy Supply. Senator Pacheco has been a longtime environmental advocate and an Al Gore Climate Messenger with the Climate Reality Project who has fought hard to implement climate change solutions in the Commonwealth. He was lead sponsor the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008, which was enacted into law to establish an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions and implement comprehensive sustainable solutions in Massachusetts. Senator Pacheco has received numerous awards from various organizations throughout his career including honors from Environment Massachusetts and the Sustainable Future Campaign - an initiative of the United Nations Youth and Student Association. He has received the Commander of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator, the highest civilian award given by the Portuguese government; the Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold with Star from the Republic of Austria, the fourth highest decoration of merit the country can confer on the federal level; and the Medalha da Ordem de Timor Leste, for his contributions to the U.N. Referendum for East Timor independence. Before his service in the Massachusetts Legislature, Senator Pacheco served for 10 years as an elected member of the Taunton School Committee serving as its chair and as the chief of staff and budget director to the Mayor of the City of Taunton for seven years.
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Carolyn Partridge
Representative, Vermont
Representative Carolyn Partridge is a 20-year member of the Vermont House of Representatives and the chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. She is better known to the regular participants of CSG East as one of the two co-chairs
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of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs policy committee. Carolyn has also been a chair of the ERC Annual Meeting Committee, and the chair of CSG East Nominations committee for several years. Representative Partridge grew up in New Jersey and moved to Vermont in 1972 after completing her bachelor’s degree in oceanography at New York University. Outside of the legislature, she is a farmer and seamstress, a mother of five, and grandmother to two. Carolyn is also a member of her local school board, and past member of her planning commission, and several other boards over the years.
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Brian Pettyjohn
Senator, Delaware
State Senator Brian Pettyjohn of Georgetown was first elected to the Senate in 2012. He proudly represents Delaware’s 19th Senatorial District which spans from the Delaware/Maryland border west of Seaford and Bridgeville to Massey's Landing on the Rehoboth and Indian
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River Bays. Senator Pettyjohn speaks at the session titled Rural Broadband: Helping States Fund the Final Mile on Tuesday, August 16 at 8 a.m. Before his current seat in the Delaware State Senate, Senator Pettyjohn served as councilman of Georgetown from 2008-2010 and Mayor from 2010-2012. In the 2021-2022 Senate Term, Senator Brian Pettyjohn’s committee assignments include the Corrections and Public Safety, Executive, Health and Social Services, Housing, Judiciary, Legislative Council, Legislative Oversight, and Sunset, and Rules and Ethics committees.  He has also been named to several other boards and committees, including the Delaware Prosperity Partnership and Non-Acute Patient Medical Guardianship Task Force. Continuing in his commitment to his community, Senator Brian Pettyjohn has served on several organizations including the Greater Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, The Chad Spicer Foundation, and the Sussex County Sports Foundation. Outside of his legislative and community involvement, Senator Pettyjohn manages his family's farm south of Georgetown, and is a project manager and auditor with an information technology firm.
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Russel C. Redding
Governor Tom Wolf nominated Russell C. Redding to serve as the 26th Secretary of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in January 2015, and was confirmed by the Senate on May 14, 2015.  Redding is the former dean of the School
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of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Delaware Valley College. Redding has extensive experience as a public servant, having spent more than 20 years serving Pennsylvania in Harrisburg and Washington D.C.  He worked on Capitol Hill as Ag Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and served for 16 years in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, serving as secretary from 2009-2011 under Governor Rendell. He is a graduate of Penn State, having earned his B.S. in Agriculture Education and M.S. in Agriculture and Extension Education.  In addition, he is a graduate of the Agribusiness Executive program. A native of Pennsylvania, Redding has an innate understanding of production agriculture, stemming from his youth on his family’s dairy farm and his time as a dairy farm operator.  He currently serves as Chair of the USDA Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture. Russell, his wife Nina and sons Garrison and Elliot reside in the Gettysburg area, where the family is active in the community, their church and the local 4-H Club.
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Christopher Sands
Christopher Sands, Ph.D., director of the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, is an internationally renowned specialist on Canada and U.S.-Canadian relations. He is also an adjunct professor of Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International
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Studies (SAIS). He regularly gives testimony to the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament, is a widely quoted source on Canada, and has published extensively over a career of more than 25 years in Washington think tanks. Sands will join the panel Bilateral Relations and the U.S.-Canadian Border: Putting the pieces back together post-COVID at the Canada - U.S. Relations Committee meeting on Tuesday, August 16, at 8:00 a.m.
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headshot of Pennsylvania Senator Schwank
Judy Schwank
Senator, Pennsylvania
Senator Judy Schwank studied at Pennsylvania State University where she received her bachelor of science degree in agricultural education, and a master's degree in agricultural education with a horticulture minor. She went on to become an agriculture extension agent with
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the Cooperative Extension, and then dean of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Delaware Valley College. Judy Schwank was elected county commissioner for Berks County in 2002, and was first elected to the Pennsylvania Senate in 2011, where she has served as minority chair of the Agriculture Committee. Senator Schwank was appointed as co-chair of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee for CSG East in 2020.
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Peter Shattuck
Peter Shattuck is President at Anbaric where he manages projects across New England. Prior to joining Anbaric, Mr. Shattuck spent nine years as Massachusetts Director and Director of the Clean Energy Initiative at Acadia Center, a research and advocacy organization
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focused on energy and climate policy. In these roles, he engaged collaboratively with large energy users, utilities and other stakeholders to develop and implement state and regional programs supporting energy efficiency, offshore wind, clean energy transmission, energy storage and market-based climate policy. Mr. Shattuck received a B.A. in History from Yale University and a MSc. in Environmental Science from Trinity College, Dublin. He will speak on Tuesday, August 16 at 8 a.m. at the Energy and Environment committee meeting titled Advancing Offshore Wind in the Northeast.
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Brian Sigritz
Brian Sigritz is the director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) in Washington, D.C. Within NASBO, his responsibilities include tracking and analyzing tax and revenue trends, as well as handling NASBO activities related
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to transportation, public-private partnerships, energy, and disaster response issues. He also monitors the fiscal health of the states and edits and produces the State Expenditure Report annually. Prior to coming to NASBO, Sigritz worked as a legislative aide in the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served as the caucus staff representative on the Human Services and Aging Committee. He has also served as the legislative liaison to the Mayor of Dayton, Ohio. In addition, Sigritz has authored articles on state fiscal conditions, has been quoted in a number of publications, and has appeared on several television programs. Sigritz graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from St. Bonaventure University, and received his Master of Public Administration degree from George Washington University. He also studied sociology and history while attending Oxford University. Founded in 1945, NASBO serves as the professional organization for all state budget officers of the fifty states and U.S. territories. NASBO collects fiscal data and publishes numerous reports on state fiscal conditions. The association also provides training for members and provides public officials, the media and citizens information on financial management and budgeting.
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Bobby Silverstein
Bobby Silverstein is a nationally-recognized attorney who has spent over 45 years advancing public policy to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Bobby is considered to be the “behind-the-scenes architect” of the ADA and numerous other bills, and he
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has pursued his work from every angle: as an Attorney-Advisor with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights; as a senior staffer in various U.S. Congressional offices; as Director of the Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy at George Washington University Medical Center; and as principal in a Washington-DC-based laws firm. Bobby also is the legislative counsel for the State Exchange on Employment and Disability (SEED).
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Gordon H. Smith
Gordon H. Smith, Esq. was appointed by Governor Janet Mills as Director of Opioid Response for the state of Maine in January 2019. He is responsible for coordinating and directing Maine’s response to the opioid crisis, including prescriber education and
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reduction of opioid prescribing, prevention and treatment of substance use disorder, and harm reduction strategies. He stepped down as the executive vice president (EVP) of the Maine Medical Association in January 2019, where he had served as EVP since September 1993 and where he began as General Counsel in 1981. He graduated from the University of Maine with the highest distinction in 1973 and from the Boston College Law School, magna cum laude, in 1976. He is a past Chairman of the American Society of State Medical Association Counsel, a nation-wide group of 140 attorneys representing medical associations. Mr. Smith has also served as Chairman of the American Medical Association/State Medical Society Litigation Center, the Maine Health Data Organization and the Advocacy Resource Center of the American Medical Association. He is a former board member and chair of Quality Counts, a former board member of the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership, and the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging. Mr. Smith is a frequent lecturer to medical groups on various medical legal subjects.
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Scott Spradling
Scott Spradling, Emmy award winning former reporter, anchor and political director for WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH and founder of The Spradling Group will moderate the panel COVID-19 and Challenges in Workforce Development and Education on Tuesday, August 16 at 12:15
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p.m.
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Patricia Tilley
Patricia Tilley is the director of the Division of Public Health Services within the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. She has spent greater than 25 years in support of children and their families as a classroom teacher,
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family resource center director, Maternal and Child Health Title V director and public health professional. Her role is to foster systemic approaches to promote health and well being, prevent chronic conditions through population-level strategies and interventions and to reduce health inequities across the lifespan. She is responsible for the coordination and administration of public health systems, policies and performance and leads collaborative and integrative efforts to promote protective factors for New Hampshire's families. Her expertise is in policy development, systems thinking, and service delivery.
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Maureen Toohey
Maureen Toohey, Deputy Executive Director, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI) will conduct an  education and workforce development tour of ARMI on Tuesday, August 16 at 2:00 p.m. (Please sign up in advance for this tour, when you register for the
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Annual Meeting.)
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Richard Tulikangas
Rich Tulikangas currently serves as Director of the Vermont Career Advancement Project, a statewide initiative through HireAbility Vermont to support career pathway development for youth and adults with disabilities. He has been passionate about helping prepare young people for life
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beyond high school and been a leader of numerous programs and organizations in Vermont and nationally with that focus for over 30 years. He served as founding Executive Director of Linking Learning to Life/Navicate, Work-Based Learning Director for the National Academy Foundation (now NAF), Consultant and Program Director in several capacities for the VT Agency of Education and was loaned to the Governor’s Office to develop the state’s School-To-Work plan. Rich has a BS in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan and an MEd from the University of Vermont in Human and Organizational Resource Development. He has presented at numerous state, regional and national conferences and he teaches a course at Castleton University focused on supporting secondary educators with successfully developing and managing high quality work-based learning programs.
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Kelli-Marie Vallieres
Kelli-Marie Vallieres, Ph.D., is vice chair of the Governor’s Workforce Council in Connecticut and the chief workforce officer of the Office of Workforce Strategy, which leads the implementation of the first State of CT Strategic Workforce Development Plan. Dr. Vallieres earned
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her degree in Educational Leadership and Adult Learning from the University of Connecticut in 2007. She is an owner of two manufacturing companies, Sound Manufacturing, Inc. and Monster Power Equipment, where she served as President and CEO for 14 years before stepping down to take on her new role with the State of Connecticut.
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David Wasserman
David Wasserman, U.S. House editor and senior election analyst for the non-partisan newsletter, The Cook Political Report will discuss a preview of the 2022 midterm elections on Monday, August 15 at 11:15 a.m.
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David Watters
Senator, New Hampshire
Senator Watters has represented the 4th district in the New Hampshire Senate. Prior to is election to the Senate, he served two terms in the New Hampshire House of Representatives for Stafford. Senator Watters will speak at the energy and
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environment committee session titled Advancing Off-shore Wind in the Northeast on Tuesday, August 16 at 8 a.m.
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Carol Wei
Carol Wei is a recent graduate of the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) program at the State University of New York (SUNY)-Downstate in Brooklyn, New York, and will soon serve as a primary care FNP in a community health setting. She previously
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provided counseling to low-income first-time mothers on pregnancy, child growth, and personal development as a nurse home visitor at a nonprofit organization through the Nurse Family Partnership. She also has over 8 years of experience as an ICU and floor nurse. She developed her interest in Opioid Use Disorder after encounters with afflicted patients during clinical rotations. She is an advocate involved in combating the opioid epidemic by improving access to treatment in the primary care setting and providing education on the crisis.
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Taryn M. Williams
Taryn M. Williams is the assistant secretary of labor in the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor. She will be speaking at the session Training the Workforce of Tomorrow: Developing Career Pathways for Youth and
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Young Adults on Wednesday, August 17 at 10:15 a.m. In her current role, Williams advises the Secretary of Labor on how the Department’s policies and programs impact the employment of people with disabilities and leads the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), which works with employers and all levels of government to promote evidence-based policy that improves employment opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities. Previously, Williams has worked in ODEP as director of youth policy, chief of staff, and also undertook detail assignments as associate director for public engagement and liaison to the disability community at the White House from 2014 through 2015 and as a policy adviser on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from 2012 through 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and a master’s degree in education with a concentration in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University. She resides in Washington, DC.
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