Myriam Sullivan is a director at JFF, helping low-skilled adults advance to family-supporting careers while enabling employers to build and sustain a productive workforce. Ms. Sullivan’s current portfolio includes New Skills at Work, a landmark JPMorgan Chase workforce readiness initiative aimed at closing the skills gap. Prior to this project, Ms. Sullivan led Credentials That Work, JFF’s emerging work in the development and application of labor market information (LMI) and workforce research.

Before joining JFF, Ms. Sullivan served as a presidential management fellow for two offices within the US Department of Labor. As program analyst in the financial management division, she managed LMI grants for 10 states and oversaw key convenings of state and federal LMI stakeholders. As a manpower development specialist in the Office of Workforce Investments, Ms. Sullivan also managed federal grants and provided technical assistance to state- and local-level entities that administer and provide workforce development programs and services to various adult and youth populations. Ms. Sullivan previously worked at the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Vanessa Bennett is a director at JFF who works to create equitable pathways to careers and education for young people and adults through pre-apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships, and work-based learning programs.

Vanessa focuses on expanding economic mobility for opportunity youth by developing pre-apprenticeship frameworks and engaging employers, community-based organizations, and workforce boards in developing meaningful pathways to apprenticeship opportunities.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

• Program design and development
• Content innovation
• Strategic planning and technical assistance
• Rural, youth, and workforce development
• Partnership and coalition-building
• Community outreach and advocacy
• National service and service reflection
• Universal designs for learning, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed care

Before joining JFF, Vanessa was the senior manager of Career Pathways at YouthBuild USA, where she contributed to the design of pre-apprenticeship programming, managed public and private partnerships, and developed training, tools, and resources for more than 200 YouthBuild programs. She managed grants and projects with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Earlier in her career, she worked at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Share Our Strength and led out-of-school programming for justice-involved young people in southeastern New Hampshire.

Reflecting on her decision to join JFF, Vanessa says, “I am attracted to JFF’s work because of their dedication to increasing economic mobility by creating a continuum of support that bridges postsecondary education with careers. I am excited to contribute to a team that is committed to collaboration and innovation in this field.”

Outside of work, Vanessa says, “I am a runner, an amateur baker, and an outdoor enthusiast on a mission to see every national park and climb every 4,000-footer in the White Mountain National Forest.”

Krysti Specht is a director in the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning at JFF. In that role, she supports the national expansion of innovative practices that connect education and employment for all Americans.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

• Work-based learning supporting nontraditional tech talent
• Building comprehensive and culturally competent apprenticeship programs
• Community and economic development
• Building stronger pipelines to opportunity
• Building programs from scratch
• Workforce policy implementation and alignment
• Postsecondary education access and opportunity
• Writing and wordsmithing

Before joining JFF, Krysti worked to grow and sustain tech apprenticeships through local and regional partnerships at TechSF, an initiative of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development. In that role, she cofounded Apprenticeship Bay Area, a regional initiative to advance tech apprenticeships, and was a founding member of the Northern California Apprenticeship Network. She also helped lead ApprenticeSIP, a monthly series of virtual events highlighting news and innovation in apprenticeship, and created TechSF Days, a program that helps tech jobseekers gain exposure to work-based learning and build social capital.

Earlier in her career, Krysti spent more than 10 years in programs supporting first-generation high school and middle school students from low-income backgrounds, first with the Japanese Community Youth Council in San Francisco and then with the Council for Opportunity in Education in Washington, DC.

Krysti says she is thrilled to be joining JFF and focusing on the nexus of education and employment. “As a former educator,” she says, “I watched my students thrive through college only to graduate to empty job prospects and debt. I look forward to supporting solutions that are anchored in creating opportunity and financial mobility.”

“Beyond my work,” she says, “I am a Bernese mountain dog mom, an avid runner, a gardener, and a water sports enthusiast.”

Becky Calwell is a senior program manager at JFF. A member of the team in the JFF Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, she focuses on expanding apprenticeship opportunities in manufacturing for youth and adults.

Her areas of expertise include registered apprenticeships, collaboration with community partners, and outreach to the manufacturing industry.

Before joining JFF, Becky was a program manager for Apprenticeship Works, an initiative of the Robert C. Byrd Institute at Marshall University. In that role, she worked with manufacturers across the country to develop and manage registered apprenticeship programs. She also helped veterans, women, and young people prepare for new careers in manufacturing through pre-apprenticeship programs.

Earlier in her career, Becky worked in communications, as an editor at a daily newspaper and as the editor of an online encyclopedia.

Becky has a bachelor’s degree in history and English from DePauw University, a master’s degree in humanities from Marshall University, and a doctorate in education from Marshall University.

Rachel Crofut is a Director of Communications at JFF, where she leads the communications strategy and efforts of JFF’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning.

Rachel manages the website, community growth, creation, execution, and marketing of JFF’s apprenticeship and work-based learning work and material.

Before joining JFF, Rachel was communications manager at FSG, a mission-driven, nonprofit consulting firm that works with foundations, government agencies, corporations, and school systems to help solve some of the world's most challenging social issues. Her job was to disseminate FSG's thought leadership and position the firm to be strategic, knowledgeable, and helpful.

Rachel says she came to JFF because of our emphasis on providing economic opportunity for everyone. She says: “When a person achieves economic freedom, it has an incredible impact on them, their family, their community, and society at large. I’m proud to contribute to an organization that believes in the potential of everyone regardless of race, gender, background, or education.”

Rachel is an avid reader, fiction writer, an amateur photographer, and an aspiring gardener.

Mark Genua is a director in JFF’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning. He focuses on helping employers enhance their training and talent pipeline strategies through Registered Apprenticeship programs; he also assists stakeholders with efforts to connect communities to these opportunities.

His skills and areas of expertise include:

• Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship program design and development
• Strategies for inclusion and support of underrepresented populations, particularly young people, in work-based learning programs
• Operation and funding of workforce development boards

Before joining JFF, Mark was the director of apprenticeship strategies at Philadelphia Works, the city of Philadelphia’s workforce development board. In that role, he helped employers implement Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and integrated the apprenticeship model into the public workforce system. Before that, he worked at the Philadelphia Youth Network and Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation, advancing work-based learning programs for youth and helping local businesses grow.

Mark is a member of the board of YESPhilly, a nonprofit and accelerated high school whose mission is to develop opportunities for Philadelphia’s out-of-school youth.

He speaks about topics such as best practices in apprenticeships, designing work-based learning programs with inclusion and equity in mind, and how the public workforce system can advance work-based learning.

Mark says he was drawn to JFF because the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning is nationally recognized for its expertise in starting and enhancing work-based learning programs. Through the Center, he says, “I am able to work with communities across the country to implement and advance this training model.”

Outside of work, Mark says, “I am a traveler who loves to experience new places and also a father to a young son who has an appetite that I may need a second job to support. “

Joshua Johnson is a director at JFF. A member of the team in the JFF Center for Apprenticeship & Work Based Learning, he leads efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in apprenticeship, with a specific focus on helping employers make commitments to building inclusive Registered Apprenticeship programs.

His skills and areas of expertise include:

• Apprenticeship programming
• Workforce development
• Business engagement
• Reentry education
• Leadership

Before joining JFF, Joshua was the state director of apprenticeship in Wisconsin. In that role, he oversaw growth in all initiatives related to the creation of intentional career pathways for Wisconsin citizens. His passion for apprenticeship is rooted in its ability to eradicate poverty.

Earlier in his career, Joshua worked for the Wisconsin Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, where he helped employers connect to the untapped talent pool of individuals with disabilities.

While he was the Wisconsin state director of apprenticeship, Joshua was elected by his fellow state directors to serve as vice president of the National Association of State and Territorial Apprenticeship Directors.

Joshua spent nearly 10 years in prison and has shared his personal story of reentry to encourage justice-involved individuals to refocus and get connected prior to release. He also speaks at events about the importance of employers creating diverse and inclusive apprenticeships to ensure that they can compete locally, nationally, and globally.

In 2007, Joshua completed a Construction Craft Laborers apprenticeship and then spent three years as a construction craft laborer journeyworker building highways in Illinois and Wisconsin.

“I am the father of three boys and two girls,” Joshua says. “I enjoy spending time with them and my lovely wife out on the water on the family boat. If I’m not out on the water, I am relaxing and enjoying the four seasons in Wisconsin while cheering on our local sports teams.”

Melissa MacGregor is a director at JFF. Working in the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, she provides inspiration and technical assistance to employers, higher education institutions, and others in developing strategies to recruit and retain a qualified workforce in any industry.

Melissa’s skills and areas of expertise include:

• Adoption of Registered Apprenticeship programs
• Outreach and employer engagement
• Community colleges
• Qualitative research
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Streamlining processes

Before joining JFF, Melissa managed apprenticeships and employer engagement at Harper College, a community college in the Chicago suburbs. She has delivered presentations on implementing apprenticeship programs at hundreds of community colleges across the country. She also managed two TAACCCT grants for Harper.

Earlier in her career, she stewarded donor funds and endowments at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business, wrote federal reports on Small Business Administration grants for the University of Houston Small Business Development Center, and administered two divisions in the Department of Internal Medicine for the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Melissa says she was attracted to JFF is because “JFF is situated between education and employment, and between policy and practice. That’s where I’m compelled to be too. I am thrilled to be part of this group of thought leaders and practitioners who can drive change and impact the school-to-work transition on a national scale.”

Melissa has a doctorate in community college leadership from Ferris State University in Michigan, a master’s degree in education from American Intercontinental University, and a bachelor’s in English from the University of Houston.

Outside of work, Melissa knits and makes leather bags. She lives in the Chicagoland suburbs with her husband and two dalmatians, who provide endless entertainment. She has two grown children, a son-in-law, and two adorable young grandkids.

Maria del Mar Cabiya is a director at JFF. As a member of the team in the organization’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, she focuses on efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in U.S. apprenticeships.

Her areas of expertise include:

• Program design and implementation
• Creating culturally affirming environments
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Best practices for disability employment
• Population health strategies and developing trauma resilience
• Systems thinking and change management
• Work-based learning, including pre-apprenticeships and Registered Apprenticeships

Before joining JFF, Maria was the director of apprenticeship strategies at Philadelphia Works, where she provided strategic leadership to ApprenticeshipPHL, a public-private collaboration whose goal is to diversify and expand apprenticeship programs in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Earlier in her career, she served as the director of education and training at the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services, where she drove the workforce development strategy for 15,000 employees who provide critical services to Philadelphia residents. She also led the strategy for expanding supported employment services, an evidence-based approach to increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Maria has a master’s degree in clinical and counseling health psychology from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience from Ithaca College. In her spare time, she enjoys pottery, painting, and making pirate puppets and flamingo marionettes with her daughter.

Kassandra McGhee is a senior program manager at JFF. She focuses on workforce development and talent solutions that expand economic opportunity for individuals and improve the prosperity of employers and communities.

Her work involves project management of government and private-sector apprenticeship and work-based learning initiatives that engage employers, community colleges, workforce agencies, intermediaries, labor organizations, policy experts, and other stakeholders.

Kassandra’s core skills and areas of expertise include:

• Grant and contract development and management
• Workforce and career development strategies
• Program design and development
• Work-based learning and apprenticeship strategies
• Strategic planning and project management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Curriculum design and instruction

Before joining JFF, Kassandra was a program manager for the Office of Workforce Development in the District of Columbia’s Department of Employment Services, overseeing industry workforce programs that were designed to enhance skills attainment, crendentialing, work-based learning, and employment opportunities for Washington, DC, residents. And as the executive director of Career Team, she served as program director for a District of Columbia Department of Human Services workforce project with a budget of more than $3 million. In that role, she directed engagement of government stakeholders, employment partners, and representatives of other constituencies to assist Washington residents in attaining training, work-based learning, and gainful employment opportunities.

Throughout her career, Kassandra has focused on directing stakeholder engagement and collaborative partnerships to build training programs, employer hiring initiatives, dual-credit/dual-enrollment programs, apprenticeship and work-based learning initiatives, and industry-focused curriculum reviews. Her expertise has allowed her to be a trusted thought leader and consultant to senior executives at numerous organizations.

She has also served as a presenter or keynote speaker at many events.

Kassandra is the author of three books, including The 10 Commandments of Career Success: How to Have the Career You Really Desire.

Jennifer Meier is a senior program manager in the JFF Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning[BR1] . Her responsibilities include supporting the Center’s efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in Registered Apprenticeship programs.

Her areas of expertise include:

• Youth Registered Apprenticeships and career pathways
• Program design and implementation
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Work-based learning, including pre-apprenticeships and Registered Apprenticeships
• Employer and partner engagement

Before joining JFF, she served as the strategic partnership manager for Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG), where she led employer engagement across the state of Iowa, designed pre-apprenticeship opportunities, managed a work-based learning internship program, and connected students to Registered Apprenticeships and training.

Earlier in her career, Jennifer was a member of the Innovation and Workforce team at the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA). In that role, she managed internship programs, represented IEDA on the National Governors Association Talent Pipeline and Work-Based Learning state team, and managed logistics and communications. She was also a leader in the development and implementation of the governor’s Future Ready Iowa Initiative.

Jennifer has a bachelor’s degree in art and art education from the University of Iowa. In her spare time, she enjoys adventures with her family, music festivals, camping, cheering on the Hawkeyes, and volunteering in her community.

Andrea Messing-Mathie is a director at JFF. She focuses on youth apprenticeships, believing that work-based learning is an important element of any strategy to build effective college and career pathways for young people. Through her work at JFF, she strives to support apprenticeship providers at the local level by building integrated strategies that enable communities to develop the capacity—and the will—to fulfill the promise of work-based learning in general and youth apprenticeships in particular.

Before joining JFF, Andrea was the principal and founder of Innovate Advising and the deputy director of the Education Systems Center at Northern Illinois University, where she oversaw the development and buildout of the Illinois Advanced Apprenticeship Consortium and Standing Youth Committee and led the Illinois 60 by 25 Network and Great Lakes College and Career Pathways efforts. She also worked closely with partners in Illinois to develop opportunity youth projects, striving to bring partners to the table who focused on building programs that helped to bridge opportunities between education and employment for underrepresented populations.

Jonathan Payne is a director at JFF. He currently works on Possible Futures, a career awareness and exploration program for middle-grade (6–10) students to ensure that more young people complete high school and attain postsecondary credentials with value in the labor market.

Prior to joining JFF, Payne served as a public educator for over a decade. Most recently, he was a technology integrator at one of the largest high schools in Maine. In that role, he worked closely with classroom teachers—implementing technology into daily classroom instruction and assessments to increase student outcomes—and fellow technology staff—supporting the district’s grades 4–12 one-to-one Chromebook deployment. He also facilitated the creation of the district’s K–6 technology scope and sequence and coordinated teacher technology professional development.

Payne also served students as a science teacher for seven years, focusing mainly on chemistry and engineering, where he helped initiate a STEM Diploma endorsement. Additionally, he has been an enthusiastic educational activist, participating in local, state, and national educational policy discussions as a union president and elected union leader at the state and national levels.

Before entering education, he was also an apprentice preservation and restoration carpenter and a field biologist.

Monique Sheen manages JFF projects that help low-skilled adults advance to family-supporting careers, while enabling employers to build and sustain a productive workforce. She provides training, technical assistance, research, and analysis to Accelerating Opportunity, a national initiative to redesign Adult Basic Education programs to ensure that more underprepared adults gain marketable skills and achieve credentials that lead to family-supporting employment. Ms. Sheen also co-developed and delivered training for the Virtual Career Network and provided research and project management support for Breaking Through and Jobs to Careers.

Before joining JFF, Ms. Sheen was executive assistant in the Technical Publications department at O'Reilly & Associates. She also served as an administrative assistant at New England Baptist Hospital and as an executive assistant with Renaissance Worldwide, Inc.

Jessica Toglia is a senior program manager at JFF. She supports projects designed to create opportunities for adults to advance into careers that pay a living wage while helping employers build and sustain productive workforces.

Jessica’s work focuses on apprenticeship, adult learners, community colleges, research, and events planning. With an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion, she aims to make workforce and education professionals aware of best practices for recruiting and retaining people from underrepresented populations. She also plans and manages events and assists JFF colleagues who are coaching community-based organizations.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

• Adult learner strategies
• Sector strategies
• Program design to increase access
• Research
• Apprenticeship

Before joining JFF, Jessica worked as a research assistant in the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she focused on women’s economic security and political representation in New England.

Jessica is a lifetime member of Phi Kappa Phi, a selective multidisciplinary collegiate honor society. As a public speaker, she has delivered presentations about research that she has conducted on the use of Native American mascots and team nicknames in sports.

She says she welcomes the opportunity to work at JFF because her role enables her to “do work that redesigns systems to be more equitable.”

Jessica enjoys fitness activities, watching baseball, and attending stand-up comedy shows.

Lili Allen is associate vice president, reconnection designs, at JFF. She oversees and drives strategy for the organization’s work with states, regions, and communities that are building pathways to postsecondary credentials and career-track employment for low-income young adults who have enormous potential but are locked out of the labor market.

She leads JFF’s Opportunity Works Social Innovation Fund initiative, the Young Adult Talent Development Network, JFF’s partnership with the Aspen Institute Opportunity Youth Forum, JFF’s partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation for the Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) initiative, and Back on Track in Texas with the Greater Texas Foundation. She also oversees provision of technical assistance to Citi Foundation Youth Workforce Fund grantees.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

• Strategic planning to develop community strategies to improve outcomes for young adults
• Back on Track pathway design and implementation
• Translation of educational research, policies, and practices for high-level system leaders and on-the-ground practitioners
• Design and implementation of multi-community initiatives that drive reform agendas
• Writing of briefs, reports, and documentation of effective practices and policies

Lili came to JFF with more than 20 years of experience building school and community partnerships to improve outcomes for struggling students and out-of-school youth.

She speaks at national venues on strategies to improve outcomes for young adults who are locked out of the labor market.

Explaining why she was drawn to JFF, Lili says she welcomed the opportunity to work with “a talented, diverse team to improve outcomes for young adults who aspire to succeed in our economy but are locked out due to systemic barriers.”

Lili is an avid bicyclist, a political activist, and the mother of a young man who shares her commitment to social justice.

Charlotte Cahill is senior director of Pathways to Prosperity at JFF. In this role, she collaborates with states and regions to develop college and career pathway systems that expand opportunities for young people and support economic growth. Charlotte leads state policy and strategy development for the Pathways to Prosperity Network and oversees the Pathways to Prosperity asset mapping process. She also conducts research on topics that include work-based learning, labor market information, economic development, and pathways-related federal and state policies to support the development of career pathways systems. Charlotte also works with JFF’s Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning on projects focused on developing work-based learning tools and resources and on scaling youth apprenticeship.

Prior to joining JFF, Charlotte worked at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), where she did policy research and facilitated a peer-learning network of colleges and universities focused on strengthening postsecondary programs and career pathways for student veterans. Charlotte has taught at both two- and four-year postsecondary institutions, including Northwestern University, DePaul University, and the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. She holds a bachelor's degree in history from Boston College and a master's degree and PhD in the history of U.S. public policy from Northwestern University.

Mary Gardner Clagett is senior director of workforce policy for the Workforce and Education Policy Group at JFF. Mary works with workforce policy leaders and practitioners from around the country to shape effective policy recommendations to meet the skills needs of America’s workers and the US economy. She and her team work to identify best and promising practices, particularly for meeting the education, training, and placement needs of entry-level workers—translating practice into policy.

Mary has more than 25 years of experience working with the US Congress in the fields of education, workforce development, and human services policy. Before joining JFF, Mary served in a similar capacity for the National Center on Education and the Economy and previously served as the lead staff for Republicans on the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce, responsible for workforce development and career preparation legislation, including the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, the National School-to-Work Opportunities Act, and numerous other measures related to workforce, education, and human services. She has also served in the US Senate on the Labor and Human Resources Committee for West Virginia Senator Jennings Randolph.

Kyle Hartung is an associate vice president at JFF.

He leads and oversees bodies of work with state, regional, and local leaders to design, strengthen, and scale solutions to fundamentally change existing systems and reimagine the ways in which people—youth, young adults, and adults—experience and move through education and workforce development systems to ensure that they access the knowledge, skills, credentials, and capital critical to launch, re-enter, or advance in a career, achieve economic advancement, and realize their best possible futures.

Kyle’s areas of expertise include college and career readiness, education-industry partnerships, work-based learning, secondary and postsecondary alignment, adult learning, and mixed-methods research.

Before joining JFF, Kyle spent 20 years working as a teacher, leader, consultant, and researcher in public K–12 systems and higher-education settings, most recently as a researcher with Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA) at Harvard University’s Project Zero.

Kyle is a regular participant in the ongoing conversation about workforce and education issues, and he frequently delivers keynote addresses at events across the country on topics such as the future of work and building college and career pathways ecosystems.

Kyle would love to talk to you about his wife and kids, rock ’n’ roll, the theater, first-edition hardcover books, scuba diving, Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy literature, or the having of wonderful adventures.

Lois Joy is a research director at JFF. She leads projects investigating the future of work and means of broadening the participation of people from underrepresented groups in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Lois serves as principal investigator for a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that studies the impacts of work-based-learning on community college STEM outcomes. She also leads an evaluation of apprenticeships in software development.

Lois has expertise in leading large-scale, multiyear research and evaluation projects. She has more than 20 years of experience researching gender and racial differences in education and labor market outcomes and is an expert in quantitative analysis, mixed methods approaches, and developing policy and workplace solutions and promising practices from evaluation and research findings.

Before joining JFF, Lois served as a principal investigator for NSF-sponsored research on pathways into community college STEM programs for women at the Education Development Center in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she also conducted a study on the return on investments in elementary science education. She previously worked at Catalyst, where she led research on advancing women into corporate leadership and board positions.

Lois has delivered presentations at JFF Horizons and at events organized by the American Association for Community Colleges, the STEM Leadership Alliance, the League for Innovation in the Community College, the American Economic Association, Feminist Economics, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the Society for Labor Economics.

Lois says she was drawn to JFF by the opportunity to engage in research and evaluation that serves to remove barriers to economic opportunities for women and people from underrepresented groups.

In addition to her work at JFF, Lois is a certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor.

Michael Sack is a visiting senior fellow at JFF, where he works on several initiatives aimed at improving pathways to college and career success for opportunity youth, including two social innovation fund projects (Opportunity Works and Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential), the National Equity Partners project designed to increase registered apprenticeship opportunities for underserved populations, and a Juvenile Justice Reentry Program through the DOE’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE).

Mr. Sack is a former classroom teacher with an extensive background in the fields of urban education and workforce and youth development. His career has encompassed a distinctive blend of policy, practice, program design, and evaluation and his perspective has been shaped by years of personal connection to frontline staff and the populations they serve. This balanced expertise has made him uniquely suited to support a broad array of national educational reform and workforce preparation initiatives.

At Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia, he led several national demonstration projects aimed at improving the life chances of at-risk youth and young adults and spearheaded the development of several exemplary work/learning curricula for practitioners and organizations throughout the country. As a visiting Senior Fellow at MDRC in New York, he helped implement a welfare-to-work demonstration for residents of public housing and, later, helped design and test out additional innovative work/learning curricula and pathway-to-college models for Career Academy high schools across the country. He was a senior member of MDRC’s implementation team on a US DOE demonstration designed to enhance reading and math achievement in after school programs and, more recently, on the evaluation of a Gates-supported innovative Professional Development initiative (iPD) for high school teachers.

Mr. Sack was the founding education director for Youth Empowerment Services (YESPhilly) in Philadelphia, where he guided an innovative “GED-to-College” program and distinctive media arts–based accelerated high school. Prior to helping establish YESPhilly, he was the founding education director of YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School and coach to numerous YouthBuild programs seeking to enhance their work-based education models and college access and retention programs.

Mr. Sack is a frequent presenter at the national, state, and local levels and has trained numerous groups of teachers and other professional staff on best practices in youth development, college access, workforce readiness, and education design, curriculum and assessment. He currently serves on the boards of YESPhilly High School and Soccer Without Borders (SWB).

Cat Ward is managing director of JFFLabs. She leads JFF’s efforts to engage the private sector as a strategic force for good.

Cat founded and manages JFF’s Corporate Action Platform and Advisory Services practice. She leads a team that advises companies on envisioning, developing, and implementing strategies that are good for multiple stakeholders—including workers, businesses, and communities.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

• Corporate practice change
• Strategic corporate talent management
• Corporate social responsibility
• Program design and development
• Workforce and economic development
• Multi-sector partnership and collaboration
• Facilitation and training

Cat is an experienced leader who has worked across the private, nonprofit, and public sectors. Before joining JFF, she ran Taproot Foundation’s corporate advisory practice, leading a team that worked with prominent companies to create strategies that drive social impact and develop talent.

Earlier in her career, she worked at the New York City Department of Small Business Services, where she led efforts to create jobs and help people advance. She started her career in New York City theater as a director, producer, and educator.

Cat is a frequent speaker on the topics of strategic corporate talent management, effective corporate social impact strategies, and cross-sector partnership.

She says she was drawn to JFF because “there has never been a more important time to focus on economic opportunity and advancement. I’m fortunate to partner with colleagues at JFF who are passionate about those issues. It’s exciting to be part of the changemaking that happens here.”

When she’s not at work, Cat says, “I spend most of my free time chasing after my two young kids. They spur me to do more every day with their endless optimism about the world—and their boundless energy to back it up.”