Kathy Christie serves as Chief of Staff at Education Commission of the States, and co-directs the ECS Clearinghouse, where staff collect and analyze research, track state and district reforms and analyze the various reforms in the states. Clearinghouse staff respond to policy and research requests for media, governor's offices, legislators and legislative staff, chief state school officers, state agencies and various other policymakers in the states and work to make information broadly available at "point of need" through www.ecs.org. Kathy also writes a monthly "Stateline" for the Phi Delta Kappan magazine. Prior to working with ECS, Kathy worked as a freelance writer, a secondary language arts teacher, juvenile detention center counselor and was employed with the National Conference of State Legislatures. She served three terms as a member of the board of directors, Englewood Schools, and one term on the board of directors for the Colorado Association of School Boards.

 

Fred Dedrick is the first executive director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions (NFWS), which supports local funding collaboratives investing in workforce partnerships that recruit, train, place, retain, and advance new and incumbent workers in key industry sectors. Fred recently served as Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary for workforce development, overseeing roughly $150 million in federal and state workforce funding. He also served on the executive committee of JOIN, Philadelphia’s regional collaborative supported by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary, Fred was the executive director of Pennsylvania’s statewide Workforce Investment Board, developing recommendations for Governor Ed Rendall regarding workforce policy and strategy. He also has held various leadership roles statewide and in Philadelphia that involved attracting new businesses, developing industry-specific education programs, and engaging in other workforce-related activities. Fred earned his Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Notre Dame and his MPA from Princeton University. He currently serves on the leadership council of the National Skills Coalition. 


 
Sara Goldrick-Rab is assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at UW-Madison. She is also the Senior Scholar at the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education, and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, and the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research.  Her research explores policies aimed at reducing socioeconomic and racial inequalities. Sara was named a 2010 William T. Grant Scholar for her project "Rethinking College Choice in America." She was also a 2004 Rising Scholar in Higher Education by the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good and a 2006 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellow. Her research has been published in journals such as Sociology of Education and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and been financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Spencer Foundation, American Educational Research Association, William T. Grant Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Association for Institutional Research, and the Mellon Foundation.  She consults regularly with the Center for American Progress, the Brookings Institution, the Community College Research Center, Mathematica Policy Research, the Workforce Strategy Center, and the Consortium for Chicago School Research, among others. Sara holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Larry Good is co-founder and Chairman of the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) and provides strategic leadership across the organization’s practice and leads work with state governments in transforming their workforce strategies. For the past six years Larry has led a major engagement assisting the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth in developing and implementing a total rethinking of state workforce policy, initiatives, and structure. Results from that work include the No Worker Left Behind initiative, providing up to two years of free tuition for at risk workers seeking the skills and credentials they need to transition to new careers. Larry served as President and CEO from 1991 to 2005. Before co-founding CSW, Larry served for seven years as a leader within Michigan’s Governor’s Office for Job Training, which was a start-up that became an incubator for transformative policy initiatives in the state. He has also served on the staff of two State Senators, played management roles in statewide political campaigns, and reported about state and local government for the Oakland Press in Pontiac, Michigan. Larry has an MBA degree in Finance from Michigan State University and a BA in Political Science from Oakland University.

 

David Hall is the Project Coordinator for Montana University System’s Lumina Foundation Making Opportunities Affordable (MOA) grant. The grant has been branded COLLEGE! NOW: Montana’s Two-Year College Initiative. For the past four years, David was the WIRED Grant Manager for the Montana University System. He managed the Workforce Innovation Regional Economic Development – Montana’s Agro-energy Plan (WIRED-MAP). David also worked for Montana’s Office of Public Instruction serving for nine years as Montana’s State Supervisor for Ag Ed and State FFA Advisor. David has spent the last 35 years actively involved in education on local, state, national, and international levels. He has taught and authored materials for elementary, middle school, secondary, post-secondary, graduate and adult learners. David earned his B.S. and M.Ed. from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.

 

Gregory Kienzl is the director of research and evaluation for the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). He is a scholar in the field of economics and education, who specializes in estimating the economic benefits of postsecondary education and mapping the various educational transitions taken by students in higher education. Prior to joining IHEP, Gregory was the principal investigator and lead analyst on several multi-year projects investigating the underrepresentation of women and minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also worked at other nonprofits and educational research centers in Washington, D.C. and New York, N.Y. Gregory holds a doctorate in economics and education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an M.S. in public policy and management from the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Norma Noble is the Deputy Secretary of Commerce for Workforce Development at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. She has spent much of her career working in Oklahoma government, with particular emphasis on human services and workforce development. Norma has held positions with Oklahoma County, the City of Oklahoma City, and the Oklahoma County Workforce Investment Board.

Norma holds a Master's degree in Education from Northeastern University (OK), and a second Master's degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. Her undergraduate BA degree is in French and English from Northeastern State University (OK).