2021 Winter Policy Forum Speakers & Presenters
Courtney Arbour
Director, Workforce Development Division
Texas Workforce Commission
Courtney Arbour is the Director of the Texas Workforce Commission’s (TWC) Workforce Development Division where she oversees an integrated workforce development system that provides oversight, coordination, guidance, planning, technical assistance, and implementation of employment and training activities, with a focus on meeting the needs of employers and job seekers in Texas.
In her role as Director, Courtney provides oversight and support for more than 500 million dollars in workforce programs and initiatives, which are primarily administered by 28 Local Workforce Development Boards, through 180+ American Job Centers in the state. This integrated model includes Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment, CHOICES Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training, Wagner-Peyser Employment Services, Trade Adjustment Assistance and Rapid Response programs. In addition, Courtney directs the administration of many state operated programs to include Adult Education and Literacy, Apprenticeship and Texas Veterans Leadership program as well as a number of specific statewide initiatives.
John Colbert
Co-Founder, Capitol Hill Partners
John Colbert is co-founder of Capitol Hill Partners, a consulting firm dedicated to assisting nonprofit and workforce related programs.
John served in the Clinton Administration as Chief of Staff of the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA).
Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, he was in legislative affairs for the Department handling a variety of ETA programs, including as a point person on the authorization and implementation of the Workforce Investment Act, Welfare to Work, and Older Americans Act, as well as a liaison to the Appropriations Committee.
An attorney in private practice before entering government, he has also served as Senior Counsel to both the National Center on Education and the Economy and Jobs for the Future, as well as an advisor to the former Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, focusing on fostering the Irish peace process.
John is a graduate of Holy Cross College, was awarded the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick full scholarship for a Master's degree in Political Science from the Catholic University of America, and also holds a law degree from Georgetown University.
Dr. Brenda M. Dixon
Research and Evaluation Officer
Illinois State Board of Education
Dr. Brenda M. Dixon is the Research and Evaluation Officer at the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). In this position, Dr. Dixon provides data analysis and supervises research that contributes to the evaluation of educational programs and initiatives. She works to assess, integrate, and align the functions and operations of the Information Systems, Data Strategies & Analytics, Research, and Assessment departments to support practices for improving student outcomes. Dr. Dixon has an extensive background in teaching, education research, data analytics, assessment, and accountability. Prior to her current role at ISBE, she served as a Research and Analysis manager in ISBE’s Data Strategies & Analytics Department. Additionally, Dr. Dixon has served as an assistant principal at both Hazel Crest School District 152½ and Valley View School District 365U and director of Assessment, Data, and Accountability at Oswego Community School District 308. Dr. Dixon also served as director of Assessment and Accountability at Plainfield Community School District 202 and director of Research and Evaluation at Wayzata Independent School District 284. Dr. Dixon began her career in education as a fifth-grade teacher at Indian Prairie School District 204. As a former educator, Dr. Dixon understands the crucial relationship between data-informed decisions and positive student outcomes.
Michelle Evermore
Senior Policy Analyst
National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Michele joined NELP in 2018 as a senior policy analyst for social insurance. In this role, she works with states to improve their unemployment insurance systems and public sector pensions. Federally, she has worked for a more inclusive and sufficient unemployment insurance system, leading to key protections for unemployed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also works to preserve and improve the Social Security system and to develop innovative solutions to our nation’s looming retirement security crisis. In addition, she works with both national and state level worker advocacy groups to assist with their capacity to mobilize workers to achieve the kind of lasting structural change that can only be accomplished through movement building.
David Fletcher
Chief Technology Officer
Utah Department of Technology Services
David is currently the Chief Technology Officer with the Utah Department of Technology Services where he has served for the past 15 years, overseeing broad technology initiatives, including digital government, innovation, open data, and technical architecture. He has long-running passion for digital government, having created his first egov website in 1993 while serving as the Director of General Services for the State. He is excited to see the progress over the past 25 years as Utah has added 100's of new online services to the Utah.gov domain which has been repeatedly named as the Best of the Web and a top digital state. He enjoys working with digital government professionals around the world, including partners in other states here in the U.S. while working to provide better government service.
Doug Holmes
President
Unemployment and Workers’ Compensation (UWC)
Douglas J. Holmes began as President of UWC in November, 2006. In his position as President of UWC, Doug serves as the primary UI legislative and policy resource for business, counting as members an array of national and state business trade associations, Fortune 500 companies, and third party administrators. He also serves as President of the National Foundation for Unemployment Compensation & Workers' Compensation, which produces regular comparisons of state UI law and hosts the annual national unemployment insurance issues conference.
Michael Horrigan
President
W.E. Upjohn Institute (UWC)
Dr. Michael Horrigan has been the President of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research since March 2019. The Institute, headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI, is a private, not-for-profit, nonpartisan, independent organization founded in 1945. The Institute conducts high-quality research on labor markets, focusing on the causes of unemployment, the effectiveness of social safety net programs, the impact of education and training on workers’ employability and earnings, the influence of state and local economic development policies, and the analysis of regional economic conditions. The Institute also administers federal, state, and locally funded employment and training programs to assist job seeks and employers in Southwest Michigan.
Prior to coming to the Institute, Mike worked for 32 years in a variety of positions at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most recently, from 2015 to 2019, he ran the employment and unemployment programs at BLS, including the publication of the national civilian unemployment rate and the monthly payroll jobs numbers. Prior to that position, Mike oversaw all of the price and inflation programs at BLS.
Emily House
Interim Executive Director
Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation
Dr. Emily House has served as the Interim Executive Director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation since December 2020. Prior to assuming this role, she served as the agency’s Deputy Executive Director.
Emily formerly led the THEC/TSAC Research and Planning team and College Access teams as the Chief Research and Policy Officer. In this capacity, she developed and executed the State of Tennessee’s higher education research agenda, and worked with executive and legislative leaders to design, implement, and evaluate higher education initiatives including Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect.
Previously, Emily served as a Teach for America corps member, and currently teaches Statistics and Research Design courses to doctoral students at East Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University.
A native of Rochester, New York, House earned her Bachelor’s degree at Cornell University, her master’s of Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Michigan. She is a graduate of the Tennessee Government Executive Institute, and is the recipient of the inaugural THEC Presidential Fellowship.
Emily Knight
President and CEO
Texas Restaurant Association
Emily is the Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Restaurant Association. She has more than 20 years of experience and success in national and global leadership positions and was previously the Managing Director of Higher Education North America at Study Group, a leading provider of international education. Her career includes senior leadership roles at Laureate Education and serving as President of Kendall College, a leader in hospitality and culinary arts education. During her time as Kendall’s president, Knight expanded access to culinary education throughout the Midwest, Latin America and the Middle East. She worked closely with the Illinois legislature to advance the industry and partnered with the Mayor of Chicago, Choose Chicago, and the Illinois Restaurant Association to drive Chicago visitors to a record 50 million per year.
Beth Kuhn
Workforce ITSC Academy Consultant
(Former Workforce Development Director, Vermont Department of Labor; Former Commissioner of Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment)
Beth Kuhn is a consultant for the Workforce ITSC Academy. Previously, she served as the Chief Engagement Officer at the Kentucky Cabinet of Health and Family Services, leading policy and operational efforts to better integrate workforce, health and human service programs. She was the Commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment, prior to that and collaborated with many partners in a system of Kentucky Career Centers providing employment, vocational rehabilitation, veterans, and other workforce services to employer and individual customers. Prior to her appointment as Commissioner in December of 2014, Beth served as Sector Strategies Director, assisting with the design and implementation of industry sector-based approaches to workforce and economic development. Beth has over 30 years of experience creating and implementing innovative workforce programs. She previously served as Director of Workforce Development at the Vermont Department of Labor, as Project Director at the United Way of Chittenden County (VT) where she developed employer partnerships to improve retention and advancement of entry-level workers, and as Vice President of WFD, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in work and family benefits, women’s advancement, and public-private partnerships to increase the availability and quality of child and elder care programs nationwide. Beth has a BA in Public Policy from the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and a Master’s in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.
John Ladd
Administrator
Office of Apprenticeship, USDOL Employment and Training Administration
John Ladd became Administrator of the Office of Apprenticeship in January 2008. As the Administrator, John has responsibility for oversight and activities related to the National Apprenticeship Act as well as the management of OA staff in the National Office, 6 Regional Offices, and numerous field offices across the country.
Prior to his appointment as Administrator, John served as the Deputy Administrator for the Office of National Response and the Director of Regional Management in the Office of Field Operations. John has received numerous awards and honors while at ETA including being selected for the inaugural class of ETA's Excellence in Leadership Program. John also has extensive experience in ETA's Regional Offices having spent a number of years in the Boston Regional Office working with workforce development programs in New England. John first came to the Department of Labor as a Presidential Management Fellow in 1993.
John also has experience at the local level of the public workforce system having worked in Boston, MA, and Stamford, CT.
A native of Boston, MA, Mr. Ladd received his bachelor's degree from Boston University and his Master's in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Mardy Leathers
Director
Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development
Mardy Leathers oversees the division of the Department of Economic Development that helps job seekers find gainful employment and provides businesses with a skilled, trained workforce. Mardy was appointed to serve as the director of the Missouri Division of Workforce Development in October 2017. Prior to becoming the director of workforce development, he served as executive director of the Center for Workforce Development at East Central College in Union, Missouri. There, he played a key role in launching the statewide Community College Workforce Development Network and oversaw the college’s business and industry training efforts, community education, healthcare career certification, and WIOA programs. Director Leathers is a former county clerk of Crawford County Missouri, and local economic developer and entrepreneur. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Southeast Missouri State University, a master of business administration from William Woods University, and is a doctor of management candidate with Webster University.
Adam Leonard
Director
Division of Operational Insight, Texas Workforce Commission
Adam Leonard is the Director of the Division of Operational Insight for the Texas Workforce Commission. While Operational Insight is responsible for federal, state, and local performance reporting, its broader mission is to use statistical analytic techniques to evaluate and help state and local policy makers improve the effectiveness of the Texas Workforce System.
Since joining TWC in 2003, Adam has worked extensively with federal, state, and local partners to improve performance accountability and reporting in both the Texas and national workforce systems. These efforts have included serving on the 2004 Integrated Performance Initiative which significantly influenced the performance measures contained in recently adopted Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act; spearheading Texas' effort to pilot the Workforce Information Streamlined Performance Report (WISPR) in 2005; redesigning WISPR in 2009 and 2012 for DOL and other pilot states; leading the National Association of Workforce Agencies’ evaluation of the performance and reporting aspects of WIOA; and working to help transition Title IV-related vocational rehabilitation programs from the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services to TWC.
Most recently, Adam, his staff, and others at TWC have embarked on an effort to use modern analytics, data visualization, and machine learning techniques to unlock TWC’s data and allow it to help TWC and its partners better meet the needs of employers, employees, and local communities in Texas. He also continues to influence the national conversation about the use of data in the Workforce System serving on the WIOA IT Steering Committee, a workgroup made up of state and federal staff from agencies responsible for WIOA Core and Partner Programs.
Kenneth Mall
Managing Director
Educational Data Systems, Inc. (EDSI)
Ken has more than 20 years of leadership experience working with top-tier companies, labor organizations, and government agencies identifying the skill needs of their workforces, and developing and implementing solutions to meet those needs. His vision and expertise in workforce development has helped organizations with notable growth in the technical skills of their skilled workers.
Nationally, Ken has been working with the public transit industry on certification and maintenance training standards projects as well as many joint labor/management training projects throughout the country. Ken holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a MS in Corporate Finance and Economics from Walsh College.
Denice Miller
State Coordinator for Apprenticeships and Experiential Learning
Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
Katie McClelland
Professional Staff
U.S. House of Representatives, Education and Labor Committee
Katherine is a professional staff person to the Committee on Education & Labor at the U.S. House of Representatives. She is experienced education and workforce development professional and has a history of working with employers and education partners to address and close the skills gap. Skilled in Policy Analysis, Public Speaking, and Project Management formed from a career of working in the public, foundation and non-profit sectors, with a Master of Public Policy (MPP) focused in Higher Education & Workforce Development from Georgetown University.
Ryan Nunn
Assistant Vice President
Community Development & Engagement, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Ryan leads applied research in Community Development and Engagement (CDE). Together with a team of CDE researchers, he looks for opportunities to improve outcomes for low- and moderate-income communities with the help of better evidence and analysis.
Before coming to the Bank, Ryan was a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and policy director for the Hamilton Project. In those roles, he conducted economic research on a variety of topics, ranging from unemployment insurance and occupational licensing to demographic and geographic disparities. Prior to that, Ryan was an economist at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Ryan received his undergraduate degree in economics from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. in public policy and economics from the University of Michigan.
Dr. George W. Putnam
Director of Labor Market Information
Illinois Department of Employment Security
George Putnam, Ph.D., has worked in the labor market information field for nearly 30 years, and has served as the chief economic analyst for the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) for more than 20 years. He is currently Director of Labor Market Information. His most recent initiatives have been in the use of administrative data for statistical research and, in particular, establishing inter-agency data infrastructures for linking workforce outcomes to training and education.
Beth Simone Noveck
Chief Innovation Officer
State of New Jersey
Beth Simone Noveck serves as the State of New Jersey’s first Chief Innovation Officer - a position she was appointed to by Governor Philip D. Murphy in August 2018. In this capacity, Dr. Noveck, a native of New Jersey, focuses on enhancing innovation in government and in the Garden State’s economy. Using better data, more collective intelligence and agile technology, her team leads projects, designs policies, and advises agencies on innovative strategies to improve the lives of New Jerseyans. Dr. Noveck serves as the Chair of the Governor’s Future of Work Task Force and sits on the Governor’s Jobs and Economic Opportunity Council.
In addition to her role as New Jersey’s Chief Innovation Officer, Dr. Noveck is a professor at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, a Fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, and is a Visiting Senior Faculty Fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. She also directs NYU’s Governance Lab, an action research center studying the impact of technology on governing. Previously, Dr. Noveck served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer, and as director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. UK Prime Minister David Cameron later appointed her senior advisor for Open Government, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel named her a member of her ten-person digital council.
She is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, and was named one of the “World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government 2018” by Apolitical. Previously, she was selected as one of the "Foreign Policy 100" by Foreign Policy as well as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company and "Top Women in Technology" by Huffington Post. Dr. Noveck has written multiple books, and has been published extensively, on how technology can improve governing.
Deniece Thomas
Deputy Commissioner
Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development
Deniece Thomas has been with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development since July 2007. She currently serves as Deputy Commissioner of Workforce Learning and Development. Mrs. Thomas has been involved in coordination of several federal programs during her tenure with the State to include Re-Employment services, Trade Assistance, SNAP E &T, Veterans Employment and others. Prior to her career with the State of Tennessee, she served as Program Manager for the Department of the Army. In addition, she worked as a Career Services Specialist for the Upper Rio Grande Workforce Development Board in El Paso, Texas and a Career Counselor for Workforce Essentials, Inc. in Clarksville, TN. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama Birmingham and a Master’s Degree in Civic Leadership from Lipscomb University. She serves as Chair of the Employment and Training Committee for the National Association of State Workforce Agencies and a member of the Veterans Committee. In addition, she is the State Workforce Liaison for the National Governors Association. She is also an alumni of LEAD TN.
Chris White
Associate Commissioner for the Future of Work
New York State Department of Labor
Chris has worked for New York State since 2012, previously leading the Department of Labor's Communications Office and later serving as Director of Communications for Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. He has been extensively involved in workforce development policy and has overseen several major statewide outreach and education campaigns including $15 minimum wage, closing the gender wage gap, subminimum wage and workplace sexual harassment prevention. In his current role, he focuses on updating workforce development systems and policy and monitoring trends in the workforce, working to modernize how we train workers for the jobs of tomorrow. Chris is a graduate of Ithaca College.
