Appendix_Q_STED TWG_18APR12

Appendix Q

STED Technical Working Group (TWG)

Appendix Q

STED Technical Working Group (TWG)

Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED)

Technical Working Group (TWG)

TWG Member Biographies

Burt S. Barnow, Ph.D. is the Amsterdam Professor of Public Service and Economics at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Dr. Barnow has over 30 years of experience as an economist in the fields of workforce investment, program evaluation, performance analysis, labor economics, welfare, poverty, child support, and fatherhood programs. He has a B.S. degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Dr. Barnow is currently co-project director for a study for the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) to analyze states’ experiences implementing workforce investment and unemployment insurance provisions of the Recovery Act, an evaluation of pilot projects to better connect unemployment insurance claimants with the workforce system, and an evaluation of a Gates Foundation initiative, Accelerating Opportunity, that is testing ways to improve adult education programs in selected states. Dr. Barnow also co-directed studies for ETA on the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the 1992 amendments to the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).

Gary Burtless holds the Whitehead Chair in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Burtless is coauthor of Five Years After: The Long Term Effects of Welfare-to-Work Programs (1995), Globaphobia: Confronting Fears about Open Trade (1998), Growth with Equity: Economic Policymaking for the Next Century (1993), and Can America Afford to Grow Old? Paying for Social Security (1989). He served five years as co-editor of the Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs and earlier served as associate editor of the Journal of Human Resources. Burtless has written numerous scholarly and popular articles on labor markets, income distribution, pensions, and the economic effects of Social Security, unemployment insurance, and taxes. Burtless graduated from Yale College in 1972 and received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. Before coming to Brookings in 1981, he served as an economist in the policy and evaluation offices of the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Michelle Derr is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research. Most of her work focuses on quick turnaround research projects used to describe a promising practice or document the implementation of a public policy. She has conducted site visits to welfare agencies and other social service programs in more than 80 communities in more than half the states and the District of Columbia. She specializes in evaluating employment and training initiatives targeted to public assistance clients, ex-offenders, individuals with disabilities, and other disadvantaged populations. Putting her knowledge into practice, she provides evidence-based technical assistance to states and local communities to help strengthen their performance outcomes. In addition to her work at Mathematica, she is currently an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Social Work, Northern Virginia Campus. She has taught a variety of courses including Research for Social Work Practice, Social Work and Social Justice, and Social Policy for Children and Families. She holds a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Utah.

Michael Hayes is the Deputy for Family Initiatives in the Child Support Division of the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of project developers, curriculum designers, program specialists, educators, and attorneys working to implement a family centered approach to child support. His work in child support includes the development of: statewide prevention education programming for teens, perinatal family support service interventions for unmarried couples, court/workforce/child support collaborations to help unemployed NCPs find work and pay child support, enhanced child support and parenting legal resources for military/veteran families, co-parenting resources for couples in the child support system, and family violence collaborations to help survivors of intimate partner violence access the child support system safely. Immediately prior to his work with the OAG, Michael helped create and was director of the Texas Fragile Families Initiative (TFF), a state-wide initiative bringing together more than 30 private foundations, multiple state agencies and community/faith-based organizations in 12 sites across Texas to support fragile families.

Feather Houstoun currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Wyncote Foundation of Philadelphia, for public media and journalism.  Since 2005, she has been the President of the William Penn Foundation, which works to advance the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region in the areas of children, youth and families, environment and communities, and arts and culture. Prior to joining philanthropy, Feather held a number of executive positions in regional and state agencies, including Treasurer of the State of New Jersey and Secretary of Public Welfare in Pennsylvania.  She was responsible for the implementation of welfare reform during the 1990s and helped found, in Philadelphia, the Transitional Work Corporation, a nationally-respected model for supported attachment to the workforce. The scope of her department's programs allowed cross-program coordination in enhanced transit and child care supports for TANF recipients, and attention to family-based challenges such as involvement in the child welfare system, Medicaid, and disabilities. 

Cliff Johnson is the executive director of the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families at the National League of Cities in Washington, D.C. In this role, Cliff is leading NLC’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of municipal leaders to meet the needs of children, youth, and families in their communities. Prior to his appointment as executive director of the Institute in 2000, Cliff spent three years as a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities working on the development of transitional jobs and other innovative approaches to job creation and welfare‑to‑work strategies. He also co-authored two books on labor and social policy while serving as a research associate with the late Sar Levitan at George Washington University's Center for Social Policy Studies. Cliff has a B.A. in Public Policy and Urban Affairs from Princeton University and an M.A. in Public Affairs from George Washington University.

Linda T. Johnson served as Assistant Commissioner of Career Development Services for the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) from 2005 - 2011. In this role, Ms. Johnson was responsible for developing and directing the Department's workforce strategies to provide all Georgians with the opportunity to succeed in the career path of their choice. Ms. Johnson had specific responsibility for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funded activities to include the Jobs for Georgia Graduates (JGG), a school-to-work program that assisted hundreds of “at-risk” youth to consistently achieve a graduation rate of ninety percent or higher and GoodWorks – Georgia’s Transitional Jobs Service Strategy, which assisted thousands of women in their transition from welfare-to-work. Ms. Johnson was also involved in the implementation of various special initiatives, such as Georgia Work$, the creative work-based training strategy which achieved a sixty percent placement rate and has been incorporated by President Barack Obama into the American Jobs Act legislation. Ms. Johnson graduated from Armstrong Atlantic State University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Work and from the University of Georgia with a Masters Degree in Social Work Administration. Ms. Johnson also has prior experience in the educational arena as a part-time social work instructor at Fort Valley State University and as an elementary school teacher in Savannah. Ms. Johnson was elected as the first African-American president of the Georgia County Welfare Association (GCWA) representing over 2000 state employees from 2001 - 2003. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., a member of the National Transitional Jobs Network Steering Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Atlanta Urban League.

Joseph T. Jones, Jr. is founder of the Center for Urban Families (CFUF), a Baltimore, Maryland nonprofit service organization established to empower low-income families by enhancing both the ability of women and men to contribute to their families as wage earners and of men to fulfill their roles as fathers. Prior to founding CFUF, Mr. Jones developed and directed the Men’s Services program for the federally funded Baltimore Healthy Start initiative and replicated the Baltimore affiliate of the nationally recognized STRIVE employment services program. Mr. Jones has received numerous awards and honors for his leadership and programming, including the Johns Hopkins University Leadership Development Program’s Distinguished Leadership Award. He currently serves on President Obama’s Taskforce on Fatherhood and Healthy Families and several boards including: the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board, and the National Fatherhood Leaders Group. He was a community advisor on fatherhood issues to Vice President Al Gore and contributed to First Lady Laura Bush’s Helping America’s Youth initiative. Mr. Jones is a Weinberg Fellow and a graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Lawrence F. Katz is the Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  His research focuses on issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. He is the author (with Claudia Goldin) of The Race between Education and TECHNOlogy (Harvard University Press, 2008), a history of U.S. economic inequality and the roles of technological change and the pace of educational advance in affecting the wage structure.  Katz also has been studying the impacts of neighborhood poverty on low-income families as the principal investigator of the long-term evaluation of the Moving to Opportunity program, a randomized housing mobility experiment. His past research has explored a wide range of topics including the U.S. and comparative wage inequality trends, the impact of globalization and technological change on the labor market, the economics of immigration, unemployment, regional labor markets, the evaluation of labor market programs, the problems of low-income neighborhoods, and the social and economic consequences of the birth control pill. Professor Katz has been editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics since 1991 and served as the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor for 1993 and 1994.  He has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society of Labor Economists.  Katz graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981 and earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985.

Julie Kerksick was recently appointed to head the Office of Economic Security by Executive Director Reggie Bicha. The Office includes programs that support low income Coloradans in a variety of ways, including Food Assistance, Colorado Works, energy assistance, refugee programs, child support, food distribution, and vocational rehabilitation. Previously, Ms. Kerksick was the Administrator of the Division of Family and Economic Security (DFES) in the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. She served in the position from July 2008, when the Department was formed, until January 2011.In that position, she was responsible for the oversight and administration of the W-2, Transitional Jobs, Child Support, Refugee Assistance and Community Service Block Grant programs. For twenty years previous to her appointment as DFES Administrator, Ms. Kerksick worked for The New Hope Project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, an organization that helped individuals find, get and keep jobs. Ms. Kerksick has spent her entire professional career working with and on behalf of unemployed and low-income workers. Ms. Kerksick also serves on the Steering Committee of the National Transitional Jobs Network and a work group on research for the federal Administration for Children and Families, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Sheila Maguire is the senior vice president for program effectiveness at Public/Private Ventures. In this role, Ms. Maguire works with practitioners and funders to develop innovative programs based on robust research about promising or proven practice and grounded in knowledge about the complex organizational or programmatic issues that arise during implementation. She oversees program design, pilot projects, demonstrations, replication efforts, and the provision of technical assistance and capacity-building. Ms. Maguire joined P/PV in 1999 to launch Working Ventures, an initiative designed to improve the practice of workforce development by producing accessible reports and guides as well as dynamic workshops and conferences. Prior to coming to P/PV, Ms. Maguire worked for Essex County College (ECC), a community college serving downtown Newark and the surrounding Essex County towns, where she led Newark's replication of the Training, Inc., model. She was responsible for customized training for employers, short-term job training programs, and welfare-to-work initiatives. Ms. Maguire serves on the board of the National Skills Coalition, a national coalition of community-based organizations, community colleges, unions, business leaders and local officials advocating for public policies that invest in the skills of America's workers. She holds a B.A. in adult learning from the Gallatin Division at New York University and an M.S. in organizational development from American University.

Anna C. Martin is the Manager of Research and Evaluation for REDF (formerly the Robert Enterprise Development Fund).  She has worked on program strategy, program evaluation, and applied research for 20 years both in the US and in sub-Saharan Africa. She received her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, and prior to joining REDF had worked for the University of California (Berkeley), The Public Health Institute, and the National Center on Family Homelessness (formerly the Better Homes Fund. At REDF, Anna oversees measurement strategies and impact evaluation for REDF’s portfolio of social enterprises, partnering with non-profits in our portfolio to track outcomes and employee experiences.

Dr. LaDonna Pavetti is the Vice President for Family Income Support Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In this capacity, she oversees the Center’s work analyzing poverty trends and assessing the nation’s income support programs, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Before joining the Center in 2009, Dr. Pavetti spent 12 years as a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., where she directed numerous research projects examining various aspects of TANF implementation and strategies to address the needs of the hard-to-employ. She has also served as a researcher at the Urban Institute, a consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on welfare reform issues, and a policy analyst for the District of Columbia’s Commission on Social Services. In addition, for several years she was a social worker in Chicago and Washington, DC. Dr. Pavetti has an A.M. in social work from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Amy Rynell has worked for Heartland Alliance since 1997 and currently directs two programs. As Director of the Social IMPACT Research Center, established in 1989 and best known for its reports on poverty, Amy provides research and analysis on today’s most pressing social issues to inform and equip those working toward a just global society. In addition, Amy serves as Director of the National Transitional Jobs Network (NTJN), a coalition of over 4,000 diverse organizations committed to advancing and strengthening Transitional Jobs programs for those with barriers to employment around the country. In her role with the NTJN Amy supports transitional jobs research initiatives, promotes policy change and oversees the development of technical assistance resources.  Amy is an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago. Amy received her BA from the University of Notre Dame and her MA from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.

Steve Savner is Director of Public Policy at the Center for Community Change and in that position he leads the Center’s policy and legislative activities.  From 1994 to 2004, he was a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) where his work focused on issues relating to federal and state welfare and workforce development policy, and on public job creation programs.  Mr. Savner has written extensively on these issues, and has testified before Congress, as well as before state and local legislative bodies.  From 1982 to 1994, Mr. Savner worked at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in Boston, Massachusetts specializing in advocacy and litigation regarding welfare, employment, job training, and child care policy.  From 1977 to 1981, he was an attorney at the National Employment Law Project in New York City where he specialized in employment discrimination litigation, and also worked on issues concerning unemployment insurance and job training policies.

Mindy Tarlow is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a New York-based nonprofit corporation that provides employment services to men and women with criminal convictions. CEO was created by the Vera Institute of Justice in the late 1970s and has been operating as an independent corporation since 1996. Ms. Tarlow began her association with CEO as a Program Director at the Vera Institute of Justice in 1994, where she managed the successful spin-off of CEO from Vera. Prior to joining CEO, Ms. Tarlow spent close to ten years at the New York City Office of Management and Budget where she rose from Senior Analyst in 1984 to Deputy Director in 1992. Ms. Tarlow guided many criminal justice projects during her tenure in government including co-authoring the Mayor’s Safe Streets, Safe City Omnibus Criminal Justice Program. Ms. Tarlow is Chair of the National Transitional Jobs Network; Vice Chair of the New York City Employment & Training Coalition; a member of the Prisoner Reentry Institute Advisory Board at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and served on the Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity. Ms. Tarlow is also an Adjunct Professor at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Ricardo Estrada

With over 25 years of higher education experience in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Estrada has worked in the community college and private education sectors in several positions such as Full Time Business, Accounting and Management Professor, Chair Person of Business and Management Department, Associate Dean of Student Services, Executive Dean for Finance and Administration, and Executive Campus Dean. He was responsible for overseeing the controllership offices and the internal auditing for the colleges. During his professional life Dr. Estrada has contributed in the development of several Adult Education, vocational and workforce development models that contributed to the career advancement of non-traditional student populations. Dr. Estrada is also the co-author of the “How to Build a Bridge Program that Fits into a Career Pathway” manual funded by the Illinois Community College Board, and the Joyce Foundation, under the Shifting Gears project. In this manual, Dr. Estrada introduced a model about how to contextualize adult education curricula to accelerate the learning of English and Math. Dr. Estrada’s experience in curriculum and program development has qualified him as a member of the Career Pathway Panel of Experts for the U S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, where he presented his extensive experience and work in Career Bridges and Pathways. Dr. Estrada has a Bachelor’s degree and MBA from North Park University of Chicago, and a Doctorate in Education from National Louis University of Chicago.

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