Speakers

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Alphabetized by last name.

B

Tameshia Bridges Mansfield

Vice President of Workforce and Regional Economies at JFF

Tameshia Bridges Mansfield is vice president for workforce and regional economies at JFF. She oversees workforce development and future-of-work initiatives with an eye toward innovation and system transformation.

Her skills and areas of expertise include:

Strategy development
Fundraising
Systems change
Racial equity and justice analysis and practice
Collaboration and community engagement

Before joining JFF, Tameshia was a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she led the workforce development and job access portfolio, addressing barriers that workers face in securing meaningful employment.

Earlier in her career, she spent 1O years at Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, where she engaged with legislators, employers, workforce organizations, and other stakeholders while advocating for changes to raise the visibility and improve the job quality of direct care workers.

Tameshia is a co-chair of the board of the Clean Slate Initiative and a member of the boards of the Detroit Justice Center and the Chicago Jobs Council. She previously served as co-chair of Workforce Matters, where she was instrumental in the creation of the Racial Equity Framework for Workforce Funders.

“I was drawn to this role because I recognize that this moment calls for innovative solutions that are equity-centered and serve the interests and needs of workers, employers, and communities to address the disparities and challenges that COVID-19 and the past year of racial reckoning have exposed,” Tameshia says. “I can’t wait to work with and learn from current partners, engage new ones, and collaborate with the talented and committed team at JFF in the transformative work ahead of us.”

Outside of work, she says, “I mostly spend time with my family: my husband, Joe, our daughter, Elise—a curious and energetic toddler—and my mother. When I get time to myself, I love listening to podcasts, reading, gardening, and sharing a good meal and adult conversation with girlfriends.”

D

Brooke DeRenzis

Chief Strategy Officer at NSC

Brooke DeRenzis is the Chief Strategy Officer, where she advises the CEO on strategic opportunities and leads staff in the development, alignment, and implementation of National Skills Coalition’s network, policy, and communications strategies. Prior to her role as Chief Strategy Officer, Brooke was National Skills Coalition’s Managing Director of State Strategies, where she launched numerous multi-state initiatives, including the Skills State Policy Advocacy Network (SkillSPAN) — a first-ever nationwide network of state coalitions expanding skills training for thousands of people through state policy changes.

Brooke’s policy and organizing expertise, publications and partnerships with local community organizations, workforce practitioners, business leaders, and workforce advocates have helped educate policymakers and shaped workforce policy solutions that continue to make a meaningful impact for workers, businesses, and communities.

Prior to joining National Skills Coalition in 2014, Brooke was a Project Director at DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, where she led advocacy efforts on a range of public policy issues facing the District of Columbia, including workforce development and postsecondary education. She has also held research positions with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

Brooke holds a master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s from Sarah Lawrence College. She is based in Washington, DC.

F

Paul Fain

Journalist at The Job

Paul Fain writes The Job, a newsletter about connections between education and work. He also recently helped found a new weekly publication, Work Shift, which features in-depth reporting on workforce issues. For the last decade, Fain was a reporter and editor at Inside Higher Ed. He oversaw the news outlet's coverage of nontraditional students, policy, and more. Fain also was the founding host of the successful podcast, The Key with Inside Higher Ed, and managed IHE's coverage of the pandemic in 2020. 

Before IHE, Fain was a senior reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he covered leadership and finance for more than six years. A former staff writer for C-Ville Weekly in Charlottesville, Va., Fain has written for The New York Times and contributed chapters for books on innovation in higher education, published by the Harvard University Press and the Stanford University Press. A graduate of the University of Delaware, he is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and currently lives in Takoma Park, Md.

H

Angela Hanks

Chief of Programs at Demos

Angela Hanks is Chief of Programs at Demos, where she works with the Legal Strategies, Movement Building, and Policy & Research teams to build and advance towards achieving a just, inclusive, multiracial economy and democracy. Prior to joining Demos, Angela served in the Biden-Harris Administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor, where she worked to advance worker-centered policies that lead to quality jobs for all workers, particularly those who are marginalized. Her work has been cited in various publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Atlantic and was previously a regular contributor to Forbes.com.

Angela brings with her deep experience in advancing progressive policies in the nonprofit and government sectors. Prior to joining the Administration, Angela was Deputy Executive Director at the Groundwork Collaborative, where she worked to advance an equitable, people-centered vision for the economy. She has also held roles at think tanks and policy organizations where she has written extensively about how to make the labor market more inclusive of marginalized workers.

Angela began her career on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to the Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, and later became a counsel on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

Angela earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from George Washington University and her law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law.

J

Broderick Johnson

Executive Vice President, Public Policy and Executive Vice President, Digital Equity at Comcast

Broderick oversees the company’s Public Policy team and holds overall responsibility for Comcast’s role in the digital equity space. Comcast is a leader in solutions to bridge the digital divide, and Broderick works closely with our partners in government and other stakeholders to support our shared goal of connecting as many Americans as possible to the Internet, and to shape our corporate policies that allow our businesses to continue to grow and innovate.  

Broderick has more than three decades of experience as a lawyer, policy advisor, and political strategist, most recently with the international law firm of Covington & Burling. He has served under two U.S. Presidents, as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs under President Clinton, and as Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Cabinet under President Obama. Broderick also served as chief counsel for several committees in the U.S. House.

Broderick is a highly respected and trusted leader in Washington D.C. and across the nation, and he has advised hundreds of clients on a wide array of policy issues, including telecommunications and tech matters.  He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of the Holy Cross. He sits on numerous boards, including the boards of directors of the Obama Foundation, the Black Economic Alliance, and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. He also chairs the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Advisory Council.

K

Anne Kress

President at Northern Virginia Community College

Anne M. Kress is the sixth president of Northern Virginia Community College, a role she began in January 2020, after a career of almost three decades in higher education that includes serving as a tenured faculty member in English and in numerous academic administrative roles at community colleges in Florida and New York. At NOVA, Kress focuses on fulfilling the college’s commitment to equity in opportunity and its promise that every student succeeds, every program achieves, and every community prospers.

Kress serves on the boards of higher education groups including the American Council on Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, and the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity. She serves on a program advisory board for the University of Maryland Global Campus and on the board of Generation Hope, which supports the success of student-parents. Kress co-chaired the most recent Virginia Community College System strategic plan, Opportunity 2027, for which she received the Dana B. Hamel Award, the highest honor the system bestows. She has also testified before Congress and served as a negotiator on federal regulations on higher education.

Kress is active in the Northern Virginia region, serving on the boards of the Consortium of the Universities of the Washington Metro Area, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. She sits on the steering committee of Connected DMV’s Regional Economic Development Strategy and is a member of the Economic Club of DC and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Kress is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington; was named by the Washington Business Journal as a 2021 “Women Who Means Business”; and has been named to the Virginia Business 500 and the Washington Business Journal Power 100 each year since joining NOVA.

Kress earned two bachelor’s degrees, in Finance and English; a master’s degree in English; and a doctorate in Higher Education Administration, all from the University of Florida. She has been honored by her alma mater, Phi Theta Kappa, the New York State Senate, YWCA, and the American Association of University Women, among others. She is married to Ned Davis, and they have two children in college.

Stewart Knox (Invited)

Secretary at California Labor and Workforce Development Agency

Stewart Knox was appointed Secretary of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency in December 2022. He brings 28 years of statewide experience in workforce and economic development.

Before his appointment, Knox was Undersecretary of the Labor & Workforce Development Agency since 2021 and previously served in this role from 2019 to 2020. He served as Senior Vice President of Calbright Community College from 2020-2021, Executive Director of the California Employment Training Panel from 2014 to 2019, Director of Health and Human Services for Nevada County in 2014 and Director of Economic and Workforce Development for San Mateo County from 2013 to 2014. Secretary Knox was Director of the Northern Rural Training and Employment Consortium from 2009 to 2013 and Executive Director of the North Central Counties Consortium from 2006 to 2008. He was Director of Workforce for the City of Glendale from 2004 to 2006 and for Yuba Community College from 1997 to 2004.

Secretary Knox has been instrumental in transitioning several workforce development entities into productive, performance-based, and accountable organizations. With his broad multi-functional experience base in a large matrix of managed organizations, Secretary Knox has extensive knowledge of the complex interactions between workforce and economic development. His extensive leadership experience and knowledge of organization development concepts and theories provide him a solid foundation to assess and manage complex organizational issues such as strategic planning, team dynamics, and conflict management.

Secretary Knox is a native of Vina, California and earned a bachelor’s degree from Chico State.

L

Rep. Andy Levin

Distinguished Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress

The Hon. Andy Levin is a distinguished senior fellow with American Progress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 to 2023, representing Michigan’s 9th District. Before serving in Congress, Levin created and ran a statewide market to help Michigan businesses and nonprofits obtain favorable financing to deploy renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. From 2007 to 2011, Levin served as deputy director and acting director of Michigan’s Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth, and as Michigan’s first chief workforce officer. Serving during the bankruptcy of major auto companies and the Great Recession, Levin created and ran Michigan’s breakthrough No Worker Left Behind program, which helped over 162,000 unemployed and underemployed Michiganders go back to school to obtain new credentials and launch new careers.

In the Clinton administration, Levin worked in Secretary of Labor Robert Reich’s office to fend off Speaker Newt Gingrich’s (R-GA) efforts to weaken worker protections and served as staff attorney for the president’s Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations. Around his stints in government, Levin spent many years helping workers organize and bargain for a better life, first for five years with the Service Employees International Union, then in the United Auto Workers Health and Safety department, and finally for 11 years as assistant director of organizing for the national AFL-CIO, where he created and ran programs such as Union Summer and the Voice@Work Campaign, which launched the Employee Free Choice Act in the 2000s.

Levin is an honors graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School, and he earned a master’s in Asian languages and cultures at the University of Michigan, where he was a Mellon Fellow in the humanities.

S

Katie Spiker

Managing Director of Government Affairs at NSC

Katie Spiker is the Managing Director of Government Affairs at National Skills Coalition, where she works to advance NSC’s Washington-based policy efforts through federal legislation, agency regulation, and national funding initiatives. As a workforce policy expert, Katie works closely with members of Congress and their staff, as well as Cabinet agencies – like the Departments of Labor and Education – to develop and implement bipartisan workforce policy solutions to help workers and businesses succeed. Katie also partners with state and local workforce leaders to elevate their advocacy efforts to lawmakers in Washington.

Katie has authored numerous publications on workforce policy issues and her policy expertise, insights, and commentary have been cited and published in local and national media outlets, including CNN, The Hill, Bloomberg, Morning Consult, Inside Higher Ed, The Hechinger Report, IndustryWeek, San Diego Union-Tribune, and many other outlets.

Prior to joining NSC in 2015, Katie was the Associate Director of the National Center for Women’s Employment Equity at Wider Opportunities for Women where she managed the design and provision of on-site and virtual technical assistance and the creation of case studies and policy briefs related to nontraditional occupations and occupational segregation. Katie has also consulted with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the National Women’s Law Center. She served as policy counsel for Workplace Flexibility 2010 and the National Partnership for Women and Families as a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow. Katie is a 2015 Ford Foundation Public Voices Fellow.

She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. She is based in Washington, DC.

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Jennifer Stiddard

Senior Fellow at NSC

She holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami. She is based in Washington, DC.

U

Rachel Unruh

Chief of External Affairs at NSC

Rachel Unruh is the Chief of External Affairs at National Skills Coalition, where she develops initiatives that support strategic partnerships that advance the organization’s agenda and reach new audiences. Rachel leads NSC’s public opinion research efforts and was the chief strategist for Voices for Skills, a campaign to mobilize working people, students, teachers, and business leaders to educate policymakers and 2020 candidates about overwhelming public support for a new national investment in skills training. In 2021, she led the development of NSC’s Industry Recovery Panels, which advised the Biden administration and congressional leaders on skills policy to support an inclusive economic recovery. She currently leads NSC’s Digital Equity @Work campaign.

As a workforce policy and communications expert for two decades, Rachel has written on skills policy, politics, and public opinion and is a trusted, nonpartisan resource to local and national media, including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, MSNBC, Morning Consult, and The Guardian.

Rachel served as NSC’s Chief of Staff for ten years, leading the development and implementation of NSC’s policy, organizing, advocacy, and communications strategies. She joined NSC in 2006 to develop and lead Skills2Compete, a national campaign endorsed by hundreds of organizations that made the case for a 21st-century skills guarantee to address the demand for U.S. workers with middle-skill credentials. Replicated in 13 states, the campaign brought jobs that fall between a high school degree and a college degree to the attention of the public, policymakers and the media, and helped inform policy changes at the state and national level.

Prior to joining National Skills Coalition in 2006, Rachel served as Director of Community Relations and Senior Policy Associate at Chicago-based Women Employed, a leading national advocate for women’s economic advancement. Rachel’s work included policy analysis and advocacy to increase access to and success in higher education for low-income women.

Rachel holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell College. She is based in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

V

Andy Van Kleunen

Chief Executive Officer at NSC

Andy Van Kleunen is the Chief Executive Officer of National Skills Coalition, which he founded in 2000 in collaboration with leaders from the workforce development and philanthropic communities. As a nationally recognized expert on workforce and education policy issues for more than two decades, Andy serves as a trusted, nonpartisan resource to state governors, members of Congress, White House officials, and state and federal agencies – helping policymakers develop and implement workforce policy solutions that expand economic opportunity for every worker, every business, and every industry.

Andy has testified before Congress, spoken at White House policy forums, and his policy expertise, insight, and commentary have also been cited and published in national media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, CNN, CNBC, The Atlantic, Axios, The Hill, US News & World Report, and many other outlets.

Andy has led the National Skills Coalition to become a nationally recognized voice on behalf of a variety of stakeholders—including business leaders, labor leaders, community colleges, community-based organizations, and leaders from the public workforce system—who have come together to advocate for an America that grows its economy by investing in people.

Prior to founding the Coalition, Andy was Director of Workforce Policy for the national Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, where he worked with employers, unions and client advocates to improve job quality and training for low-wage workers within the nation’s long-term care sector. Andy also spent over 14 years in community organizing and development efforts within several of New York City’s low-income and working-class neighborhoods.

He is a member of the Postsecondary Value Commission, formed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in partnership with the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP).

Andy holds a master’s degree in urban sociology from the Graduate Faculty at the New School for Social Research, and a bachelor’s degree in political science and honors studies from Villanova University. He is based in Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

W

Randi Weingarten

President of American Federation of Teachers

Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, a union of 1.7 million teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators. The AFT is dedicated to the belief that every person in America deserves the freedom to thrive, fueled by opportunity, justice and a voice in our democracy.

Prior to her election as AFT president in 2008, Weingarten served for 11 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system, as well as home child care providers and other workers in health, law and education. Weingarten taught history at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood from 1991 to 1997, and helped her students win several state and national awards debating constitutional issues.

Weingarten was included in Washingtonian’s 2021 Washington’s Most Influential People, and in 2013, the New York Observer named Weingarten one of the most influential New Yorkers of the past 25 years.
Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Cardozo School of Law. She worked as a lawyer for the Wall Street firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986. She is an active member of the Democratic National Committee and numerous professional, civic, religious and philanthropic organizations.

Born in 1957 and raised in Rockland County, N.Y., Weingarten now resides in the Inwood neighborhood
of New York City.

Melissa Wells

Special Assistant to the President of North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU)

Melissa Wells serves as Special Assistant to the President of NABTU. Wells comes to NABTU with an extensive policy background. In her role, Wells works closely with international affiliates, state and local councils, as well as industry partners, with a particular focus on all matters related to workforce development and career pathway programs. She will also coordinate and advise on activities throughout the country to develop, integrate and articulate NABTU’s prioritization of diversity and inclusion through policy advancement and recruitment and retention strategies.

Prior to joining NABTU, Wells served the Baltimore-DC Building Trades Council for 7 years as Baltimore Director, leading the growth of Apprenticeship Readiness Programs and community partnership development.

She currently represents the 40th district in the Maryland House of Delegates and serves as Assistant Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Whip, and 1st Vice-Chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland.

Jermaine Williams

President of Montgomery College

Dr. Jermaine F. Williams became the president of Montgomery College on February 28, 2022. The Montgomery College Board of Trustees has formed a Presidential Transition Advisory Committee (PTAC) to assist Dr. Williams in his role as the new College president.

Dr. Williams’ work in higher education has focused his energies on improving access for students, as well as retention, graduation, and post-completion success. He has paid special attention to mitigating institutional societal and racial inequities, strategically creating programs and policies that support historically underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. He has years of experience designing, managing, and enhancing institutional and statewide programs and initiatives that have yielded positive student outcomes.

Dr. Williams has been widely lauded for his inclusive leadership style and for building teams that create strategic programing and policies to improve student outcomes. His professional approach to student success is deeply rooted in equity-minded systems and data-informed analysis. Dr. Williams’ view of higher education as a public good informs his personal passion about enhancing access, completion, and post-completion success, goals that are shared across Montgomery College. Read more about Dr. Williams.