NSC Announces 2010 Skills Champion.

 
National Skills Coalition Announces 2010 Skills Champion

Recognizes San Francisco JVS Executive Director Abby Snay
for Efforts to Move the Skills Agenda Forward

WASHINGTON, DC – As part of its 2011 Skills Summit—an annual event bringing together local business, labor, college and workforce leaders from across the country to Washington, DC to discuss federal policy and meet with Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill—National Skills Coalition announced San Francisco Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) Executive Director Abby Snay as its 2010 Skills Champion Award Recipient.

Abby Snay and NSC Executive Director Andy Van Kleunen

NSC’s annual Skills Champion Award recognizes a Coalition member who’s exceptional organizing and advocacy efforts have moved the skills agenda forward in their state or in Washington, DC over the past year. Abby Snay receives the 2010 Skills Champion award for her tireless efforts to advance a broad national skills agenda and for embodying the Coalition’s mission to seek an America that grows its economy by investing in its people, so that every worker and every industry has the skills to compete and prosper.

Abby’s advocacy and work to host then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for a site visit at JVS during the summer of 2010 played an instrumental role in moving the SECTORS Act through the House of Representatives with unanimous bi-partisan support.

NSC Executive Director Andy Van Kleunen presented Abby with the award, remarking that "Abby is always ready to respond to requests for help. She shows up to every call and meeting. She asks for our input in her engagements with policymakers, including for a meeting with Speaker Pelosi that we think was pivotal in the advancement of the SECTORS Act. And while that would have been plenty, she even agreed to co-chair this year’s Annual Appeal. Abby is the total package, and we can can’t thank her enough for her efforts to advance a national skills agenda."

Abby began her career with San Francisco Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) 35 years ago as a part-time counselor to high school students and served as Assistant Director for several years before becoming Executive Director of JVS in 1984.

In 2010 and 2008, the San Francisco Business Times named Abby one of the Bay Area’s 100 Most Influential Women. Under her leadership, JVS received the Achievement in Employment Award by the Mayor's Committee for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities in 2000 and the Enterprise Foundation’s Award for Excellence in Workforce Development in 2001.

In addition to serving on National Skills Coalition’s Leadership Council, Abby also sits on the Steering Committee of the California EDGE Campaign, the Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF), and the Workforce Advisory Taskforce of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. She was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to the Universal Health Care Council in 2006, as well as the Employment, Education and Training Committee and the Business Advisory Committee of the Mayor’s Welfare Reform Task Force in San Francisco. Abby has served on the Mission Bay Community Advisory committee and the San Francisco County Leadership Board of the United Way, and has participated in the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership San Francisco Program and the IAJVS Executive Director’s Council.  She served on the San Francisco Workforce Investment Board and its Executive Committee from 2000 to 2008.

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National Skills Coalition is a broad-based coalition of employers, unions, education and training providers, and public officials working toward a vision of an America that grows its economy by investing in its people so that every worker and every industry has the skills to compete and prosper.