National Skills Coalition (NSC) and Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships (BLU) has convened an Infrastructure Industry Recovery Panel of industry leaders to share recommendations on the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better initiative and other major infrastructure proposals through meetings with White House advisors, the Departments of Energy and Transportation, and Congressional leadership.
Consistent with our Inclusive Economic Recovery framework, we want to ensure these initiatives help address: the disproportionate impact of the economic crisis on workers of color, immigrants, and workers with a high school diploma or less; the essential role of businesses who hire locally and invest in their people but need policymakers to be their partner; and the moral and economic imperative to dismantle structural racism within workforce education and training. Skills training alone will not ensure an inclusive recovery, but it must be part of our nation’s federal policy response.
Robin Arredondo-Savage, Councilmember, City of Tempe, AZ
Kim Becicka, Vice President, Continuing Education & Training Services, Kirkwood Community College
Earl Buford, CEO, CAEL
Juliet Ellis, Chair, Water Agencies Leaders Alliance
Jamal Jessie, Workforce Development Manager, Georgia Power
Victoria Johnson, Global Equity Director, HDR
Mark Kessenich, CEO, AGC of Greater Milwaukee
Kelly Kupcak, Executive Director, Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc
Clyde McQueen, CEO, Full Employment Council
Daniel Mosser, President, West Virginia Northern Community College
Ali O’Neill, Secretary-Treasurer/Project Manager, O'Neill Construction Group
Michelle Rafferty, Chief Strategy Officer, Detroit at Work
Debra Rowe, Ph.D, President, U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development
Beverly Scott, Founder/Chair, Introducing Youth to American Infrastructure, Inc.
Traci Scott, Vice President of Workforce Development, National Urban League
Grant Shmelzer, Executive Director, Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) Chesapeake Chapter
Sue Griffith Smith, Vice President of Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering and Applied Science, Ivy Tech
Elizabeth Toups, Director of Utilities Training Programs, Jewish Vocational Service
Jason Walsh, Executive Director, Blue Green Alliance
Portia Wu, Managing Director of U.S. Public Policy, Microsoft
Jim Young, Senior Director for Congressional Relations, HR, Labor and Safety, Associated General Contractors of America
IRP Perspectives: People-Centered Infrastructure
Read key recommendations from our Infrastructure Industry Recovery Panel experts offered to the Biden administration and Congress.
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Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery
A call to action that will drive our organization’s work over the next two years, Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery is a set of generation-defining investments in inclusive skills policy that contribute to addressing the disproportionate impact of the economic crisis on communities who have long suffered inequities.
Learn MoreNSC and BLU have also convened three other Industry Recovery Panels:
Release: NSC and BLU convening workforce advisory panels
A group of nearly 60 national business leaders, labor leaders, community college leaders, industry training providers, and others will serve on four industry recovery panels that will advise the Biden administration and Congress on federal recovery policies in the coming months.
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