Ms. Conway has headed up workforce research at the Aspen Institute since 1999. As director of the Workforce Strategies Initiative, she is responsible for leading a team of researchers and consultants in a variety of initiatives to identify and advance strategies that help low-income Americans gain ground in today's labor market. Under her guidance, WSI has grown and expanded the range of its activities to support the field of sectoral employment development. Her vision has led WSI to take on new initiatives that mirror the growth and expansion of the sector approach nationally, including projects that seek to assess the value of sector work to business partners, to shed light on the ways in which sector programs support constituents in their struggles to overcome a range of personal and systemic barriers, to create a framework for and document approaches to systems change, to understand the potential for greater collaboration among community colleges and community-based organizations, and much more. Ms. Conway was named deputy director of Aspen's Economic Opportunities Program in 2001. Her previous experience includes consulting work on issues of social exclusion and community development practice for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and work for the U.S. Peace Corps, where she advised on the design, management, and monitoring and evaluation of the organization's economic development programs in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Ms. Conway is the author of numerous publications on industry-specific workforce development, including case studies, policy briefs and research reports. She also has presented findings from her research at various national and regional conferences. Ms. Conway holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University, a Master's Degree in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Holy Cross College.
Allison Gerber Research Associate, Economic Opportunities Program/Aspen
Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative
Contact: wsi@aspeninst.org
Ms. Gerber started as a Research Associate with WSI in August 2005. Since then, she has contributed to the design, research and publication of findings from survey research and learning projects about collaborative approaches to improving employment opportunities for low-wage adults using a sectoral workforce approach. In addition, she serves as a faculty member for the Sector Skills Academy and previously served as an evaluator on the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) "Building the Employer Infrastructure for Sectoral Strategies" initiative. Ms. Gerber came to WSI from American Community Partnerships (ACP), a national nonprofit workforce intermediary. She served as Staff Counsel & Director of Special Projects at ACP and oversaw ACP's Camden, N.J. and Philadelphia, Pa. workforce development programs focused on creating employment and small business development opportunities for low-income urban residents in the construction, health care, and hospitality industries. While at ACP, she also participated in a study of the short- and long-term implications of restructuring the City of San Francisco's workforce and economic development system, the purpose of which was to provide information on how to best organize, restructure and/or merge functions across city agencies in order to create a more efficient, effective and coordinated approach. Ms. Gerber's areas of expertise include strategic planning, local coalition building, policy development and technical assistance delivery. She holds a B.A. in American Studies and Public Administration from Sweet Briar College and a J.D. from Tulane Law School, and is member of the Maryland State Bar Association.
Ms. Blair is a senior consultant to WSI, providing assistance in the areas of evaluation, research and planning. She has served as lead researcher/evaluator on projects designed to promote learning about promising sectoral, poverty alleviation, and self-employment strategies employed by community-based programs nationwide. Her current work for WSI includes collaborating on Courses to Employment: Sectoral Approaches to Community College-Nonprofit Partnerships project, a project designed to provide better understanding of the potential for community college/CBO partnerships to advance opportunities for low-income workers. For seven years she was with the Economic Opportunities Program, where she served as Deputy Director. Her work has ranged from strategic grant-making, to primary research, to convening meetings of nonprofit program leaders, to information dissemination targeted to both practitioners and policy makers. She is the author of numerous publications, and has presented findings from her work in a wide range of forums. Ms. Blair holds a Master of Science in Community and Regional Planning and a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin.
Linda
Dworak-Muñoz Senior Consultant, Economic Opportunities Program/Aspen
Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative
Contact: wsi@aspeninst.org
Ms. Dworak-Muñoz is a senior consultant to WSI, conducting research, evaluation, planning and training for a range of projects aimed at understanding and supporting approaches to advancing labor market opportunities for disadvantaged workers. Her current work includes serving as WSI’s lead staff to operate the Sector Skills Academy in collaboration with Public/Private Ventures, and collaborating on a project to highlight integrated approaches that assist low-income workers by combining workforce and economic development strategies. Ms. Dworak-Muñoz has substantial experience in workforce and economic development in the United States and Mexico. As the former executive director of the Garment Industry Development Corporation (GIDC), a consortium of industry, labor and government seeking to sustain and improve jobs in the New York apparel industry, she helped define the field of sectoral employment development. She brings her rich experience as a sector practitioner to her work with WSI. Ms. Dworak-Muñoz also has provided consulting services to the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation on economic and educational issues in Central America and the Caribbean. She holds a Master's Degree in International Affairs with a specialization in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University and a Post-graduate Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Columbia School of Business.
Mr. Alisultanov is a consultant with the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. He has worked both in the consulting and university environments and has many years of experience in data analysis, statistical research, evaluation and teaching. While at Aspen, he has provided primary data analysis and research assistance for a number of projects including: MicroTest; the CDP data collection initiative; the Welfare to Work Learning Evaluation; the Sectoral Employment Development Learning Project; CDFI; and the Courses to Employment demonstration. Mr. Alisultanov has a Master’s Degree in Economics from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in Economics from American University.
Jackie Orwick Director of Information Systems, Economic Opportunities Program/Aspen
Institute
Workforce Strategies Initiative Contact: wsi@aspeninst.org
Ms. Orwick is the Director of Information Systems for the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. She manages all aspects of the format, usage and administration of EOP’s program Web sites. She coordinates program bulk e-mail communications and tracks Web-page traffic. She has also designed and conducted trainings on data collection tools. Ms. Orwick holds a B.A. in Management Studies from the University of Maryland. She also is the technical advisor to EOP regarding all aspects of computer and Web-related issues, recommendations for upgrades and troubleshooting.
Print
this Page