Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Data Integration & Management Conversation
April 23, 2013, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Summary:
This webinar will provide an opportunity for Workforce Innovation Fund grantees who
are implementing new or improved data integration and management systems, tools or
practices to ask questions and share solutions regarding their work.
The format of this webinar is designed to promote interactive conversation between
attendees and featured speakers. Rather than have a series of presentations followed by
question and answer, we will used LinkedIn to share background information and solicit
specific questions prior to the event. We encourage project staff and partners to join the
discussion on LinkedIn and tell us your goals for data integration and management, and
what questions would you like answered.
Speakers:
The discussion will be facilitated by Stephen Lynch of Jobs for the Future, who will be
joined by the following Workforce Innovation Fund grantees, partners and subject matter
experts:
• John Dorrer (Data Issues Subject Matter Expert, JFF)
• Dena Al-Khatib (Program Dev. Specialist, Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership)
• Marty Miles (Consultant to Chicago-Cook Workforce Partnership)
• Jennifer Keeling, (Dir. of Policy, Chicago Jobs Council)
• Jeffrey Gawel, (Dir. of IT, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago)
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Stephen Lynch
Stephen Lynch serves as a program director in JFF’s Building
Economic Opportunity Group (BEOG) helping to advance a
number of initiatives focused on promoting skills training for
America’s low- and mid-skilled workers—and preparing these
workers to succeed in traditional and emerging sectors of the U.S.
economy. He leads a team of coaches that provides programmatic
technical assistance to grantees of the U.S. Department of Labor’s
Workforce Innovation Fund. He also serves as BEOG’s
operations manager.
Mr. Lynch’s career spans law, workforce development, finance, education, and public
service. Before joining JFF, he served as a workforce program specialist for the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, providing guidance
and oversight to grantee states.
Prior to DOL, Mr. Lynch worked as an educator and union president in secondary
education. He previously served as contracts/grants manager, forming policies and
partnerships, and providing training and financial oversight on behalf of a local
Workforce Investment Area in Washington State. He also has experience in financial
advising, employment law, and immigration law.
Mr. Lynch has a JD from Lewis & Clark College Law School in Portland, OR, and a
Bachelor’s in political science from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
John Dorrer
John Dorrer is a program director in JFF’s Building Economic
Opportunity Group, which focuses on advancing the education and
careers of low-skilled adults and low-wage workers. He leads JFF’s
Credentials That Work initiative, helping states use real-time labor
market information and other longitudinal data to align their
education and training investments with the needs of dynamic
regional economies.
Mr. Dorrer has 30 years of experience in workforce development.
An economist and research administrator, his work has focused on workforce
development, human capital, and labor market policies at the state and local levels. He
came to JFF from the Maine Department of Labor, where he served as Acting
Commissioner and director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information for
eight years. He also served as deputy director of workforce programs at the National
Center on Education and the Economy, where he worked with America’s largest cities
and leading states to assess policies and practices and provided technical assistance and
consultation. He has consulted to the U.S Department of Labor, Employment and
Training Administration on labor market information systems development, capacity
building, and workforce strategies. For two decades, he was senior vice president of
Training & Development Corporation, a Maine-based nonprofit focused on workforce
and regional development.
Mr. Dorrer holds a Master’s in resource economics and a Bachelor’s in economics, both
from the University of New Hampshire.
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Dena Al-Khatib
Dena Al-Khatib is a Program Development Specialist
at the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership (The
Partnership). Al-Khatib came to The Partnership in
2012 with over 15 years of community development
experience, including economic development,
workforce, and affordable housing. She currently
manages a three-year, $3 million Workforce
Innovation Fund grant to increase the ability of The
Partnership, other workforce funders, and workforce
providers to make data-informed decisions about client services and programs by
designing, implementing, and testing a new client intake and assessment model and an
Integrated Workforce Information System. Al-Khatib also coordinates the Calumet Green
Manufacturing Partnership (CGMP), an $850,000 three-year collaborative initiative with
community colleges, community-based partners and economic development agencies to
develop a skilled manufacturing workforce in the south side of Chicago and south
suburban Cook County.
Prior to joining The Partnership, Al-Khatib served as the Program Officer for The
Partnership for New Communities Fund at the Chicago Community Trust where she
administered a portfolio of workforce, economic development, and research grants. She
managed Opportunity Chicago, a $27.5 million public-private initiative that placed over
6,000 public housing residents in jobs 5 years. She also coordinated several federally
funded projects including Chicago Neighborhood JobStart, an $8 million initiative that
placed nearly 1,600 Chicagoans in jobs during the summer of 2010, and two US
Department of Labor green jobs grants implemented through collaboratives that included
public agencies, community-based organizations, community colleges and employers.
At the City of Chicago, Al-Khatib served as the first executive director of the Chicago
Community Land Trust (CCLT) where she led the start-up of this quasi-governmental
entity created to preserve affordable homeownership opportunities. In her three and half
years with the CCLT Al-Khatib brought over 40 units into the portfolio and managed an
annual budget of $250,000. Before the CCLT, Al-Khatib gained experience in
community development financing at the Chicago Community Loan Fund, and
community planning and affordable housing development expertise at Bickerdike
Redevelopment Corporation.
Al-Khatib holds a Master’s of Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois
at Chicago and a Bachelor’s degree in Writing-Intensive English and Psychology from
Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is actively involved in her
community, serving on the boards of directors for West Town Bikes and the Rogers Park
Business Alliance.
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Marty Miles
Marty Miles is a consultant working with The Benchmarking
Project, a national initiative to support better use of data for
improvement and innovation in the workforce development field.
The project, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and
formerly housed at Public/Private Ventures, is working to identify
performance benchmarks for different kinds of workforce programs
and to create resources to support effective practice. Marty also
directs related Benchmarking Project work in New York City and
Chicago, supporting peer learning groups of community-based workforce development
organizations and assisting with local initiatives to align funder data reporting processes.
She is part of a team with Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Jobs
Council that is identifing requirements for an Integrated Workforce Information System
as part of the Chicago Cook County Partnership's WIF grant.
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Jennifer Keeling
As Director of Policy, Jennifer leads the development and
implementation of Chicago Job Council (CJC)’s policy priorities
aimed at improving the workforce development system for
disadvantaged job seekers. These priorities include: advocating
for effective use of public and private resources, working to
ensure effective alignment of systems, integrating workforce and
economic development, aligning adult education and workforce
development, expanding transitional jobs programs, and working
to remove labor market barriers to quality employment. She also represents CJC in largescale strategic efforts such as World Business Chicago’s Plan for Economic Growth and
Jobs and City Colleges of Chicago’s Pathways to Careers Initiative. Jennifer sits on a
number of taskforces and advisory councils, including the Chicago Cook Workforce
Partnership Service Delivery Committee, City Colleges of Chicago’s Community
Collaborators Group, and Inspiration Corporation’s Program Advisory Council.
Prior to joining CJC, Jennifer worked as a job developer and program manager at the
Coalition for the Homeless’ job training program for women in New York City. Jennifer
has a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from Middlebury College and a Master of Arts from
the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.
Data Integration & Management:
Summary & Speaker Biographies
Jeffrey Gawel
Jeffrey Gawel is the Director of Information Technology at Chapin
Hall at the University of Chicago, a non-profit research and policy
center focused upon improving the well-being of children and
youth, families, and their communities. In this capacity, Mr. Gawel
oversees the information technology operations of the organization,
including the management of various IT-related projects. Prior to
joining Chapin Hall in May 2011, Mr. Gawel oversaw technology
operations as the Sr. Director of Information and Technology
Services and in other IT positions at the Metropolitan Pier &
Exposition Authority (MPEA), a municipal corporation which owns the McCormick
Place convention center and historic Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois.
Since 2003, Mr. Gawel has also served as an Adjunct Lecturer for the Master of Public
Administration program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), teaching courses
on project management; e-Government; the management of IT; and databases and data
management.
Mr. Gawel received his Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from UIC in
1998. He also earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2003.
His main professional interests include: project management; open data and open
government; e-Learning; software and website design and development; data
management; and the overall use of technology to improve business operations.
A lifelong Chicago resident, Mr. Gawel currently lives in the Ravenswood neighborhood.