Funder: Support from Pew Charitable Trusts Fuels Our Ongoing Expansion
Employer Partner: The Evolution of Our Partnership with UPenn Health System from COVID to Careers
Participant: How Graduate Michael Nguyen Found the Confidence to Become a Scientist
Facilitator: Earning Valuable Confidence and Support from Facilitator Kala Baxter
Staff: Director of Operations Lauren Talley Will Figure it Out
Employer Partner: Pushing into Life Sciences with Iovance Therapeutics, Inc.
Executive Coach: A Desire to Make an Impact for Executive Coach Alex Richardson
Participant: Alum Yolanda Brown is No Stranger to Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Field
Employer Partner: Pushing our Boundaries to Forge a Relationship with SEPTA A New Brand and Identity for Our Next Chapter
Skills Initiative By The Numbers
Select Employer Partners / Collaborative Partners
Past and Present Funders
University City District’s Board
University City District’s Staff
Greetings from The Skills Initiative
Since its formation in 2010, the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative has dreamed big and delivered even bigger. From a founding aspiration to bring University City employers together to source neighborhood talent for key positions to its present-day role as a dynamic regional workforce engine, our journey is one of relentless evolution and achievement.
In the early days, University City District (UCD) focused exclusively on the physical transformation of our community. Yet, we soon recognized that investing in place necessitated a parallel investment in its people. Moreover, we believed deeply that UCD’s powerful partnerships – with anchor institutions and neighborhood organizations – could translate into the kind of employer-driven, community-fueled workforce effort that changes lives and workplaces at scale. That faith in collaboration and belief in community has been rewarded again and again.
While place-based organizations have boundaries, human capital does not. West Philadelphia is and always will be our anchor, our heart, and our home, but our impact now extends throughout the city and beyond. Our partnership with the Philadelphia Industrial Development
Matt Bergheiser President University City District
Corporation (PIDC) has enabled us to operate a satellite job training program at Philadelphia’s booming Navy Yard. Additionally, our leadership in the Keystone LifeSci Collaborative has broadened our reach across Southeastern Pennsylvania, demonstrating our commitment to shaping a vibrant, inclusive regional economy.
Continuous growth is an imperative for our participants and graduates. As such, we are excited to announce a new chapter in our evolution. The West Philadelphia Skills Initiative is now The Skills Initiative. We are driven to build on our success to craft bold workforce solutions that shape Greater Philadelphia’s future. We are inspired by the resilience and achievements of our graduates and the steadfast support of our employer partners. We can’t wait to show off the unstoppable talent that exists in every community in the region.
As we move forward under our new name, we remain dedicated to our core mission of connecting talent with opportunity and driving positive change through collaboration and innovation. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey.
Cait Garozzo Executive Director e Skills Initiative
Support from Pew Charitable Trusts Fuels Our Ongoing Expansion
In March of 2017, The Skills Initiative received significant and thrilling news: The Pew Charitable Trusts had selected us for an advancement grant of $600,000 to expand our program over the course of three years. At the time, this was the third investment from Pew—following a seed investment in our program’s earliest stages in 2011 and a second gift in 2014—and at the time, the largest single gift we had ever received.
We were honored that one of Philadelphia’s most renowned funders had continued to see the value in our work. We used the funds to increase the number of local residents we trained in our core employment pipelines, to expand our employer partnerships so we could connect to University City’s entire ecosystem of growth, and to create new job opportunities fueled by the economic power of our institutional partners.
In July of 2022, Pew called again. This time, they informed us The Skills Initiative would be the recipients of a $3.5 million growth grant through the Pew Fund for Health and Human Services (Pew Fund). This 5-year grant would support our continued geographic expansion, allow us to double down on successful partnerships at the Navy Yard and explore new opportuni-
ties including programs with Iovance Biotherapeutics and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division, and push forward our efforts to focus on job quality and building new pathways for continued advancement for Skills Initiative alumni.
Kristin Romens, director of the Pew Fund, said of the grant at the time, “Pew is pleased to support University City District, which is contributing to the economic mobility of Philadelphians at this critical moment in our region’s emergence from the pandemic. Our growth grant recognizes that, as a large city with big opportunities and challenges, we need effective programs like The Skills Initiative operating on a larger scale.”
Pew’s generous gifts each came at pivotal moments in The Skills Initiative’s evolution. The first gift, in 2011, helped us get started. The 2014 gift assured us we were on the right path. The 2017 gift helped us to set our sights on meaningful expansion within University City. And the 2022 grant arrived just as we were truly scaling up to regional growth following successful partnerships outside our own neighborhood. We are indebted to Pew and would not be where we are today without their belief in us throughout our history.
EMPLOYER PARTNER:
The Evolution of Our Partnership with University of Pennsylvania Health System from COVID to Careers
Like most health systems in the fall of 2020, the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) faced a major challenge: keeping pace with demand for COVID testing across nine sites throughout Penn’s campus. The solution was simple: partnering with The Skills Initiative to train and hire frontline employees from their own neighborhood who were dedicated to their work and motivated to succeed.
In order to formalize the partnership, The Skills Initiative worked with UPHS to remove degree requirements from the roles to open them up to more local candidates without college degrees, ensuring them that the custom training we’d develop together would teach the required skills. And secondly, we wanted to make sure the employees who were hired would have opportunities to continue working with UPHS when the need for testing died down.
According to Jennifer TerMaat, MSHRD, PHR, SHRM-CP, Associate Chief Human Resources Officer for Corporate Services, the partnership allowed UPHS to “Provide solid job opportunities with good pay and good benefits to individuals from the community who are raising their hands, who see the ability to give back to the community and help our patients.”
The recruitment launched on October 23 rd, 2020, and training consisted of two-and-a-half-weeks of self-paced classroom content and small group work sessions, paired with about 40 hours of hands-on technical experience. At the conclusion of the training, UPHS had hired 50 new lab assistants to process COVID samples to meet the urgent needs of the community.
Since the first lab assistant program in 2020, The Skills Initiative has run 12 additional cohorts bringing neighbors into UPHS across a variety of administrative and clinical roles including Patient Service Associates, Certified Medical Assistants, and Certified Nursing Assistants. Beginning in 2021, we introduced incumbent worker training called the Pathway to Promotion program (P2P), to address the needs of current UPHS employees looking to grow within the health system. Since then, we’ve run four P2P programs, connecting 95 UPHS employees to engaging and meaningful professional development work, high value coaching, and thoughtful career mapping efforts connecting them to their next role at UPHS.
PARTICIPANT:
How Graduate Michael Nguyen Found the Confidence to Become a Scientist
Lost. Stuck. Living paycheck to paycheck.
These are common ways that Skills Initiative participants describe their situations before joining our program, and they certainly apply for Southwest Philadelphia native Michael Nguyen. The son of Vietnamese immigrants, Michael struggled to find a career path for himself. He enrolled at Penn State to study business but didn’t complete his degree, and had been making ends meet through a long list of jobs that didn’t offer career advancement.
When Michael learned The Skills Initiative was recruiting for a program built in partnership with The Wistar Institute to prepare participants for roles as research technicians at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he applied without much hope of getting selected. He never thought of himself as particularly good at science and worried he would flunk the math exam required to be accepted. To his surprise, he passed and was accepted, kicking off what’s become a whirlwind year.
Soon Michael found himself in a Wistar Institute training lab with other participants wrangling mice, measuring zebrafish, growing heart cells, handling liquid nitrogen, and earning extensive hands-on experience. According to Michael, “This program has taught me
not just the fundamental science to thrive but to put myself out there, gains skills, make connections, be professional, and most importantly, to believe in myself.”
Michael used this newfound confidence to deliver remarks at the program’s closing ceremony, a milestone where graduates receive certificates, pose for photos, and connect with their fellow participants and Skills Initiative staff before they learn whether they have been hired for the roles they trained for. During his remarks, Michael shared how he never considered a career in science, stating, “If you told me that I will be a scientist working on projects to potentially change people’s lives a year ago, I would’ve told you the earth must also be flat.”
A year later in October of 2024, Michael celebrated his first full year of working in CHOP’s labs. He has been promoted to acting lab manager. He hopes to return to college with CHOP’s help to finally finish his degree. And for the first time in his adult life, Michael sees a career path for himself. He feels indebted to The Skills Initiative, to Wistar’s Biomedical Technician Training Program, and to CHOP, and truly believes the experience has changed his life.
FACILITATOR:
Earning Valuable Confidence and Support from Facilitator Kala Baxter
We work with a roster of talented coaches and facilitators to provide extra value to the participants in our programs. One of our favorite facilitators is Kala Baxter, who with her husband Juan makes up Those Baxters LLC, a professional development and life and career coaching company.
“Our main purpose is to help people to go from surviving to see what living and thriving look like,” Kala says. The Baxters seek to empower people through trainings and workshops based on specific soft skills and transferable skills. The pair began working with The Skills Initiative in 2017, and they split duties: Kala uses her background in theater and communications to drive her workshops, while her husband Juan uses his experience as a relationship counselor. The Baxters use games and discussion groups to connect with participants, sharing similar lived experiences to gain trust and draw people out of their shells to begin believing in themselves and boost their self-esteem.
One activity Kala enjoys involves having people write down four words on a name tag about how they want to be perceived when they walk into an interview, encouraging positive words they may not usually associate with themselves. “They may say something like ‘confident,’ ‘friendly,’
‘approachable,’ or ‘talented,’ four positive things that they want people to see. They then introduce themselves to the other people in the group by saying, ‘Hello, I’m talented, confident, creative,’ whatever is on the list.” During the activity, Kala likes to play the song “Golden” by Philly native Jill Scott as she watches the participants gain more confidence and start thinking about themselves in a new light.
Kala also offers continuing one-on-one coaching services for graduates after they complete their training and begin the next steps on their careers. “For many people, they’re learning about themselves, they’re learning about this new job, they’re learning a growth mindset but during that time, they need the support where they can talk through what is going on in their lives so they can learn how to focus at the job or on what they want out of life.”
For Kala, what sets The Skills Initiative apart is the true care our staff has for participants. “You can see the joy the staff gets from seeing participants succeed,” Kala says. “It’s not just a connection to the job, it’s a connection to a new life, not only for themselves, but for their families. And working with an organization that has the same values as me and my husband really matters to us and is part of what makes the Skills Initiative different.”
STAFF:
Director of Operations Lauren Talley Will Figure it Out
If you visit the office of Lauren Talley, The Skills Initiative’s Director of Operations, you’ll see a framed image that reads “F.I.O.” It’s short for “figure it out,” Lauren’s personal motto. Is there a part of the recruitment process that’s not working? Lauren will figure it out. Does an employer partner want something altered? Lauren will figure it out. It’s this sort of can-do attitude, combined with a mix of friendliness and unwavering tenacity, that has led to Lauren earning two promotions during her short time with The Skills Initiative.
Lauren credits her parents, who have always done social service work, for instilling her passion for helping others. After graduating with an M.S. in Industrial Relations and Human Resources, she began a career path in workforce development. Of her first position, Lauren says, “I was working with individuals who were required to come to a program, but needed additional resources, encouragement, and support to connect to employment and to start their journey towards self-sufficiency. I learned skills what I transferred to the work I’m doing at The Skills Initiative.”
She spent over a decade in workforce development before applying for a role with us in 2021. Lauren knew of The Skills Initiative’s great reputation when she applied, but what most excited her was a lack of red tape when it came
to getting things done—Lauren is the type who excels when she has the freedom to innovate and problem-solve. Lauren was hired as our Manager of Employment Services where she maintained and grew our employer relationships, supported targeted recruitment efforts, served as a liaison between our employer partners and our programming, and lent her expertise to grow our impact within our employer partners’ organizations.
In July of 2024, Lauren was promoted to the role of Director of Operations, where she provides operational leadership including overseeing data management and quality while also developing processes and workflows to improve efficiency and efficacy. She also leads ongoing evaluation processes and implements continuous improvement in partnership with the entire team.
And while Lauren loves the day-to-day involvement in our operations, she’s looking forward to doing more big-picture strategizing over the next few years to make our results even stronger. “We all work really hard, but I want us to also work smarter so we can continue to find great talent who stay at the jobs they find, improve our pipelines to career success, and make a difference in people’s lives.” And we know she’ll figure it out.
EMPLOYER PARTNER:
Pushing into Life Sciences with Iovance Therapeutics, Inc.
As The Skills Initiative has progressed, we’ve sought new partnerships in growing industries with the potential for high-paying, career ladder positions. In 2022, we launched a new collaboration with The Wistar Institute, PIDC, The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia Works, and others to develop a first-of-its-kind program to connect people without college degrees to jobs in life sciences that would have previously been unavailable to them.
Our first life sciences employer partner was Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company headquartered at the Navy Yard pioneering a transformational approach to treating cancer by harnessing the ability of the human immune system to recognize and attack diverse cancer cells in each patient. The training was developed in partnership with The Wistar Institute and modeled after their highly successful Biomedical Training Program (BTT), which began in 2000 but was accelerated as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic when demand increased for well-trained laboratory technicians and research assistants in the Greater Philadelphia region.
During a 22-week paid program, participants gained skills needed to become associate aseptic manufacturing
technicians, a role responsible for maintaining a sterile lab environment, assembling sterile products, stocking supplies, and documenting processes of biomedical manufacturers in supporting the creation of life saving cell therapies.
11 graduates were hired by Iovance for roles paying $23 an hour, and the collaboration’s success earned a Workforce Champion award from BioBuzz, an organization focused on storytelling, programs, and events to create impact across the life sciences workforce in growing biohubs.
“Working with The Skills Initiative allowed us to introduce a wider, diverse range of Philadelphians to new technical skills and career options in biotech,” says Jamie Crawford, Iovance’s VP of Commercial Manufacturing. “We’ve been thrilled to see this program succeed so far and serve as a model to our industry peers to increase inclusivity within the biotech workforce.”
As of October of 2024, we’ve executed an additional three cohorts with Iovance and Wistar using this new model. We look forward to continuing this partnership as we collaboratively work to develop additional innovative and inclusive training models for this groundbreaking industry.
EXECUTIVE
COACH:
A Desire to Make an Impact for Executive Coach Alex Richardson
Alex Richardson first connected with The Skills Initiative because he wanted to make a difference. In 2020, Alex was working as an alumni career coach at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious business school, when the murder of George Floyd rocked our nation. The tragic event and the subsequent national conversation inspired him to make a positive impact in Philadelphia for “more people who look like me.”
After researching The Skills Initiative, he reached out to Cait Garozzo, explaining that he wanted to volunteer. They discovered they had a lot in common, including middle class upbringings and similar values, and Alex convinced Cait to let him assist with an alumni strategy to engage graduates and to help develop virtuous cycles for them after finishing their cohorts. Meanwhile, Alex took a position with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and enrolled at Georgetown University to pursue an executive certificate in leadership coaching.
In 2021, Cait called with an opportunity. The Skills Initiative was developing a new program called Pathways to Promotion (P2P) that aimed to help both Skills Initiative alumni and other incumbent workers at Penn Medicine receive training and strategies to help them move
into managerial roles, and Cait asked for Alex’s help. He jumped at the chance, agreeing to be one of the inaugural coaches and also enlisting others from his network to coach as well.
Through coaching, Alex discovered he could help peerto-peer cohort members shift their mindsets and aspire for more career success. He found that participants needed to overcome societal narratives that said they didn’t deserve success because they came from an underrepresented or underserved background. “It was about more than getting this next job,” Alex says. “They’re so in survival mode it’s hard for them to find fulfillment in their work. We had to get them to combat that narrative from within so they could thrive and change their career trajectories.”
The first Pathways to Promotion program’s success has led to three subsequent editions with more on the way. And while Alex acknowledges the impact he’s had on Skills Initiative graduates to further their economic empowerment, he also wants to highlight how The Skills Initiative has created joy for him in return. “I’ve volunteered for and worked with a number of nonprofit organizations, and I’ve never seen one that is as thoughtful, robust, intentional, and impactful as The Skills Initiative.”
PARTICIPANT:
Alum Yolanda Brown is No Stranger to Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Field
Skills Initiative alum Yolanda Brown is no stranger to women working in a mostly male-dominated field. Growing up, her mom worked in construction, and one of Yolanda’s jobs before joining The Skills Initiative was as a Philadelphia police officer. So, when Yolanda found herself as the only woman in an Industrial Trades Program offering training for roles with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) based at the Navy Yard, she wasn’t intimidated.
“Maybe a sprinkle nervous,” Yolanda says about her first day in training for a role as a Navy electrician. “I wouldn’t say it was scary because I was already a cop, which is a male dominated field, but a little nervous until I became familiar with everyone.”
Yolanda learned about The Skills Initiative from a friend who was part of an EMT cohort and raved about her experience, and Yolanda began applying for any opportunity that sounded like a good fit. “I was thinking about the medical field,” she shares, “But I applied to the Naval role and was accepted.” Yolanda didn’t have a specific interest in being an electrician outside of enjoying putting things together and taking them apart, but she found herself liking the training for her specific role and was impressed with how we operate.
“The Skills Initiative sets you up to be successful,” she says. “They are attentive, they help with your resume and interview questions, and really help you overall be a better version of yourself.”
Yolanda’s cohort was our first partnership with NSWCPD, built as part of The Skills Initiative at PIDC’s Navy Yard in 2020. Placing Skills Initiative graduates at roles with the Navy is more complex than with other employer partners because all applicants must obtain security clearance to work on top secret projects in a secure location.
“Motors, what buttons to push, ships,” Yolanda answers when asked what sort of work she’s been doing, but we don’t have the proper clearance to know more. “I can’t really talk about it!” She does share that her electrician training is still ongoing a year after graduating and being hired in January 2024. She and the other graduates are now studying with Orleans Technical College to obtain industry & OSHA certifications, and when she’s finished, she’ll be eligible for a new title and pay bump.
Yolanda sees herself staying at the role for the foreseeable future. “So far I love this career,” she says. “There’s never a dull moment!” We launched our second partnership with NSWCPD in the summer of 2024 and look forward to working with them on additional roles in the future.
EMPLOYER PARTNER:
Pushing our Boundaries to Forge a Relationship with SEPTA
On paper, our partnership with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to create a cohort for training and hiring Bus Operators may seem straightforward, but the road to launching the first partnership in 2019 took a fair amount of trust and compromise to get off the ground.
When we first pitched a partnership to SEPTA, they were skeptical. According to retired Senior Director of Human Resources Jacob Aufschauer, SEPTA was frequently approached by different public and private agencies who offered staffing help but didn’t deliver on the results they promised, and at first, he believed The Skills Initiative wouldn’t be different.
SEPTA agreed to an exploratory call to discuss a potential partnership and they were impressed by our success rates, our persistence, our customized approach, and our processes. A series of similar meetings convinced SEPTA to partner with us if we could meet two major conditions: one, we would have to expand recruitment beyond our typical West Philadelphia borders to include applicants from across all of Philadelphia, and two, all participants would need to obtain a commercial driver’s license (or CDL) before being able to operate a SEPTA vehicle.
We agreed these were challenges worth meeting to partner with such a major regional employer providing high-quality, union jobs. We leveraged public dollars through Philadelphia Works to fund CDL training (conducted by Goodwill Industries of New Jersey and Philadelphia), setting up a new model allowing participants to emerge from The Skills Initiative with both a certification and foundational skills training, all while having earned a stipend. We also expanded our marketing reach to recruit across all of Philadelphia. The first cohort launched in April of 2019 and resulted in 9 out of 10 participants receiving offers for roles with SEPTA.
Since that first successful partnership, we’ve partnered with SEPTA an additional 13 times and have served 206 participants from across Philadelphia. SEPTA has come to recognize the value we provide, praising us for the quality of the candidates who come from our trainings.
According to Jeff Missan, SEPTA’s Director of Recruitment and Talent Management, “The Skills Initiative has delivered results and candidates that exceeded our early expectations, and we look forward to partnering with them for years to come to continue helping us staff the next generation of SEPTA.
A New Brand and Identity for Our Next Chapter
We are building on our story and impact to write the next chapter for The Skills Initiative. We have set out on a growth trajectory anchored by three pillars of our future:
• Growing geographically within the region
• Honing our industry focus
• Centering job quality and career growth
The growth and evolution of our vision has fueled the growth evolution of our brand from the West Philadelphia Skills Initiative to The Skills Initiative. We have rapidly expanded beyond the borders of West Philadelphia over the past few years, impacting new neighborhoods and new industries, and it was time to update and simplify our name. Although West Philadelphia is no longer in our name, it will always be our home. We will continue to be anchored in West Philadelphia, close to our University City District offices and founding major employer partners.
And our new brand necessitates a new look, developed with local branding agency Truth & Consequences and driven by a desire to match the quality of our visual presentation with the quality of our staff, services, and the talent of our participants. The different colored blocks in our logo, inspired by iconic Philadelphia landmarks and iconography, represent the many stakeholders who make our work possible, from employer partners to graduates to facilitators to funders. Our new primary color is the bright blue at the logo’s center and dotting the letter “i” in Skills, and represents how our services provide the “missing piece” for solving workforce issues, whether for employers or our participants.
We hope you enjoy our new visual identity and name, and we look forward to providing the same quality services our reputation has been built on.
Great companies are made of many individual parts.
And when a company is missing a piece to its puzzle,
The Skills Initiative helps find that missing piece.
THE END RESULT:
The Skills Initiative finds great companies for great people, and great people for great companies.
Gritty
Mango Water Ice
Rittenhouse Park
Ben Franklin Bridge
The El University City District
Hoagie Roll
Cherry Blossom
Schuylkill River
BY THE NUMBERS
1,898
Total participants served since 2011 20.36
Average number of weeks unemployed before joining the Skills Initiative 26 Total employer partners
$122M Total wages earned by graduates since 2011 89.9% Percentage of successful participants connected to employment 83% Percentage of participants retaining employment for 12+ months
$24M Lifetime grant funding $6.79
Average hourly wage increase for graduates in FY24 33.8%
Percentage of grads earning promotions or wage increases within first year of employment
SELECT EMPLOYER PARTNERS
COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS
PAST AND PRESENT FUNDERS
The Skills Initiative would not be possible without the continued support of our funders. Their funding has been instrumental in connecting over 1,500 opportunity seekers to jobs with clear career paths and family-sustaining wages since The Skills Initiative’s inception. Our thanks to the following organizations who have made substantial, enduring investments in our success.
Bank of America
The Barra Foundation
The Chappell Culpeper Foundation
Citizens Bank
The City of Philadelphia
Connelly Foundation
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation
The Hummingbird Foundation
JOIN
JPMorgan Chase
The Patricia Kind Foundation
Lenfest Foundation
Life Science Cares
Lincoln Financial Foundation
LISC Philly
Lubin Family Foundation
McLean Contributionship
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Philadelphia Foundation
Philadelphia Works
Philadelphia Youth Network
Santander Bank
United Way of Greater Philadelphia & Southern New Jersey
Wells Fargo
William Penn Foundation
Yield Giving
The Skills Initiative is grateful to University City District’s Board of Directors for supporting its founding, growth, and operations. We are thankful for our board members’ generous financial contributions to University City District and their partnership in building this organization.
UNIVERSITY CITY DISTRICT’S BOARD
Craig Carnaroli, Chair
Senior Executive Vice President, University of Pennsylvania
Joseph Trainor, Treasurer
Retired Chief Financial O cer, e Wistar Institute
Barry Grossbach, Secretary
Community Representative, Spruce Hill Community Association
Antonio Acevedo
Senior Vice President, Asset Management, HCP Medical O ce Properties
David Beaupré
CFO, Saint Joseph’s University
Daniel Bernstein
President and Chief Investment O cer, Campus Apartments
Tracy Brala
Senior Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships at University City Science Center
Mark Celoni
Vice President and O ce Director, Pennoni Associates, Inc.
Della Clark
President, e Enterprise Center
Jeff DeVuono
Executive Vice President, Life Science Division and Regional Managing Director – PA Region, Brandywine Realty Trust
Angela Dowd-Burton
Community Representative, Garden Court Community Association
Michael Froehlich
Community Representative, Cedar Park Neighbors
Ken Gedaka
Vice President, Communications and, Public A airs, FMC Corporation
John Grady
Northeast Region Executive and Senior Vice President of Development, Wexford Science + Technology
John Hinke
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial O cer, National Board of Medical Examiners
Sophia Holder
Chief Financial O cer and Executive Vice President, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Julie Ann Jones
Vice President and Chief Procurement O cer, Drexel University
Keith Kasper
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial O cer, Penn Medicine
Daniel Liberatoscioli
President, e Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College
Margaret Livingston
Community Representative, Walnut Hill Community Association
Mark Mills
Owner, Metropolis Group / 40th Street Live
Phil Moses
Principal, Vice President, INTECH Construction, Inc.
Anne Papageorge
Senior Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services at the University of Pennsylvania
Brad Paul
Co-Owner and General Manager, Central City & Ardmore Toyota
George Poulin
Community Representative, Powelton Village Civic Association
UNIVERSITY CITY DISTRICT’S STAFF
Matt Bergheiser President
A.J. Adams
Director of Strategic Partnerships, e Skills Initiative
Daniel Atik Career Specialist, e Skills Initiative
Patrick Bayer Director of Economic Mobility
Morris Burns
Manager of Applicant Experience, e Skills Initiative
James Carter Public Safety Account Manager
Joseph Dizenhuz Manager of Research and Analysis
Nick Edelman Vice President, Finance and Operations
Brian English Vice President, Green City Works
Salimah Fields
Finance and Administrative Coordinator
Cait Garozzo
Executive Director, e Skills Initiative
Alan Garry
Senior Vice President, Public Safety and District Services
Nathan F. Hommel Director of Planning and Design
Mimi In
Data Quality and Relationship Manager, e Skills Initiative
Erica Jorden Director of Human Resources
Kayla Kahan
Recruitment Coordinator, e Skills Initiative
Margaret Leidy Starke
Senior Manager of Events and Community Partnerships
Jazzmin Prosper Manager of Continuing Education, e Skills Initiative
Chris Richman Director, Marketing and Communications
Alvin Rios
Landscape Operations Manager, Green City Works
Morgan Rogers Burns Vice President of Advancement
Shawn Ryan Senior Designer
Caitlyn Shauger Outreach Service Manager
Maurie Smith
Managing Director, Keystone LifeSci Collaborative
Ryan Spak Manager, Project Rehab
Sarah Steltz
Senior Vice President of Strategy
Lauren Talley Director of Operations, e Skills Initiative
Dr. Romaine Thrower, M.Ed. Senior Director of Programs, e Skills Initiative
Giftie Umo
Program Manager, e Skills Initiative
Berri Wilmore Content Manager
Hanchao Zhang
Landscape Designer and Sales Representative, Green City Works
