President, Mary Wolf-Francis, Community Liaison, DIRTT Environmental Solutions

Mary Wolf-Francis has 25+ years professional experience building public private partnerships in the education, workforce and economic development arena at the local, state and national levels. With a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University and a Masters Degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix, she seamlessly leads private and public sector entities toward common goals such as the creation of a YOB (Your Own Business) Fair™ and the Arizona Energy Consortium. As a Business Liaison for the City of Phoenix she kept her finger on the pulse of emerging industries delivering industry intelligence to job seekers, tracking our local talent pool, identifying key training opportunities, and working with hiring companies as our state emerges from the recession. In October of 2011 Mary transitioned to Community Liaison for DIRTT Environmental Solutions where she continues to be actively involved in the community and with Career Connectors. The Phoenix Business Journal named her one of the top 25 women business leaders in January of 2012

Vice-President, Jennifer Swenson, VP HR, Education Management Corporation (EDMC)

Jennifer Swenson is a dynamic, global Human Resources leader with a passion for driving business success through people. Jennifer is currently Vice President of Human Resources for Education Management Corporation’s (EDMC) Online Higher Education Division. Prior to joining EDMC in June of 2012, Jennifer spent two years with Power-One as the head of HR for their Phoenix start-up operations. Jennifer spent 20 years in the Semiconductor industry in Human Resources, Program Management and Operations positions at Freescale Semiconductor and Motorola. Jennifer has spent six years of her Human Resources career working and living in Geneva, Switzerland and Glasgow, Scotland. Jennifer holds her MBA and Masters in Program Management from Keller Graduate School and a BS in Business Operations from DeVry. Her community involvement includes St. Vincent de Paul, coaching kid’s basketball at the YMCA and serving on the Pastoral Council at the Parish of St. Benedict in Chandler.

Treasurer, Brian Mohr, Co-Founder & VP of Growth, Y Scouts

Brian began his post-college career in July of 1995; however, Brian believes his real career started in February of 2000. Joining a small employment technology start-up by the name of Jobing.com, Brian was lucky enough to be one of the founding members of the company and spent more than 10 years building the company from a small handful of employees to more than 375 with revenues reaching north of $37MM. Building the Jobing.com team and consulting with thousands of employers, Brian quickly recognized that people are the only real competitive advantage in business. Even more powerful, Brian realized if employees and companies connected on their bigger mission or purpose (the ‘Why’), the probability for success grows exponentially.

Fast forward to early 2012, Brian connected with Max and Brett and together they decided to create a new search firm dedicated to connecting people and companies whose ‘Why’ are in alignment. As a founding member of Y Scouts, Brian passionately believes the high currency in today’s employment market is meaningful work, not just a paycheck.

Secretary, Sandi Ashton, Leadership/Development Coach, Optimizing Excellence

Sandi is a charismatic and influential leader, who is successful in coaching leaders and teams to create visible change in their lives. She is the President of Optimizing Excellence a company founded to share her passion for organizational and people development. Sandi has 32 years of accumulated experience in leading organization health for profit and nonprofit companies including operations and administration. She has a unique ability to build cohesive teams, which is the foundation of any successful organizations.

Sandi is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst and Leadership Trainer. She is a trainer and presenter of the DISC behavioral assessment, pursuing additional certifications expanding the why behind the how of behavior.

Prior to joining the Board of Directors, Sandi served as the Chief Connections Director of Career Connectors, instrumental in providing leadership in the structural development from grass roots to 2013.

Kathie Gadberry, Chief Development Officer, Phoenix Dream Center

Kathie has a passion for connecting people with causes that are important to them.  She is a hands-on executive leader with ability to develop vision.  She has held a variety of positions, all of which have been fundraising related, at both start up and well established national nonprofit organizations.  Her enterprising spirit and extensive fundraising and management experience have been put to good use in the launch of two start up nonprofit affiliates.  Kathie developed and promoted their brand and image and grew them into successful and sustainable organizations.  Kathie graduated, Magna Cum Laude from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s of Science in 2002.  Prior to graduating, Kathie was raising funds and awareness for NGO’s in Munich, Germany and Pentyrch, Wales where she lived and raised her family.  Currently, Kathie is the Chief Development Officer for the Phoenix Dream Center.

She is actively involved in supporting many causes including human trafficking, job readiness for women that have been incarcerated and mentoring young low-income families.

By far, her greatest accomplishment has been her two daughters who also have a heart for helping hurting people.

Joanie Hollabaugh, Senior Director of Marketing, Ledgerwood Associates, Inc.

Joanie has a unique blend of strategic executive with tactical proficiencies, specializing in technology and distribution verticals. She is exceptional in identifying marketing gaps, brand renewal, product launches, identifying and penetrating new verticals, and creative direction. An open communicator with a collaborative and mentoring style, Joanie enjoys the challenge of marketing for start-up ventures.

Certifications from Pragmatic Marketing in “Practical Product Management” and “Effective Product Marketing” make her a disciple of understanding market personas and solving business problems.

With a background in graphic design, she raises the bar for design standards, insisting on agency-quality creative even on a bootstrap budget. Her portfolio includes projects that span all marketing channels, including traditional collateral, writing and PR, web design, demo/video production, and GUI designs.

Her passion for marketing is contagious; she is most happy leading a team in results-driven go-to-market strategy.

Jessica Pierce, Executive Director, Career Connectors

Jessica Pierce is the Executive Director of Career Connectors and also the President of Accelerated Team Dynamics, LLC (ATD), it’s where Competence + Character + Chemistry makes the right Culture Match. ATD is comprised of 3 areas: Training and Development, LTD Staffing (recruiting and staffing for companies), Thrive139(hiring, organizational development, people development for churches).

She is a known speaker, trainer and career transition expert. Jessica brings a strong corporate background in organizational development techniques, career coaching, DISC behavioral assessment, training and development, pre-employment assessments, outplacement services and hiring.

Jessica recently spoke at The White House in the Forum on Job Clubs in United States, her focus being on employer engagement. She was also named as one of Phoenix’s 40 Under Forty in 2011, the premier program honoring the best young leaders in the Phoenix metro market and then also an award nominee for the 2011 Phoenix Chamber of Commerce’s Athena Awards. Jessica has been featured in the Arizona Republic, on NBC Channel 12, ABC Channel 15, SimplyHired and multiple other radio and newspaper outlets

Karen Smith, VP of People Development, Telesphere

Karen has over seventeen years of progressive human resource management and development experience. She is the VP of People Development at Telesphere, a business communication solution provider, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona .

Karen is currently serving as the President of the East Valley Human Resources Association (EVHRA), which is a local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She is also going into her fourth year as a member of the Junior Achievement of Arizona’s “JA You’re Hired” workforce readiness event committee. She received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Arizona and has executive training in International Management from the St. Gallen Management Institute in Switzerland and Strategic Human Resources from Cornell University.

Gil “G.W.” Williams, Senior Talent Adviser, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel Corporation

Gil “GW” Williams is an energetic, old school talent advisor with a passion for sourcing, recruiting and career counseling. He is currently the Sr. Talent Advisor for Intel’s Sales & Marketing Group here in Chandler, Arizona. GW has been with Intel for a little over 6 years but has 22 years of Technology Talent Acquisition, Staff Augmentation, Human Resources and Organizational Development experience, complemented with Business Management and Operations expertise. GW has over 15 years of corporate and firm-level technology talent acquisition expertise and has worked for such companies as: Motorola, CapGemini, CDI Aerospace (formerly CDI Engineering Services) and various technology consulting firms in the valley. He has worked in the capacity of Director of Recruiting, Recruiting Manager and Sr./Lead Recruiter. GW is also a veteran of the US Air Force where he spent 7 years in various Human Resource roles including Chief, Consolidated Base Personnel Office (equivalent to an HR Director) at a large air force base. GW holds a Masters in Human Resource Development from Webster University and a BA in Mass Communications from New Mexico State University. His community involvement includes being a member of the Archer/Ragsdale Arizona Chapter of the Tuskegee Airman, and has previously coached high school basketball here in Gilbert.

GW is also the co-owner of “My Cleaning Lady”, a local residential and commercial cleaning service.