2024 Learning Day
Keynote Speaker
"Every Role Matters: Empowering Lives, Enriching Communities"
Dr. Sabrina W. Robins is a distinguished workforce development expert, business strategist, and community leader with over two decades of experience bridging the gaps between education, industry, and community needs. Her career spans local government, higher education, corporate leadership, and non-profit sectors, giving her a comprehensive understanding of workforce dynamics and community development.
As the Chief Architect of B.O.O.S.T. (Building Opportunities for Overlooked Sustainable Talent), Dr. Robins has pioneered an initiative that earned her and her partners the prestigious WEDA award for its significant impact on workforce development. Her expertise in creating sustainable community solutions for diversity, equity, and inclusion has established her as a thought leader. Her community engagement extends to various speaking engagements, including a TEDx talk titled "Building Back Better" (see below), which showcases her innovative approaches to community and workforce development.
Breakout Sessions
- DEFIE: Decolonial Futures in EducationLeading sessions: Queering Career Education, Supporting First Generation Professionals, Engaging Men of Color, and Mapping Transferable 21st Century Skills.
- Jessica Cooper, Coordinator of Workforce Development, City of EvanstonLeading the OAK Talks Session.
- The Kaleidoscope GroupLeading sessions: Creating Unity During a Divisive Landscape and Building a Workplace Culture of Trust.
- Margaret Van SteenderenLeading the OAK Talks session.
- Hace - Lynette Correa-VelezLeading the Oak Talks Session.
- Brenda Williams Managing Director of the Career Center at Depaul UniversityLeading the Oak Talks session.
Related Resources
Community College Leaders on Workforce Development by
This book has two things going for it that are rarely combined--it is fundamentally purposeful and it is useful. As the authors point out, there is a trilogy of needs confronting any business leader with a change agenda and/or transitioning into a new top role: influence, coalition building, and performance consulting. Of the three, performance consulting has received the least amount of attention in both the public and private-sector businesses. Because the focus on performance consulting rests primarily on the worker and the workplace environment, the authors contend that we must have a picture of how that environment has changed over the years. In this book, visionary leaders of community colleges will present their views about the present challenges and future approaches needed for community colleges to be successful.
ISBN: 9781475827415Publication Date: 2017-01-31
Workforce Development: the Key to Prosperity in the 21st Century by
For the century of approximately 1870 through 1970, America's ongoing industrialization brought growing prosperity to much of its citizenry and, after World War II, created a broad middle-class society. After the mid-1970s, however, de-industrialization or the movement of manufacturing production to other countries resulted in growing economic and social stress on many of the working class who did not possess a college education. Donald Trump was the first major U.S. politician to recognize this problem and promise to create "good jobs" for working-class Americans. Yet, his most dramatic policy initiatives in the areas of trade, immigration, and deregulation did not produce dramatic change during his first term. A more positive trend is bubbling up from state and local governments, with the encouragement (but not funding) from the Trump administration. This is the growing importance of workforce development programs, which seek to develop the skills necessary for America's 21st century economy through education reform, industrial apprenticeships, and tax incentives. Does the future of the national economy rest in safe arms with the new re-industrialization strategy and education reform? States and local governments must ascertain what mix of higher education reform, k-12 reform, career readiness, and high-tech training is the best equation for the growing workforce deficit and waning middle-class. In addition, education reform must consider high-tech automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence as a curriculum component in education reform. This policy area must be constructed in ways that not only broadens the middle-class but helps the victims of deindustrialization and reindustrialization. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the challenges facing the working class in the United States and an outline of the book. Chapter 2 describes the stage of industrialization (1870-1970) that created a middle-class society. Chapter 3 discusses the periods of deindustrialization (1970-2000) and reindustrialization in advanced manufacturing (early 21st century). Chapter 3 then analyzes the causes (globalization, organizational change, public policy, business strategy, and automation) and consequences (the emergence and shrinkage of a broad middle-class society) of the changing dynamics of industrialization. Chapter 4 presents a case study from the state of Alabama, demonstrating how manufacturing reduces inequality. Chapter 5 discusses how work-based learning programs promote racial diversity. Chapter 6 investigates modern apprenticeship and work-based learning programs. Finally, Chapter 7 considers the implications of this study and argues that workforce development policies hold the key to American prosperity in the 21st century.
ISBN: 1536188417Publication Date: 2020-12-14
Safe Enough to Soar by
Some organizations pay a great deal of attention to ensuring the physical safety of their team members, but do the team members feel safe enough to speak up and raise tough concerns? Share bold and still-in-formation ideas? In this book, bestselling authors and inclusion experts Frederick A. Miller and Judith H. Katz introduce the concept of "interaction safety" and demonstrate how it can help create a work environment of trust, inclusion, and collaboration. Interaction safety encourages reasonable risk-taking and inspires every individual to be brave enough to reach for higher goals and more ambitious possibilities. When interaction safety exists, people know they will not be penalized, ostracized, demoted, made small, discounted, or shunned because of their thoughts, contributions, and conversations. Individuals feel encouraged, empowered, and can achieve more together than they would alone. Miller and Katz provide a four-level model for assessing and increasing the interaction safety in organizations, illustrated by short scenarios taken from real-life situations. They offer concrete actions team members, leaders, and organizations can take to build and maintain a productive, collaborative, and innovative environment in which people do their best work individually and collectively. When interaction safety is a way of life, the energy people used to spend walking on eggshells, trying to get their ideas heard, navigating minefields, or avoiding those they distrust can instead be put towards doing their best work and winning bigger for the organization. With a culture of openness and true collaboration, both the organization and individuals can soar!
ISBN: 9781523098071Publication Date: 2018-11-06
Learning Beyond the Classroom: Engaging Stud in Info Literacy by
Co-curricular learning is an approach to teaching experiential learning using activities or programs for students outside of their coursework that include intentional learning and development. Co-curricular learning benefits from having clear learning outcomes as well as helping develop competencies that connect to students academic or career goals. It can be a way to engage students in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and have them begin to apply its concepts to all areas of their life and studies. Learning Beyond the Classroom explores activities that can help develop students; IL knowledge, stimulate them academically and creatively, and help them develop new skills. In four sections--Campus Connections, Employment Experiences, Innovative Initiatives, and Assessment Approaches--chapters illustrate different approaches to incorporating the ACRL Framework concepts and how best to measure a students success to demonstrate the value of the co-curricular activities. A students development within their chosen discipline prepares them for a future career, but it is the transferable skills they acquire through experiential activities that demonstrate their full understanding of the concepts taught. Learning Beyond the Classroom can help librarians include information literacy concepts within co-curricular activities and prepare their students to apply critical thinking to everyday pursuits.--
ISBN: 9780838947739Publication Date: 2020-02-20
Leaders Eat Last by
The highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed bestseller Start With Why Simon Sinek's mission is to help people wake up every day inspired to go to work and return home every night fulfilled by their work. His first book, Start With Why, offered the essential starting point, explaining the power of focusing on WHY we do what we do, before getting into the details of WHAT and HOW. Start With Why became an instant classic, with a loyal following among Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, governments, and the highest levels of the U.S. Military. Now Sinek is back to reveal the next step in creating happier and healthier organizations. He helps us understand, in simple terms, the biology of trust and cooperation and why they're essential to our success and fulfillment. Organizations that create environments in which trust and cooperation thrive vastly out perform their competition. And, not coincidentally, their employees love working there. But "truly human" cultures don't just happen; they are intentionally created by great leaders. Leaders who, in hard times, would sooner sacrifice their numbers to protect their people, rather than sacrifice people to protect their numbers, are rewarded with deeply loyal teams that consistently contribute their best efforts, ideas and passion. As he did in Start With Why, Sinek illustrates his points with fascinating true stories from many fields. He implores us to act sooner rather than later, because our stressful jobs are literally killing us. And he offers surprisingly simple steps for building a truly human organization.
ISBN: 1101623039Publication Date: 2014
Career Pathways: From School to Retirement by
Numerous transformations have taken place in the workplace during the past several decades, combining to produce a dramatically different career landscape for individuals, educators, and organizations. Career pathways is a workforce development strategy that can be used to support career development activities and transitions across school and work roles. Adopting a career pathways framework and approach can help guide educational institutions in teaching students competencies that will increase their employability and can also help organizations develop people strategically, build engagement, and improve retention. In this book, a wide variety of critically important career pathway topics are addressed, including the role of career technical education, apprenticeships, and career support in career pathways; proactivity and career crafting; the gig economy and emerging career pathways; the role of data analytics in providing career and workforce insights; and career pathways for late career workers. It includes case study chapters that provide important practical insight into the development and use of career pathways in both educational and workplace settings. This book brings together leading workforce researchers and practitioners to provide new perspectives on school-to-work and workplace career pathways. It shows how career pathways can help individuals and organizations succeed in today’s workplace and in the workplace of the future.
ISBN: 0190907797Publication Date: 2019
