Staff
Andy Beck
Andy is the Executive Director of School & Main Institute, Inc. He has worked for over 25 years creating community-wide strategies that impact young people, their families, and the communities in which they live. Andy has been involved in efforts that range from educational leadership and teaching to affordable housing and community development. Prior to working at School & Main Institute, he was the Executive Director of a training and development group that specialized in creative approaches to organizational development, staff supervision, and management. Andy has worked as a teacher, a building principal, and an instructor at the graduate level and is a former president of the Alternative School Alliance based in Massachusetts.

Sue Brown
Sue is School & Main Institute's Financial Manager. The co-founder of a local School-to-Career partnership in Summit County, Colorado, Sue is also a member of the Colorado Tech Prep/School-to-Career Advisory Board. She brings almost 20 years of financial management and small business ownership experience to the organization.

Kathy Flynn Woodland
Kathy is a Senior Field Services Manager at School & Main Institute. She brings over 18 years of experience in the fields of education and workforce development with extensive work on local, state and national policy, legislation & practice, including a focus on public/private community partnership development. Prior to working with SMI, Kathy was the Director of Partnership Development and Field Services for the Massachusetts Office for School to Work Transition, responsible for helping mobilize and build the capacity of community partnerships by providing technical assistance in strategic planning, system benchmarking, program operations, and continuous improvement methods. Kathy’s professional experience also includes both local and statewide management of at-risk and out-of-school youth programs, administration of youth and adult local Workforce Development efforts, administration of a non-profit rehabilitation center, and as an archaeologist in the Hudson River Valley and Guatemala.

Diane Loud Gorman
Diane joined School and Main Institute in September 2008, as a Senior Project Manager.  She brings to this position the skill and ability to help coalitions and partnerships form and advance their work in supporting youth.  Current projects include the Boston Campaign for Proficiency and the Shared Youth Vision.  Prior to joining School and Main Institute, Diane worked at the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston, providing training, technical assistance and support to providers of employment services for individuals with disabilities.  In this role, she also provided technical assistance and support to partnerships developed across state agencies, as well as working extensively with employers in their efforts to become engaged in workforce development initiatives. 

Gwendolyn Rodriguez
Gwendolyn is a field manager for School & Main Institute responsible for supporting community, state, and national partnerships working on behalf of youth. Prior to joining School & Main, Gwendolyn served as Community Coordinator for The Health Care for All Disparities Project, working with health care stakeholders across the state of Massachusetts on strategies for ending racial and ethic health disparities. She also served as Assistant Project Director for Voces de West Tampa, a community visioning and strategic planning effort, and as a health and safety instructor for the Tampa Bay Red Cross. Gwendolyn holds a B.A. from the University of Florida and is completing her Masters in Government and International Affairs from the University of South Florida. While there she spent a semester abroad in Cuba exploring religious symbolism and folklore and a semester abroad in the Netherlands.

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Constance Davis
Constance R. Davis is a skilled facilitator with more than twenty years of experience in the design and implementation of programs at the neighborhood, municipal, state and national level. Her work has included the management of a range of initiatives in the areas of housing, community development, workforce development, adult education, and youth services. She has served as the Assistant Director of the City of Boston's Public Facilities Department where she managed the city's community based rental assistance, home rehabilitation, and housing counseling initiatives. She also served as Assistant Director of Boston's Jobs and Community Services Division from 1990 to 1994. Through these and other professional experiences, Ms. Davis has had the opportunity to develop expertise in the areas of community planning, program development and implementation, creating and maintaining effective partnerships, case management, evaluation, meeting facilitation and training and technical assistance.

Betsy Draper
Betsy has worked in the fields of youth programming, community partnership development and management training for 20 years. For the past 14 years, she's been with School and Main Institute as the professional development manager, as a consultant, and as an Initiative Coordinator of the Texas WIA Youth Program Initiative. Betsy specializes in group process and facilitation, collaborative practices and systems building, rural community development, management of youth initiatives, and effective practices for young people including subjects such as mentoring, work-based learning, entrepreneurial practices, community service, student leadership, and skill based learning. Betsy's previous experience includes operating a runaway shelter, serving as a Florida Senate legislative aide, counseling youth and their families, and directing community youth initiatives.

Jean Hammes
Over the last few years, Jean has worked and collaborated on education and workforce development initiatives in several states and localities. Jean provides training and technical assistance to designing and supporting educational reform, partnership skills building, and strengthening workforce development linkages to support youth investment and community youth development systems. Jean also serves as a coach/facilitator for training institutes, retreats, and skill building workshops. Previously, Jean worked as Project Director for the Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) in Emeryville, California, where she managed the workflow across multiple large-scale projects located in four states, and worked with the team in conducting research to support projects and remain on the forefront of policy and practice. Prior to joining the IPAR team, Jean worked for the Summit County (Colorado) Chamber of Commerce. She has an extensive experience working with education reform, workforce development, and community development initiatives. She served as a founding partner for Summit County’s, Colorado, School-to-Career partnership and its community resource and involvement organization. Jean also served as a local coordinator for the National Employer Leadership Council’s (NELC) Colorado Project, led Summit County, Colorado, in a national partnership with the Utility Business Education Coalition, and co-authored the partnership’s application and documents to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. She served as a founding board member for the Rural Resort Region’s Workforce Investment Board assisting with the outline and development of its Workforce Investment Act implementation proposal and service delivery plan. She continues to remain involved with the local workforce efforts in identifying and bringing together partners to combine their energies and resources to achieve common goals. Jean has also served on local community advisory committees and on regional and statewide boards dealing with planning, policy, and implementation of School-to-Work, Tech Prep, Workforce Investment Act, and community coalition initiatives. Prior to moving to Colorado, she taught Business Education in her home state of Iowa. Jean’s educational background includes Bachelor of Arts in Education and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Annemarie McCracken
Annemarie McCracken is a specialist in the state and local public policy arena. She is recognized as a seasoned expert in the areas of work force issues, coalition building for jobs and economic development, and is a noted veteran in the fields of community partnership development, youth programming, rural issues, and policy analysis and development. More recently, she has joined the Wyoming Group, LLC as a spokesman advocating for affordable healthcare in Wyoming. She has over fifteen years of expertise in public policy implementation and facilitation including her work as Coordinator for the Wyoming Youth Development Collaborative, Policy Analyst for the Wyoming Workforce Development Council, Director of the Wyoming School to Careers Initiative and Policy Analyst for Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer. Her previous work in Texas included organizations like Texas Special Olympics and the Texas Department of Commerce. Annemarie is a native Texan and a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She actively participates in her community as chair of the 2004 Komen Wyoming Race for the Cure, the Cheyenne Rotary Club, and through many political campaigns. Annemarie resides in Cheyenne, Wyoming with her family.

Marsha Mockabee
Marsha currently serves as the Director of Youth Development for the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. In this capacity, she oversees a national Campaign For African American Achievement pilot site, a fifteen year old Career Beginnings Initiative, a health care internship model called Health Horizons, and most recently, new initiatives at the middle school level (Summer Transition) and an elementary school pilot (Kid's College). She has over 15 years of effective practice in the area of youth development. She has made an impact in the areas of: partnership development, capacity building, grant writing, mentoring, curriculum development, and service delivery strategies. Marsha also has had 17 years of corporate management experience, giving her a perspective that leans to an operational approach. In addition she methodically blends effective management practices from both the profit and not for profit arenas for a unique approach to service delivery.

Wynn Montgomery
Wynn is Director of Project IDEAS, a unit of Continuing Education at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Prior to founding Project IDEAS in 1993, he planned and administered the City of Atlanta's workforce development programs for 19 years. As Deputy Director and then Executive Director of the Atlanta PIC, he worked extensively on youth issues. In his current capacity, he has provided strategic planning and team-building assistance to Workforce Investment Boards, Youth Councils, and other organizations throughout the Southeast. He has worked in the private sector for General Motors, among other companies, and has provided training, technical assistance, and other consulting services to workforce development programs and others in the Southeast and the Southwest . He is a charter member of the Workforce Excellence Network's cadre of Quality Trainers and an Advanced Facilitator for the U.S. Department of Labor.

Robin Nadeau
Robin Nadeau is the Program Director at Year Up Boston, an intensive training program that prepares urban youth for professional careers and higher education.She brings a combination of experience from youth/adult education, community-based non-profit organizations, and the business sector to her work. Prior to joining Year Up, Robin was a Senior Field Services Manager at School & Main Institute (SMI). She also worked in the areas of employment, training and education at the International Institute of Boston, a refugee resettlement agency, and under the Rhode Island School-to-Career initiative as the State's Training Coordinator/Assistant Director. There she provided technical assistance to regional partnerships while developing statewide capacity building linkages, managing program operations, and coordinating training sessions for educators and business professionals focusing on issues of partnership development. Robin was also the founding Coordinator for one of the state's Regional School-to-Career Partnerships. Additionally, Robin's experience includes developing and managing at-risk youth programming at the local and state levels, marketing for the long-term health care industry, and as a worksite English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor for the Hilton Corporation.

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Nathan Powell
Nathan Powell started Powell Solutions Incorporated in 2002. His work has principally been in consulting, coaching, strategic planning and research for local Workforce Boards, but has also included research and consulting in the fields of workers’ compensation, safety, health and environmental regulation and election campaign management. Prior to starting Powell Solutions, Nathan served at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education for eight years. His assignments included Workforce Development Liaison, State School-to-Work Coordinator, and National Coordinator of the "Government and Public Administration" Career Cluster Project. Nathan Also served at the Oklahoma Department of Labor for 14 years, serving as chief-of-staff to four Labor Commissioners. He had responsibility for agency operations and for legislation and policy on a broad range of labor and workforce issues including workers compensation, wages and hours, child labor, worker safety, federal relations, registered apprenticeship, employee benefits, boilers and hot water heaters and the regulation of boxing and carnival rides. Prior to joining the staff of the Labor Department Nathan worked for the Governors' Jobs for Veterans Committee, an employment and training program for returning Vietnam Veterans, and in the Unemployment Insurance and Job Service programs of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. Before his government service he spent time as a newspaper reporter and editor.

Nora Priest
Nora, a past staff member and adjunct faculty for School & Main Institute, brings 20 years of wide-ranging experience in the areas of education, youth services, and public and private sector partnership development. She currently owns and runs MindMoxie, a creative educational design company that does specialized curriculum and web application projects for K-12 publishers and other educational organizations. Previous career adventures include 5 years as Vice President for Educational Services at KidsEnergy, an innovative educational technology company she helped found; 5 years with School & Main Institute providing training and technical assistance to state and community level school-to-work partnerships; work with Reading is Fundamental and the Fulbright Teacher Exchange program in Washington, DC; and two years in Haiti, where she helped found and direct an orphanage, school, and clinic. Nora holds a Masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Bachelors degree from Georgetown University.

Deborah Thomas
Deborah is the Administrator and Event Planner at School & Main Institute. She brings over 14+ years of experience in the event planning industry. Deborah has worked for various non-profit and for-profit organizations in Boston and New York City. She has participated in industry meetings, and has served as a Fellowship Leader with The Partnership, Inc (2005). She has also served as diversity spokesperson to increase strategies for more employee diversity and co-created a scholarship fund for qualifying college students interested in pursuing the Hospitality and Tourism Industries. Since moving to Boston, she has mentored and participated as a judge for senior students at The Boston Arts Academy.

Elizabeth Vasquez
Ms. Vasquez has been a management consultant for over 20 years, providing organizational development services to federal, state, and corporate clients. For her clients, Ms. Vasquez has conducted needs analyses, facilitated strategic planning processes, assisted with organizational development and problem solving, designed and delivered training and other programs, and conducted program evaluations. In recent years, Ms. Vasquez' work has concentrated on international projects as well as on high performance workplace initiatives here in the US. Ms. Vasquez has 20-years of experience in workforce development issues, and has been consulting with the National School to Work Office since 1996. She has helped design national and state institutes, has trained facilitators to support institute teams, and has facilitated institute teams herself. Additionally, she has helped state STW initiatives--including Illinois, Michigan, Vermont, lorida and Mississippi with strategic planning and other leadership and system development efforts. In addition to her consulting work, Ms. Vasquez has published handbooks and monographs in the workforce development arena, including: Education and Training: Manufacturers' Competitive Advantage, How To Facilitate Groups and How To Train, handbooks for facilitators and trainers respectively (1996) and The Smart Workplace: Developing High Performance Work Systems, a video series workbook published by the National Association of Manufacturers (1994).

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