On July 30, Metro EDGE will be hosting an EDGEwise Forum. Get details on the event here - we hope to see you there!
In 2014, a collaboration between local corporations, schools districts and NextEd secured $21 million in Grant money from the State of California to further develop work-based learning, particularly around 'Linked Learning' Pathways. These pathways are industry specific and closely align high school and college classes to skills desired by employers in their pathway industry.
Join the following panelists for a conversation on how local employers are getting involved - and ways you and your company can help increase student engagement and high school graduation rates for the Sacramento Region:
Deanne Hanson
Hanson Consulting Group was founded in 1984 and Ms. Hanson has been consulting with education related organizations to help improve student outcomes for all students for the past 15 years. This has included high school restructure, charter school development, and community engagement creating employer partnerships to provide real world experiences for students.
In the past few years Ms. Hanson’s primary client was NAF, a 30 year old organization headquartered in New York City, helping implement work-based learning and corporate engagement strategies for the academies and school districts nationally. Presently, she is working with the Linked Learning Alliance in California and Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) in Washington DC.
Deanna was CEO of a not-for-profit business/education intermediary in Sacramento – Linking Education and Economic Development (LEED) for several years. In that role, Deanna co-led a collaborative team to implement the Carnegie Schools for a New Society high school restructure initiative using themed small learning communities and helped develop several Gates funded small schools.
Ms. Hanson has served on many area boards and is a past recipient of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Business Owner of the Year award, the Red Cross Clara Barton award and National Association of Women Business Owners Outstanding Woman Leader award.
Beth Kay
Beth Kay is part of the Workforce Development team of The Foundation. Her role is to foster collaboration among the K-12 districts and community colleges that are in partnership for the Career Pathways Trust. Her experience working with Linked Learning districts across the state will inform her work to increase access, opportunity and completion of work-based learning experiences through the K-14/16 pathways.
Beth was the Regional Director, West for the National Academy Foundation (NAF) from 2012-2014, where she deployed a team of experts to support the development and improvement of approximately 100 NAF Academies throughout the western states. Through NAF academies, young people gain access to industry-specific curricula, compensated internships, and relationships with business professionals.
Ms Kay previously worked within NAF as an Academy Development Manager for California and the Director of Operations for Charter Schools Development Center in California. From 2002-2007 Ms Kay served Sacramento City Unified School District as the founding principal of The Met Sacramento, an innovative small school, part of the Big Picture Learning network.
Prior to 2002, Ms Kay was a high school science teacher and administrator in Massachusetts for nine years. She is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Benin, West Africa.
Ms. Kay is a graduate of The University of Chicago and Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Stella Premo
Stella Premo is the interim CEO at NextEd. NextEd NextEd is a not-for-profit organization that works to develop partnerships among business, labor, education, community, and government in order to advance regional economic objectives and enhance the academic performance and career readiness of students within the Capital Region. NextEd serves as the Capital Region P-20 Council.
Stella comes to NextEd with a blend of experience in education and the business sector. She was elevated to serve as the interim CEO and previously served as the Executive Director, Director of Education program at NextEd. In her recent position, she served as director of development at Sacramento State University, where she was the liaison to the College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. She has served as the President and CEO of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce before advancing to the California Restaurant Association Educational Foundation as the executive director. She was responsible for the Foundation’s industry related school to career programs. And, she served as the executive director for the Vanir Foundation in Memory of H. Frank Dominguez (Vanir Foundation). The Vanir Foundation is a statewide non-profit that adopts elementary schools in at-risk populations to implement direct school programs to improve academic achievement.
Stella is a graduate of St. Mary's College and earned her bachelor's degree in Management and her MBA at California State University, Sacramento. She lives in Roseville with her husband of 19 years and their 17 year old daughter. She fills her free time teaching yoga and meditation.
Susan Wheeler
Susan Wheeler coordinates Workforce Planning and Education Outreach for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). SMUD is a public utility providing reliable and affordable electricity for 1.4 million people in Sacramento County. It is the 6th largest customer-owned electric utility in the U.S.
Prior to SMUD, Susan held positions in a wide-range of functional areas (Finance, Operations, Customer Service, Sales and Marketing). Her industry experience includes education, healthcare, telecommunications, and technology. She held senior management positions in the nonprofit and public sectors and worked for multi-national corporations including AT&T, General Electric and Chevron. Susan has also been part of the leadership team for several start-up companies. From 2000 – 2008, Susan was the owner of a strategic planning and process improvement company.
Susan is passionate about education - she is currently adjunct faculty at Sierra College and American River College and had taught at Folsom Lake College and U.C. Davis Extension. In 2001, Susan founded SAGE (Sacramento Advocates for Girls’ Empowerment) which encouraged girls and young women to enter careers where women were under-represented. She is co-director for a summer math and science camp (Tech Trek) under the auspices of American Association of University Women.
