2025 Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy Fellows Named

Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) has selected 19 Fellows for its second Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy (Academy), a professional development program offered in partnership with Pima Community College and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program. This ten-month leadership program brings together local leaders to collaborate on workforce development transformation across all points, including hiring, training, and retaining talent.

Over the next year, the 2025 Fellows will have the opportunity to strengthen networks, enhance leadership skills, and create innovative solutions for the challenges workers and businesses face in Southern Arizona. They were selected through a competitive application process and represent a range of nonprofit organizations, business associations, institutes of higher education, training organizations, and public agencies in the region. The Fellows are:

• Adam Begody, Director, Corporate Engagement, Earn to Learn, Pima County
• Andrew Bevington, Director, Business & Education Partnerships, Pima County School Superintendent's Office, Pima County
• Missy Blair, Academic Director, Pima Community College, Pima County
• John DeLalla, Ed.D, Continuing Education Program Director, University of Arizona, Cochise, Pima, Santa Cruz, and Yuma Counties
• Amber Folkman, Director, Implementation, Pipeline AZ, Pima County
• Rocio Kary, Workforce Strategist/ TA Advisor, Raytheon, Pima County
• Merrill Kemp-Wilcox, Director, Research & Development, Pima JTED, Pima County
• Annie Kurtin, Sr. Associate Director, Integrated Learning Partnerships, University of Arizona, Pima County
• Greg Lucero, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Santa Cruz County Provisional Community College District, Santa Cruz County
• Mariana Martinez Reynoso, CTE Director, Work-Based Learning, Yuma Union High School District, Yuma County
• Kelle Maslyn, Assistant Director, Strategic Affairs, Pima County Economic Development, Pima County
• Brandon McIver, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality, Statewide
• Lourdes Rivera, Advanced Program Coordinator, Pima Community College, Santa Cruz County
• Wendy Scheder Black, Director, Adult Basic Education for College & Career, Pima Community College, Pima County
• Vickie Simmons, Deputy Director, ARIZONA@WORK-Southeastern Arizona, Cochise County
• Athena Sparks, Regional Operations Manager, Arizona State Parks, Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz Counties
• Jessica Winchester, Director, Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, Pima County
• John Winchester, Sr. Director, Community and Government Engagement, Arizona State University, Southern Arizona
• Erica Yngve, Entrepreneur in Residence, Arizona Stitch Lab, Pima County

The Fellows are professionals who play a key role in shaping Southern Arizona’s current workforce development system, directly influencing the organizations and initiatives that prepare individuals for employment, support career advancement, and cultivate a skilled workforce to meet the needs of local employers. Strengthening this system helps create quality jobs and provides the education and training necessary for individuals to thrive in a dynamic economy and build meaningful careers.

For this purpose, Workforce Leadership Academies are hosted in communities across the U.S. and Canada and bring local leaders together for an in-depth series of shared learning and solution-building. CFA brought the Aspen Institute’s (Aspen) Workforce Leadership Academy model to Arizona in 2022 with their first Academy in the Greater Phoenix area. Now, Aspen has named CFA and Pima Community College approved Academy providers/hosts giving them access to Aspen’s proprietary curriculum and resources. The 2025 Southern Arizona Academy is the third Workforce Leadership Academy provided in Arizona and is made possible in part by the Thomas R. Brown Family Private Foundation and South32.

"Arizona needs a diverse and robust workforce to drive a strong economy and to secure a brighter future for all. Investing in workforce development programs like this academy is a crucial step toward that goal," said Dr. Sybil Francis, Chair, President & CEO of CFA. "This is an invaluable opportunity for Arizona's workforce leaders to identify solutions to challenges and apply them in their communities. We are proud to partner with Pima Community College and the Aspen Institute to advance this important work in Southern Arizona."

The Southern Arizona Academy officially launches in Feb. 2025 and culminates with a collaborative capstone project presentation in Nov. 2025. As a peer-learning community, the cohort will experience educational and networking opportunities to help manage the challenges they face in responding to the current workforce ecosystem system opportunities. These senior-level workforce Fellows will work with leading practitioners from around the country and state, learn about practical planning tools, and collaborate to reflect on and develop effective strategies to strengthen the local workforce system.

“We at Pima Community College are again honored to partner with CFA and the Aspen Institute in this endeavor,” said Ian Roark, Vice Chancellor of Workforce Development & Innovation at Pima Community College. “In being the only regional Aspen Workforce Leadership Academy that is continuing beyond our first cohort, we are ensuring we have a strong bench of workforce leaders for years to come. Leadership development beyond subject matter expertise in this space is critical to ensuring student success in our workforce programs and real results across our partnerships.”

Dr. Jeff Nasse, Ph.D., Chancellor at Pima Community College, adds, “Pima Community College is a national leader in workforce development and a strong collaborator in our community. We further affirm our commitment to the workforce development ecosystem in Southern Arizona by continuing to lead and support the work of the Academy into its second cohort. These fellows are the future leaders who will ensure all Southern Arizonans have pathways to upward economic mobility.”

The Southern Arizona Academy will be led by CFA Workforce Development Director Holly Kurtz, CFA Workforce Development Project Manager Tennille Penaloza-Hagen, Pima Community College Assistant Vice Chancellor for Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning Amanda Abens, and a local Advisory Council comprised of leaders from across the Southern Arizona workforce system.

Learn more about the Southern Arizona Academy, the 2025 Fellows, and the local Advisory Council.