The Aspen Institute

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About this Webinar

For many workers, jobs with low-wages and limited benefits have left them uniquely vulnerable in the context of today’s pandemic. This webinar features leaders from organizations that have worked with vulnerable workers to discuss how they are adjusting to new needs and challenges, a theme we will continue to explore in our Job Quality in Practice webinar series. This conversation features opening remarks from Dan Porterfield, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and a focus on strategies for strengthening supervision of frontline workers. Quality supervision is a key element of a quality job, and supervisors can play key roles in supporting frontline workers. We heard about two organization’s work with companies on supervision of frontline workers and how that work is changing in the context of the current crisis.

This webinar is the fourth in our Job Quality in Practice webinar series. The Job Quality in Practice series is designed to support practitioners across fields – including workforce development, economic development, capital deployment, policy, worker advocacy, and business – to address job quality in their work. Webinars will share actionable tools and approaches, highlight leading practitioners’ work, and create connections across disciplines.

We are grateful to Prudential Financial for its support of our Job Quality in Practice webinar series and our ongoing efforts to advance a job quality field of practice.

 

Opening Remarks

Daniel R. Porterfield @DanPorterfield
President, The Aspen Institute @AspenInstitute

Daniel R. Porterfield, Ph.D., has served as President and CEO of the Aspen Institute since June 2018. He was selected by the Institute’s Board of Trustees because of his intellectual depth, commitment to inclusivity and diversity, and ability to lead a complex, mission-driven organization to create impact and make a difference in the world. His career embodies the ideals of values-based leadership upon which the Aspen Institute was founded. Learn more about Dan here.

 

Speakers

Emily Dieppa
Workforce Innovations Consultant, PHI @PHInational

As a workforce innovations consultant in the Midwest, Emily supports leadership and staff working in long-term care settings to create better quality jobs for caregivers and improve the quality and accessibility of care for consumers.

For the past nine years, Emily worked to empower the direct care workforce by creating pathways to economic sustainability and addressing the systemic challenges facing long-term care workers. By creating a home care training center in Detroit, Emily connected incumbent personal care aides to advanced training, higher wages, and an accessible career ladder. She did this work in partnership with diverse stakeholders, including home care agencies, skilled nursing facilities, city officials, and labor unions. Emily worked closely with PHI to develop the program’s curriculum and train a multi-disciplinary instructor team.

As chief of staff for a healthcare workforce organization, Emily has extensive experience leading organizational development and culture change during times of transition. Rooted in mission-driven design, she has created and facilitated internal staff development programs and leadership conferences for over 400 healthcare workers to foster both personal and professional growth.

Emily has long been a vocal advocate for quality long-term care. As a current advisory board member for the IMPART Alliance, Emily collaborates with leaders across Michigan to address an ever-growing caregiver shortage and build the necessary infrastructure for a statewide personal care aide training program. She has also worked with Michigan’s Olmstead Coalition, a group of elder and disability rights advocates, to draft policy recommendations for the state’s Medicaid-funded home and community-based services.

Emily is an Economic Opportunity Fellow through the Aspen Institute’s Detroit Workforce Systems Leadership Development Academy and has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Arizona.

 

Katie Lynn-Vecqueray
Customer Success Manager, WorkLife Partnership @WorkLifePartner

It has been Katie’s honor to fill the role of customer success manager for WorkLife Partnership for almost two years. Her role originated from the need to ensure that WorkLife’s employer partners felt their voices were valued and to provide them with a liaison separate from resource navigators. As their account manager, Katie enjoys supporting employers in recognizing and acting on the importance of investing in their team members through a human centered, whole person approach.

Prior to joining the WorkLife Team, Katie has experience working within a variety of industry sectors and in partnership with community organizations in support of workforce initiatives. She has experience as a special education vocational coach for a local school district in addition to serving as a Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act and AARP case manager for Arapahoe County. She has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and religious studies from the University of Denver.

 

Liddy Romero
Managing Director, WorkLab Innovations @WorkLabInnovate

Liddy Romero is managing director and a founding member of WorkLab Innovations. She founded the Colorado-based organization, WorkLife Partnership, deploying the “Sustainable Workforce Model,” in 2009. Building on her education, as well as her small business and nonprofit experience, Liddy helps lead the national efforts to make this model accessible and effective throughout the US.

In the past seven years, Liddy has been a catalyst for change in the ways employers invest in their workforces to impact the bottom line and improve employee engagement and worker economic opportunities.

She has 14 years of experience working with government entities, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors. Liddy serves as an executive member of the Colorado Workforce Development Council, was an Aspen Institute Sector Skills Academy Marano Fellow, and currently sits on the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Community Development Advisory Council.

Liddy received an ROI Certification from the ROI Institute in May 2017. Liddy holds a double Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and psychology from the University of Notre Dame. She lives in Centennial, Colorado, with her spouse and three children.

Liddy is a member of the Job Quality Fellowship Class of 2017-18. To learn more about the Job Quality Fellows, visit as.pn/jobquality.

 

Moderator

Maureen Conway Follow @conway_maureen
Vice President for Policy Programs, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program Follow @AspenWorkforce

Maureen Conway serves as Vice President for Policy Programs at the Aspen Institute and as Executive Director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP). EOP works to expand individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity. Maureen founded EOP’s Workforce Strategies Initiative and has headed up workforce research at the Aspen Institute since 1999. Maureen also curates a public discussion series at the Aspen Institute, Opportunity in America, which brings together voices from business, labor, policy, human services, media, academia, and others to discuss the challenges experienced by many in today’s labor markets and new ideas for addressing these challenges. In addition, Maureen oversees EOP’s leadership development programs, which connect innovators, both within communities and from across the country, to peers working to help low- and moderate-income Americans access opportunity.

 

Other Webinars in This Series

• Assessing Job Quality and Equity in Your Local Labor Market: A Closer Look at Race, Gender, and Place
• To Boost Job Quality, Money Matters: Practical Tools for Engaging Investors and Lenders Toward Change
• How Can Workforce Leaders Boost Job Quality?
• Worker Organizations Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis

 

Share

Job Quality in the Age of COVID-19 – Social Media Toolkit

Tweet Webinar: “#JobQuality in the Age of #COVID19: Strengthening Management and Supporting Workers.” Feat Emily Dieppa (@PHInational), Katie Lynn-Vecqueray (@WorkLifePartner), Liddy Romero (@WorkLabInnovate) and @conway_maureen (@AspenWorkforce). 3/31 @ 2pm ET.

Tweet For frontline employees, the economic effects of #coronavirus are particularly acute. Hear how organizations like @PHInational, @WorkLifePartner, and @WorkLabInnovate are supporting workers as companies confront new needs and challenges.

Tweet In this time of unprecedented uncertainty, it’s crucial that we continue advancing #jobquality for vulnerable workers. How can we leverage this moment for good? Hear from experts at @PHInational, @WorkLifePartner, and @WorkLabInnovate.

 

Learn More

The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy. Join our mailing list and follow us on social media to stay connected to our work, including events, publications, blog posts, and more.