Five Years of UpSkill America: What’s Next? – Agenda

Note: This is a past event, additional resources may be available below.

Date

Tue Jan 21, 2020
12:30pm – 5:00pm

Location

Washington DC 20037
The Aspen Institute
2300 N Street NW Suite 700

The fifth anniversary of UpSkill America is coming up and you’re invited to join this special event where we’ll be looking both back at what we have learned about upskilling the last five years and forward to what the upskilling movement needs to achieve in the years ahead. For a full description of this event, click here.

 

Speakers

To learn about our speakers, click here.

 

Agenda
12:30 – Opening Remarks

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

Dan Porterfield, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute

12:45 – Setting the Stage

Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director, Talent & Organization Consulting, Accenture

12:55 – Opening Keynote

Ellie Bertani, Senior Director and Portfolio Owner of Digital Transformation and Reskilling, Walmart US

1:15 – How Large Employers Think about Upskilling

What is driving large employers to invest in new upskilling programs and what types of programs are they investing in? What is working well and what needs to get better? What advice do they have for other companies?

Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director, Talent & Organization Consulting, Accenture

Shweta Srivastava, Director of 21st Century Employability, Microsoft

Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO, Futuro Health

Chris Trout, Vice President Learning and Development, The Walt Disney Company

Moderated by Matthew Heimer, Senior Features Editor, Fortune Magazine

2:30 – Break
2:45 – The Value of Local and Regional Initiatives

What can civic and education leaders do to create an ecosystem that encourages employer and education partnerships that lead to upskilling programs? How do they ensure these programs develop a skilled workforce within a community that will serve existing employers and attract new ones?

Daryl Graham, Senior Vice President of Philanthropy, Strada Education Network

Reg Javier, Deputy Executive Officer, San Bernardino County California

Amanda Winters, Program Director, Economic Opportunity, Center for Best Practices, National Governors Association

Moderated by Lauren Weber, The Wall Street Journal

3:45 – Success Stories: Graduates Share Their Stories

Upskilling program graduates from across the country and industries will share their personal experiences, how their program helped them, and what advice they would have for other participants and employers who are considering such programs.

Yenis Blanco, Training Manager, McDonald’s

Lisa Gauthier, City Council Member, East Palo Alto, California

Kimberly Vaughn, IT Project Manager, IT Governance, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Moderated by Amanda Newman, Senior Project Manager, The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program

4:30 – Closing Keynote

Introduction by Maureen Conway, Vice President for Policy Programs, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program

Nick Pinchuk, Chairman and CEO, Snap-on

5:00 – Conclusion

Jaime Fall, Director, UpSkill America

The fifth anniversary of UpSkill America is coming up and you’re invited to join this special event where we’ll be looking both back at what we have learned about upskilling the last five years and forward to what the upskilling movement needs to achieve in the years ahead. For a full description of this event, click here.

 

Speakers

To learn about our speakers, click here.

 

Agenda
12:30 – Opening Remarks

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

Dan Porterfield, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute

12:45 – Setting the Stage

Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director, Talent & Organization Consulting, Accenture

12:55 – Opening Keynote

Ellie Bertani, Senior Director and Portfolio Owner of Digital Transformation and Reskilling, Walmart US

1:15 – How Large Employers Think about Upskilling

What is driving large employers to invest in new upskilling programs and what types of programs are they investing in? What is working well and what needs to get better? What advice do they have for other companies?

Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director, Talent & Organization Consulting, Accenture

Shweta Srivastava, Director of 21st Century Employability, Microsoft

Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO, Futuro Health

Chris Trout, Vice President Learning and Development, The Walt Disney Company

Moderated by Matthew Heimer, Senior Features Editor, Fortune Magazine

2:30 – Break
2:45 – The Value of Local and Regional Initiatives

What can civic and education leaders do to create an ecosystem that encourages employer and education partnerships that lead to upskilling programs? How do they ensure these programs develop a skilled workforce within a community that will serve existing employers and attract new ones?

Daryl Graham, Senior Vice President of Philanthropy, Strada Education Network

Reg Javier, Deputy Executive Officer, San Bernardino County California

Amanda Winters, Program Director, Economic Opportunity, Center for Best Practices, National Governors Association

Moderated by Lauren Weber, The Wall Street Journal

3:45 – Success Stories: Graduates Share Their Stories

Upskilling program graduates from across the country and industries will share their personal experiences, how their program helped them, and what advice they would have for other participants and employers who are considering such programs.

Yenis Blanco, Training Manager, McDonald’s

Lisa Gauthier, City Council Member, East Palo Alto, California

Kimberly Vaughn, IT Project Manager, IT Governance, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Moderated by Amanda Newman, Senior Project Manager, The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program

4:30 – Closing Keynote

Introduction by Maureen Conway, Vice President for Policy Programs, The Aspen Institute; Executive Director, Economic Opportunities Program

Nick Pinchuk, Chairman and CEO, Snap-on

5:00 – Conclusion

Jaime Fall, Director, UpSkill America

Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World

For the benefit of workers, businesses, and our society, we need to build workplace heat safety into our culture, policies, and practices if we are to adapt to our warming planet. Join the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on Wednesday, July 30, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, on Zoom to learn about how the warming climate is affecting workers, and what policymakers, businesses, and labor are doing to keep workers safe. This event is part of EOP’s Opportunity in America conversation series.

The Future of Equal Opportunity

“The Future of Equal Opportunity,” will explore the current landscape, emerging challenges, and the strategies needed to protect and strengthen opportunity in the American workplace.

Fixing Work: Recent Lessons from the Field

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program will soon release a report, Fixing Work: Lessons from Job Quality Practitioners, based on in-depth interviews with more than 20 leaders across the country about the work they are doing to create good jobs that provide economic security, the opportunity to advance and grow, and a safe, dignified, and equitable workplace. 

2025 Aspen Cyber Summit

Join us in celebrating 10 years of dialogue at the 2025 Aspen Cyber Summit in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, November 18.

Advising Small Businesses on Job Quality: Lessons from CDFIs

Hear from CDFIs about their approaches to building job quality advising into their work, and share your questions and comments. We are eager to hear what you think!

Job Quality Fellowship Webinar – Transcript

In addition to providing an overview of the nomination and application process, we’re pleased to welcome two Job Quality Fellows to this conversation — Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, founding executive director of Organized Power in Numbers, and Bo Delp, executive director of the Texas Climate Jobs Project — who will share their experience as members of the Fellowship.