Workforce Development Advisory Board

Adam is Director of Human Resources at Ceva.

Trent Armbrust is a Pillar Leader at EnterpriseKC.

Laura Evans was a business and education advisor-in-residence in Education for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she worked on initiatives in both the K-12 and postsecondary areas.

Prior to joining the Kauffman Foundation, Evans was a senior director in talent development at Cerner Corporation, where she was responsible for leading corporate learning and development, strategic workforce development initiatives, and community relations. Earlier, Evans was a senior director in workforce strategy at Cerner, where she defined and developed workforce development and pipeline strategies to address current and future talent needs. She served as a founder and board chair of Northland CAPS and was an advisory board member of Blue Valley CAPS. 

Evans has a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Trinity University.

Heather is the Director of Human Resources and Talent Acquisition at Saint Luke's Health System.
She is an experienced Senior Human Resources Business Partner with a demonstrated history of working in the hospital & health care industry. Skilled in HR Policies, Management, Applicant Tracking Systems, U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and Healthcare. 

Heather has both her BA in Mass Communications and Masters of Liberal Studies, Organizational Leadership from Fort Hays State University.

Erika Garcia Reyes is the Director of Resource Allocation at UCS. 

Erika is an experienced nonprofit leader with many years of experience managing projects, programs, and grants. She is passionate about developing others and advocating for underrepresented populations. She is excited to bring her skills to continue to expand and strengthen this work.

With more than 20 years of experience, Renee Gartelos serves as vice president and Human Resources director for Burns & McDonnell. She champions efforts in recruitment and talent acquisition, retention, performance management, compensation, benefits and training for the firm.

Renee joined the engineering, architecture, construction and consulting firm in 1998, taking on increasing responsibilities until serving in her current role. She has been instrumental in cultivating and implementing impactful programs that bolster the firm’s employee ownership culture — one that’s rated among the country’s best by more than 20 publications, including Fortune Magazine. Under her leadership, her team has helped grow Burns & McDonnell from 1,500 to more than 6,000 diverse professionals.

Renee serves on the KU Edwards Campus Workforce Development Advisory Board and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Henry W. Bloch School of Management Human Resources Advisory Board. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa.

Renee and her husband, Chris, have three children and live in Lenexa, Kansas.

Sheri is the Senior Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion + Workforce Development at Evergy. 

Danielle is the Managing Director for TeamKC at KCADC.

Mary Susan is the Program Director, Community Relations and Strategic Partnerships at KUMC. 

Chief Executive Officer

Martha is the Senior Vice President of Community Partnerships at Project Lead The Way. She previously was the Executive Director of the KC STEM Alliance.  She has a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Skilled in Nonprofit Organizations, Community Collaboration, Program Development, Grant Writing, Youth Development, Program Evaluation, Case Management, and Volunteer Management.

She has both an M.S. in Education and a B. S. Education focused in Kinesiology and Exercise Science from University of Kansas.

Dr. L. Michael McCloud (Mickey) originally hails from Saginaw, MI, where he grew up the son of a single mother. His successes as a multi-sport athlete and top student led him to a National African American Achievement Scholarship and subsequently a George Washington Carver Memorial Scholarship at Iowa State University, where he completed an undergraduate degree in English with an emphasis in Education, winning the State of Iowa Promising Teacher award in 1997. The years following saw McCloud work at North Kansas City High School and Park Hill High School, where he became a successful teacher and coach of both football and track, aiding hundreds of students to find success both in- and outside of the classroom. His greatest coaching accomplishment came in 2003-04 when he helped guide Park Hill to its first ever 5A state championship in football, which team still holds the record for rushing yards in a title game. In 2004 Mickey moved to the college ranks, becoming a tenure-track professor at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley, where his skills in the classroom served him in teaching composition, British Literature, Mythology, Women’s Literature and African American Literature. In the summer of 2010, Mickey was elevated to the role of Associate Dean of Instruction at Penn Valley, where he oversaw the Office of Career and Technical Education, becoming well versed in workforce initiatives and issues. His career took him to eastern Jackson County Missouri to become the Dean of Instruction at MCC’s Blue River campus in May of 2014, and then to Johnson County Community College in 2016, where he currently is the Executive Vice President/Provost. 

Along with his BA in English from Iowa State, Mickey holds Master’s Degrees in English Literature, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, all from Baker University in Kansas, and an interdisciplinary PhD from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, with specialty fields in Middle English Literature and Medieval European History.

Laurie Minard earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Kansas and has more than 25 years of experience in Human Resources. She began her career at Garmin in 1996, when she was hired to cultivate the Human Resources department at its inception. She is currently the Vice President, Human Resources and is responsible for providing leadership and strategic direction for Garmin’s HR policies and programs.

Since 1999, Laurie has served on the Executive Board for the Employment Practices Network of Kansas City. In 2015, she joined the KANSASWORKS State Board, as well as the KANSASWORKS State Board Workforce Alignment Committee.

Laurie is currently serving the community in a variety of board roles including the Olathe Health System Board of Trustees, Boys & Girls Club of Olathe Advisory Board, Olathe Salvation Army Advisory Council, and the Braden’s Hope Advisory Board. She collaborates with Johnson County Community College, the University of Kansas and Kansas State through her work on the KU Edwards Campus Board of Advisors and the Workforce Development Advisory Board, the KSU Olathe Advisory Board and is a JCCC Foundation Board Ambassador.

Laurie was honored to be recognized by the Olathe Chamber of Commerce as Volunteer of the Year in 2007 and as Citizen of the Year in 2012. She an alumnus of the Kansas City Business Journal’s, Class of 2008, Women Who Mean Business and the 2010 Leadership Olathe program. In 2017 she was recognized as an, Established Leader, by Techweek Kansas City.

Corey is the Executive Director of the Blue Valley Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS), a program that empowers high school students to fast-forward into their future through hands-on work, real-world business projects, and the development of professional skills. Prior to CAPS, Corey served as the Director of Statewide Programs for the Kansas Center for Entrepreneurship (DBA NetWork Kansas).

In July 2015, CAPS launched the CAPS Network, a consortium of school programs across the United States committed to this model of profession-based education. In less than two years, the network has grown to include more than 80 school districts across 12 states.

Corey holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in political science and economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a Masters in Business Administration from Baker University.

Chief Financial Officer at Honeywell FM&T. John has a BS, Finance from the University of Maryland and an MGA, Information Systems, University of Maryland Global Campus.

Kim is the President/CEO of the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce. 

Clint is an Associate Vice President and serves as the Director of State & Local Government Affairs for Black & Veatch Corporation.

He has worked for Black & Veatch Corporation since 1984 and is a Professional Engineer registered in Kansas and Missouri. He is also fluent in Spanish.

Clint works proactively on State and Local Government issues that impact engineering, business, and the community. In order to stay out in front of these issues he actively engages with the US Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, and the chambers of commerce. In addition Clint has always been an active member in his professional communities with ACEC, NSPE, ASCE, WEF, and AWWA. He is a resource to those organizations on matters related to water, energy, telecommunications, infrastructure sustainability, and the value of the engineering profession.

In addition Clint has been very active in civic activities that focus on education, health, and welfare. He was elected to be on the Blue Valley School District Board of Education where he served as President. He was a member of the Saint Luke’s South Hospital Board of Directors as the Secretary/Treasurer. He received the Distinguished Leadership Award from Leadership Kansas in recognition of his interest and dedication to the improvement of the State of Kansas. Clint remains proactive working with students, educators, health professionals, and elected officials on the value of critical human infrastructure.

Clint’s professional engineering history includes over 25 years of project related work in the water/wastewater engineering field. Five of those years were spent managing a successful operation in our office in Miami, FL for water related services in South Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Clint has managed work in all but a few of the Latin American and Caribbean countries in his 10 years of working there.

Clint has both his BS and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Kansas.

John is an Assistant Director of Environmental Services at Terracon Consultants, Inc.

John has a B.S. Environmental Geology from Southern Methodist University and an M.S. Geological Sciences from Michigan State University.

Keely J. Schneider is the Executive Director for Workforce Partnership, the local workforce development board for Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties in Kansas. She directs federal and state funds for workforce development programs for adults and youth including classroom training, on the job training and other work-based learning experiences. In addition, she assists the Workforce Partnership Board in its strategic and fiscal oversight of the comprehensive workforce system under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act which, in addition to the adult and youth programs, includes programs for adult basic education/ESL, employment services under Wagner-Peyser Act and vocational rehabilitation services. Prior to assuming the role of Executive Director in October 2016, Ms. Schneider was Associate Director for the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, a member organization comprised of CEOs of the largest companies and partnerships in the greater Kansas City region. There she directed all human capital development initiatives, including both higher education and workforce, as well as directed the Civic Council’s “Kansas City Tomorrow” leadership program. Ms. Schneider began her second career in non-profit over 9 years ago as the development director for a charter school serving at-risk youth in Kansas City, MO. Before making the leap to the non-profit arena, Ms. Schneider practiced law in the areas of transactional and regulatory healthcare and commercial real estate.

Margery is a Sr. Technology Manager - Talent Management at the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.

Margery is an accomplished leader talented at driving organizational change, developing talent engagement and retention strategies, delivering high performing teams, and strengthening the talent bench. People-champion that values relationships, trust, collaboration and enables a culture of continuous learning, inclusion, and innovation. I/O Psychologist focused on leveraging Organizational Psychology to achieve sustainable people strategies and evidence-based business outcomes. Advocate for creating environments that promote the inclusion, participation, and retention of ALL in STEM.   

Margery has an M.A. Communications from the University of Georgia, a Master's Certificate, Business Intelligence from Villanova and a Ph.D, Industrial & Organizational Psychology from Grand Canyon University.

Dr. Leigh Anne Taylor Knight is a resourceful, innovative leader who currently serves The DeBruce Foundation in Kansas City as Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. The Foundation’s mission is to expand pathways to economic growth and opportunity. It seeks to help people discover what they want to do and what they’re good at doing, to open more career possibilities. Leigh Anne is driven to lead the leveraging of resources across sectors for innovative learning, rigorous research, and community collaboration in order to improve economic development and the quality of life. A teacher at heart, Leigh Anne has also served as a K-12 assistant superintendent, advised learning institutions across the nation, and led a bi-state consortium providing powerful tools for data-driven educational research to inform practice and policy. After graduating from University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Secondary Education, Leigh Anne earned her Education Specialist’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and her doctorate from the University of Kansas in Education Policy and Leadership.

Kristen is the Vice President of Human Resources at Panasonic Energy of North America. Before joining Panasonic Energy, Kristen spent over 19 years at Proctor & Gamble. 

Andrew is the Director of Talent at the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce.

Scott is the Senior Director, Corporate & Foundation Development at KU Endowment.