Governor appoints Oregon Talent Council; draft talent plan released

On October 14, Oregon Employment Department Director Lisa Nisenfeld appointed the first nine industry members of the Oregon Talent Council. The talent council was established by the 2015 Oregon Legislature, which also established an Oregon Talent Council Fund of $6.1M, to seed investments in talent development programs. The Talent Council will work with industry, workforce partners and the Oregon higher education community to help fill high wage, high demand occupations in the State. The council will make strategic investments through competitive grants to public and private institutions of higher education and workforce organizations which propose projects that meet the urgent talent needs identified by the council.

David Childers has agreed to serve as the acting Chair of the new talent council. His previous roles include Chair of the Technology Association of Oregon (TAO), Vice Chair of the Engineering and Technology Industry Council (ETIC), and Chief Executive Officer of Compli and Ethics Point.

Initial council members have been drawn from industry sectors including advanced manufacturing, bioscience, energy, healthcare and high tech. They include:

  • David Childers, Consultant and Open Compliance and Ethics Group Fellow
  • Eileen Boerger, Chief Executive Officer and Director, CorSource Technology, Portland
  • Josh Bratt,Vice President, Morgan Stanley, Portland
  • Mike Donnelly, Materials Manager, Care Stream Inc., White City
  • Don Hendrickson, Senior Manager, Boeing, Gresham
  • Soundharya Nagasubramanian, Director, SW and Systems Architecture, Welch Allyn, Beaverton
  • Becky Pape, Chief Operating Officer, Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Corvallis
  • Matt Smits, Strategic Programs, Micro Systems Engineering, Lake Oswego
  • Cheryl Stewart, Director, Human Resources, Bend Memorial Clinic, Bend

On November 5, the council released a draft of the Oregon Talent Plan, which will govern their work for the next biennium. The draft plan will be discuss at their November 12 meeting. 
Any question about the Talent Plan and the Oregon Talent Council can be directed to Nate Stice at stice@uoregon.edu.