Connecting and Convening: Making an Impact Together

Dr. Yolanda Wilson became the sixth president of CSM in January of 2023. She also currently serves on the Aspen Institute Alumni Advisory Council and is the Region 2 director for the American Association for Women in Community Colleges. She is a peer evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is a leadership coach for Achieving the Dream. On June 30, 2023, she was appointed to the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on College Readiness for a threeyear term. She is also on the USM at Southern Maryland Board of Advisors, the Charles County Chamber of Commerce Board, the Maryland Association of Community Colleges Presidents' Council and Board of Directors, the Transform Mid-Atlantic Board’s Presidents’ Council, and the Southern Maryland Workforce Development Board. She is participating in Leadership Southern Maryland's Executive Program class of '24.Dr. Wilson became the sixth president of CSM in January of 2023.

To learn more about Dr. Wilson, view her biography here.

Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy

Former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor

Harry Holzer is a nonresident senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution and the LaFarge SJ Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown. He previously served as chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and professor of economics at Michigan State University. Over most of his career, Professor Holzer’s research has focused primarily on the low-wage labor market, and particularly the problems of minority workers in urban areas. In recent years he has worked on the quality of jobs as well as workers in the labor market, and on the links between higher education (especially community colleges) and the labor market for disadvantaged students. Holzer provided the foreword to the book “America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity.” He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Co-editor of “America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity”

Founding director of the Project on Workforce at Harvard University’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy

Rachel Lipson is a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the CHIPS program office. She has previously worked on small business growth and effective governance at the World Bank, on community colleges for the state of California, on workforce development at JPMorgan Chase, and in training and organizing on President Obama’s re-election campaign. Lipson is an alum of Harvard College and the joint MBA/MPP program with Harvard Business School and Kennedy School of Government.

Vice President, Information and Engineering Technologies and College Computing,
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)

Dr. Chad Knights provides leadership and oversight for NOVA’s Information and Engineering Technologies (IET) academic division as well as NOVA’s college-wide IT infrastructure and instructional technologies (College Computing). In his academic role with IET, Dr. Knights leads one of the largest technology programs in the nation. His primary task is to align industry, partner, and community needs to the creation of cutting-edge academic programs, which includes data center operations, mechatronics, data intelligence, cloud computing technology, and cybersecurity. He also provides leadership and guidance for the college’s STEM outreach program, NOVA SySTEMic, a team that has created a regional framework to facilitate partnerships between educators and industry in support of sustainable STEM workforce pathways from K-12 to career.

Dr. Knights is active on both state and national boards where he serves as a member of the Executive Council of the Virginia Microelectronics Consortium (VMEC) and as a newly appointed member of the AACC Commission on Economic and Workforce Development. Through his work with VMEC, Dr. Knights established NOVA as a founding member of the recently launched Virginia Alliance for Semiconductor Technology program. 

His work at NOVA and across Virginia was essential in securing a place for community colleges in Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program and in securing the largest appropriation of federally directed spending ($5.1M) awarded to a community college in 2021, in support of NOVA’s Data Center Operations program. 

Chad originally hails from Western NY where he obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University at Buffalo. He completed post-docs at Oregon Health & Science University, George Washington University and Georgetown before joining NOVA in 2007 as a full-time biology faculty member

Vice President of Strategy, Research and Workforce Innovation
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)

Steve Partridge is vice president of Strategy, Research and Workforce Innovation at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). In his role he leads the NOVA’s corporate and workforce engagement, marketing and communication team, career services, grant development, event services and institutional research.

Since joining NOVA in 2016, Partridge has led collaboration between the College and community—across business, government, education and nonprofit organizations—to enhance NOVA’s position as a critical partner. Under Partridge’s leadership, the Workforce division has implemented labor market intelligence capabilities, led the Tech Talent Pipeline Initiative, launched a first-of-its-kind apprenticeship program with employers including Amazon Web Services, and built employer relationships to address regional talent demands.

Partridge has testified before Congress and the U.S. Senate regarding the national skills gap and regularly consults with Congressional and Administration staff on workforce issues.

Prior to joining NOVA, Partridge served as president & CEO of Charlotte Works, the workforce development board for Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, N.C. He also held executive positions at the Charlotte (N.C.) Chamber of Commerce and the Arizona Department of Commerce.

He holds a master's degree in public administration from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Arizona. He and his wife, Susanne, are the proud parents of three boys.

Vice Chancellor of Workforce Development & Innovation, Pima Community College (Arizona)

Ian has been married for 22 years to his awesome wife, who is an exemplary public school teacher, and they have two teenage children.  Together, they enjoy road trips, watching movies, and backyard cookouts. Ian’s favorite activities include hiking, camping, and writing and playing music.

Achieving the Dream Coach

Vice President, Enrollment Management and Student Services, Lorain County Community College (Ohio)

Dr. Marisa Vernon-White has spent the majority of her professional career leading student affairs functions and holistic service redesign in community colleges in Ohio, including 3 ATD Leader Colleges: Columbus State Community College, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), and currently at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, OH.

Dr. Vernon-White began her career with six years of experience in advising and first-year program development at the largest regional campus of Kent State University (Stark Campus), where she fell in love with the mission of open-door colleges and regional campuses. She uses her experience and passion for writing, action and qualitative research, developing others, and building cross-functional teams as guides to lead other institutions in transformation.

Education:  

Ph.D. (Higher Education Leadership) | Colorado State University  M.Ed. (Higher Education Administration and Student Personnel) | Kent State University  B.A. | Kent State University