New hires bring expertise in business and education
With a major initiative unfolding to ensure students in our region receive the opportunities and experiences needed to explore careers and build soft skills essential in the workplace, the Consortium has added two new Program Directors, Sarah Brooks and Candice Williams.
Sarah brings a background that combines education, applied learning and workforce development. Candice brings experience in program development, change management, process improvement and team leadership from the business and education sectors. Both began their careers as classroom teachers.
Most recently Sarah served as Program Manager for two workforce development programs—the National Robotics League and Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ. Both are industry initiatives aimed at promoting manufacturing careers to students through regional and national combat robotics competitions. Prior to working with those programs, Sarah worked as a high school science teacher, first in Illinois and later in New York and Ohio, where she earned a Master of Teaching in earth science from Wright State University. She earned her Bachelor of Science in marine sciences from Eckerd College and also holds a Bachelor of Arts in tourism and recreation management from Niagara University.
Candice comes to us from PNC Financial Services Group, where she served as a Learning & Development Consultant and held a leadership role in an enterprise-wide change management initiative. Prior to joining PNC, she held several program management positions at Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City and at Citizen Schools in Charlotte, North Carolina. In these roles, she designed and managed nationally recognized programs, led data-driven process improvement and change management efforts and managed partnerships across various organizations. She began her career as a 5th grade classroom teacher in Charlotte, NC through Teach for America. Candice holds a Master of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh.
