At the 2025 CWA Meeting of the Minds in Monterey (MMM) Conference—for which KRA is proud to be a Sponsor—on September 4th, 9:45am – 10:45am, Zaskia Ruiz, EVP & COO; Kalandria Thompson, People & Culture Director; and Ryan Rand, Engagement & Development Specialist will present Leadership Reimagined: Empowering Workforce Development Leaders to Shape the Future.
The session’s co-presenters will share the strategy behind KRA’s highly successful Leadership Edge (LE) Program, a topic relevant in today’s workplace that is supported by a June 2025 Forbes report that “Only 36% of HR leaders believe their current programs prepare leaders for future challenges.”
A Leadership Edge (LE) “bootcamp” launched in 2010, has grown into an ever-evolving leadership-development cohort that blends program-management excellence with emerging priorities in today’s workforce. From strategic financial-management foresight to corporate culture and employee well-being—the focus of a pandemic-recovery session, providing attendees a skills-based Mental Health Fist Aid Certification course—LE ensures our current and emerging Directors and Managers are prepared to meet today’s challenges and equipped to shape the future of workforce development.
The presentation, which has direct relevance to three of the five MMM tracks—Workforce Leadership and Policy Direction, Management and Efficiency, and Other Workforce Innovations and Strategies—also aligns with the theme, Fearless Forward: Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity, by addressing the increasing need for adaptive, future-ready leadership.
Do not miss this unique opportunity to:
- discover how our 15-year strong program continues to evolve workforce leadership and why that matters now more than ever;
- identify the real-world elements that make leadership development stick and how to apply those to your organization; and explore how human-centered design and innovation are transforming what it means to lead effectively.
Participation in the MMM event by other members of our Senior Leadership Team—Patrick Boxall, EVP & CSO; Derrick Colbert, Managing Director, Operational Excellence; Jonthan Overall, Director, Communications & Innovation; and JaVette Adams-Pettaway, Program Director, KRA/Los Angeles County WIOA Program—ensures our program-operations teams remain knowledgeable about the latest developments in the workforce policies, programming, and practices impacting our industry.
What Else is Happening This Month? On Wednesday August 27th, 8:00am – 9:00am, KRA Team Presents at NAWDP Business Services Academy
What is Happening Next Month? On Tuesday, September 30th, 11:00am – 12:15pm, Ms. Ruiz—a nationally-recognized expert in the public-finance industry, specializing in workforce development and federally-funded programs—will present The 9 Essential Elements for Effective Sub-recipient Management, a “Featured Finance-Focused Session” at the SETA 2025 Fall Conference in Biloxi, MS.