LVEDC Director of Talent Supply Karianne Gelinas

Each week, Karianne Gelinas, Director of Talent Supply with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), will provide an update and additional information about its ongoing initiative to identify talent supply and demand issues in the region and create a strategy that results in a broader, ongoing understanding of the Lehigh Valley workforce. (See past updates.)

Each week, we’ve been providing weekly updates about the ongoing Lehigh Valley talent supply initiative. In an effort to provide further background and context, this week we present a timeline of the initiative, from its very beginnings to the present:

• July 2015: A comprehensive study called “Bridging the Workforce Gap” assesses the strength and weaknesses of the Lehigh Valley workforce, and provides key strategies on how to improve upon them.
• November 2015: The inaugural meeting is held for the LVEDC Education and Talent Supply Council, an unprecedented partnership of regional schools, employers, and economic development and workforce agencies.
• September 2016: Don Cunningham and Northampton Community College President Mark Erickson, who chairs the council, testify before the Pennsylvania House Subcommittee on Technical Education and Career Readiness.
• May 2017: LVEDC issues a formal request for proposals (RFP) issued for an in-depth Talent Supply and Industry Sector Analysis & Strategic Action Plan.
• June 2017: LVEDC hires Karianne Gelinas as Director of Talent Supply, a new, grant-funded position to help the organization better understand the region’s labor market dynamics.
• October 2017: LVEDC engages MDB Insight for a talent supply study, which will identify talent supply and demand issues across the Lehigh Valley and create a strategy that results in a broader, ongoing understanding of the workforce.

Click here to read more about LVEDC’s ongoing talent supply initiative. Click here to see previous talent supply initiative updates.