When you think about it, lifelong learning is a form of continual improvement. It’s the opportunity to channel diverse experiences into new competencies and capacities that make us more effective. Just like the adult learners at the center of our mission, CAEL’s own journey of continual improvement has played out along many pathways across constantly changing landscapes. As we begin 2026, we embark on not just another new year but a new chapter of that journey. Effective January 1, CAEL is once again an independent 301(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
It’s the latest chapter within a resolute but reimagined story. CAEL’s independent nonprofit operating model follows a period of eight dynamic years as an affiliate within Strada Education Foundation. I’m proud of what we accomplished during that time. Strada provided us with the generous support we needed to optimize various operational processes. More importantly, in preparing us to emerge as an independent entity, it has better positioned us to fill the role of honest broker. This is an increasingly important puzzle piece, bridging gaps in the education, employment and workforce development landscapes.
But it’s not enough to simply build bridges. We must ensure they are accessible and lead to opportunities, not dead ends. CAEL’s reemergence comes with a renewed focus on ensuring pathways for adult learners and workers are easier to understand, easier to navigate and more functional. Classrooms and job sites can’t meet modern workforce needs when operating in segregated silos. They must form a complementary continuum that connects learning and doing, practice and theory, and education and employment. Only within such an ecosystem can we ensure that lifelong learning is not a burden but a benefit that empowers adult learners to adapt and thrive.
Our growing membership base will be critical in building out that ecosystem. In fact, CAEL’s reemergence marks a recommitment to our core identity as a member-driven organization. CAEL members help ensure those closest to the key issues and doing the important work to address them are the ones directly shaping our research, credit for prior learning standards and advocacy.
An honest broker connects the right partners and channels the right resources to maximize individual and collective impact. For CAEL, that requires aligning many critical but disparate functions that must operate in harmony for workforce systems to thrive. CAEL’s independent status will create opportunities for us to grow our partnerships quantitatively and qualitatively. Our new board of directors comprises a strong mixture of leaders representing key stakeholders. It includes corporate, philanthropic, higher education and workforce entities, mirroring our blended funding model, our commitment to continual alignment with these key groups and our capacity to leverage diverse resources. The CAEL board is now comprised of:
Dr. Annette Parker, Chair
President (retired), South Central College
Dr. Sonya Christian
Chancellor, California Community Colleges
Dr. Deborah L. Ford
Chancellor, Indiana University Southeast
Daryl Graham
Senior Vice President, HBCU & Engagement, Strada Education Network
Dr. Su Jin Jez
Chief Executive Officer, California Competes
Mark Kessenich
Chief Executive Officer, Associated General Contractors (AGC)
Lisa Schumacher
Director of Education Strategies, McDonald’s Corporation
Elicia Wilson
Chief Operating Officer, GitLab Foundation
We are coordinating the work of the newly independent CAEL from Pittsburgh, which has become a CAEL focus city over the past several years. CAEL’s new headquarters already had an established office and staff supporting our regional engagement with corporate and philanthropic partners on several workforce system initiatives.
For example, Pittsburgh is the site of the MyCareerForward pilot. MyCareerForward is a regional approach to aligning workforce development, employers, community-based organizations, and education and training providers to help underserved workers and learners access rewarding career pathways. It incorporates career navigation support, credit for prior learning and diverse but integrated upskilling and reskilling opportunities with learning and employment records.
More importantly, Pittsburgh has served as an excellent model of how a coordinated regional approach can scale impact among a group of committed and diverse partners. It further highlights our emphasis on the potential of systems alignment within an ecosystem strategy. It’s a model we plan to replicate in regionally tailored form across the country.
By connecting the right pieces, we can deliver integrated impact that meets each stakeholder’s unique and individual goals and far surpass the systemic benefits we manage while working disjointedly. As a CAEL stakeholder, you represent a vital piece in the mosaic we are building, and I thank you for helping us write the next chapter of our story.
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