Regional workforce system leadership
SCPA Works
The challenge
A $21 million regional workforce system spread across 12 departments and 8 locations, funded through WIOA and TANF, serving a region where returning citizens, in particular, were running into eligibility rules that kept them out of the services meant to help them find work.
The approach
As Chief Program Officer (2017–2022), Mike directed strategy, operations, public funding, and partnerships across the system, directly managing 23 staff and leading a roughly 320-person network of providers, educators, employers, contractors, and community partners. He authored the regional WIOA Local Plan, redesigned performance reviews around participant outcomes rather than just funder minimums, built employer and education partnerships (including with Harrisburg University) supporting more than 400 participants a year in emerging fields, and integrated workforce, reentry, case-management, and supportive services around individual participants rather than separate program silos. He also identified a registration-related eligibility barrier that was excluding returning citizens from services, wrote the interpretation to fix it, and brought it to the U.S. Department of Labor and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. He also conceived and drove Booey's: A Journey Home — built with Simcoach Games as original IP — turning a psychometric career assessment into a statewide game students actually wanted to play.
The result
The system produced record performance against state measures. The integrated reentry and workforce strategy contributed to a 38% reduction in recidivism among participating populations. The DOL policy interpretation established an affidavit pathway that opened services to hundreds of previously excluded returning citizens.