Mindy Larson
Senior Program Associate
Center for Workforce Development
larsonm@iel.org
202-822-8405 x 169
Mindy joined IEL in August 2010. Her current responsibilities with the Center for Workforce Development include serving as a workforce development technical assistance liaison; conducting research, analysis, and program evaluation of policies, programs and practices; providing guidance to the workforce development field; and creating training materials and conducting workshops, trainings, and symposia locally and nationwide. In 2009-2010, Mindy worked with IEL as a consultant for the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth, authoring policy and information briefs and assisting with publication and website editing.
Prior to joining IEL, Mindy was the Department of Labor Grant Manager at the District of Columbia Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) As the program manager for the District’s $3 million U.S. DOL Young Offender State/Local Implementation grant, she managed all aspects of the youth re-entry initiative aimed at increasing employment and education outcomes and reducing recidivism among court-involved youth including: coordinating and overseeing partnerships and contracts with D.C. Public Schools, D.C. Department of Employment Services, community based service providers, and local employers; collecting and analyzing participant outcome data from various city-wide partners and developing quantitative and qualitative reports to the U.S. Department of Labor. She also regularly worked one-on-one with youth and employers on the initiative’s work readiness training activities and subsidized internship program.
From 2008 to 2009, Mindy worked as a Research & Policy Analyst at the National Summer Learning Association (formerly the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University) where she managed evaluations and quality assessments of summer school and community programs in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Kentucky. Her work involved coordinating and conducting focus groups and on-site assessments, collecting and analyzing evaluation data, and writing reports. While at the NSLA, Mindy also analyzed policies, practices, funding sources, and research studies to inform policy briefs, research briefs, resource scans, grant proposals, and white papers. From 2000 to 2007, Mindy worked at the National Youth Employment Coalition. While at NYEC, she managed a variety of programs and projects including training and professional development for youth service professionals, development of quality standards and program assessment and improvement tools and resources for youth programs, technical assistance and curriculum development for youth work readiness skills training programs, and research and policy analysis on issues affecting disadvantaged youth such as postsecondary education, alternative education, and workforce development.
Mindy holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies, Baltimore, MD and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and minor in Human Development & Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. She is certified as a trainer of the Advancing Youth Development Curriculum for Training Youth Workers (National Training Institute, Academy for Educational Development) and certified as a group facilitator in the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ Technology of Participation Group Facilitation Methods.