Sarah Heath has worked in Career and Technical Education (CTE) her whole career as a high school business and computer science teacher, state program director for Business and Computer Science in Georgia, a local system CTE and concurrent enrollment administrator in Jeffco Public Schools in Colorado, and now as the State Director of CTE in Colorado. In her current position, she supports all secondary and post-secondary CTE programs in Colorado. Colorado is fairly unique in that all CTE programs for secondary and post-secondary are managed and supported by one state agency, the Colorado Community College System. This provides Sarah and the Colorado CTE the ability to work with programs and students along their career pathway from 7th grade into the workforce either through direct placement after their high school CTE program or a post-secondary CTE program. Increasing workforce education and preparation is her life’s passion and she is fortunate to have a team of people who feel the same way helping her serve Colorado. She has served as the National President of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), which has a mission is to increase support for Career and Technical Education and general career development across the country. She also is proud that all three of her degrees are from the University of Georgia – Go Dawgs!
Craig Crick
Craig is a Senior Training Officer for the Nevada Department of Transportation. Craig has over 20 years of experience as a workplace learning and development professional.
Craig is currently serving on the Organizational Excellence Task Force for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The purpose of the task force is to advance the practice of performance excellence by identifying, analyzing and sharing information to improve organizational performance at the strategic, tactical and operational levels of the organization.
Craig’s prior roles include Learning and Development Manager with Intuit and Manager of Organization Development & Learning at Harley-Davidson Financial Services. Craig has also served as an adjunct professor for University of Nevada, Reno and University of St. Francis.
He holds an MBA from the University of Nevada, Reno and a B.S. in Management and Marketing from California State University, Sacramento. Craig has spent the majority of his life living in Reno, Nevada. His favorite activities include skiing, mountain biking, football officiating and spending time with his wife and family.
Stefan Minder
Stefan is responsible for activities in and out of the West across all Business Fields of operations for Kuehne + Nagel. Kuehne + Nagel is one of the largest freight forwarding companies in the world with over 60.000 Employees worldwide and 800 offices in over 100 countries.
Stefan has 30 years of experience in the international freight forwarding industry and held various top management roles within Kuehne + Nagel over the past 20 years. Prior to moving to California in 2012, Stefan has worked and lived in Paris/France, Madrid/Spain, Zurich/Switzerland, Istanbul/Turkey, Athens/Greece and Munich/Germany.
Mathew K. Isaac
Russell Weikle
Mr. Russell Weikle serves as Director of the Career and College Transition Division at the California Department of Education (CDE). He oversees secondary education, college preparation and postsecondary relations, career and technical education (CTE), adult education, and workforce preparation programs. Russell also works at the federal level designated as the California State Director of CTE.
Prior to joining the CDE, Russell served over twenty years as a CTE teacher, middle school principal, high school counselor, and administrator.
Russell joined the CDE in 2001 and was the catalyst in the development and implementation of the 2008 State Plan for CTE. He led the effort to revise the CTE Model Curriculum Standards. Currently, Russell is implementing the California Career Pathways Trust, a 500 million dollar competitive grant for the development of regional career pathways.
In 2011, the Association of California School Administrators recognized Mr. Weikle as the California CTE Administrator of the Year in recognition for his long time dedication to the improvement of CTE in California.
In 2014, Mr. Weikle was honored with the first-ever State Director “Rising Star” award by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education.
Jan Vogel
For over 30 years, Mr. Jan Vogel has served the South Bay Workforce Investment community encompassing the eleven cities of El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Torrance, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Carson. The South Bay Workforce Investment Board has been one of the leaders in workforce innovation and has received national awards for performance. The SBWIB has been the recipient of two of the largest federal National Emergency Grants from the Department of Labor and is responsible for training tens of thousands of laid off workers, local residents, and youth and has been recognized for being the highest performing workforce investment board in the state. Under his leadership, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board has taken a leading role in the development of job training services; not only within Los Angeles County, but throughout Southern California. During his tenure as Executive Director of the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, the Board has been successful with the formation and implementation of new workforce development programs.
Mr. Vogel received both his Master of Arts in Education and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH). Additionally, he holds a California Administrative Services Credential from California State University Long Beach and a Lifetime K-12 Teaching Credential. He was an adjunct Professor in the School of Professional Studies at Pepperdine University.