About
Preparing a Green and Blue Workforce
Climate change has created an urgent need to prepare our current and future U.S. workforce for careers that reduce environmental risks, safeguard the environment, and promote climate resilience. Yet K–20 education, workforce training, and workforce reskilling systems are not keeping pace with this need. During EDC’s Preparing a Green and Blue Workforce convening, expert panelists will address three key questions:
Environmental conditions are altering labor markets and redefining in-demand skills. There is an urgent need to create pathways into the growing number of emerging green and blue careers. Yet K–20 education, workforce training, and workforce reskilling systems are not keeping pace with this need. During EDC’s Preparing a Green and Blue Workforce convening, expert panelists addressed three key questions:
- What knowledge and skills do youth need to join and contribute to the green and blue economies?
- What opportunities and barriers do cross-sector collaborations face as they work to prepare young people for green and blue occupations?
- What strategies are effective in ensuring that youth from historically marginalized communities are prepared to join and help construct green and blue economies?
- What knowledge and skills do youth need to join and contribute to green and blue economies?
- What opportunities and barriers do cross-sector collaborations face as they work to prepare young people for green and blue occupations?
- What strategies are effective in ensuring that youth from all communities across the U.S. are prepared to join and help construct green and blue economies?
Our Team
Andrés Henríquez
Andrés Henríquez, EDC director of STEM education strategy, is a national expert in science, educational technology, adolescent literacy, and policy. He brings extensive experience in philanthropy, having served as a program officer at the National Science Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Henríquez leads the EDC initiative Building a National Community of Practice to Support Regional Green and Blue Workforce Development and contributes to EDC’s Reading Futures project. Previously, he led EDC’s Preparing a Green and Blue Workforce convening.
Henríquez is deeply committed to making a difference in the lives of children and youth. For decades, he advanced this goal as an educator, researcher, advocate, and funder. He has led work in college and career readiness standards and assessments, including the writing and adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. Earlier in his career, he led a partnership between Bell Atlantic and Union City Schools that fueled a community transformation and received national recognition from President Clinton.
Henríquez holds an MA from Teachers College and a BA from Hamilton College.
Josephine Louie
Josephine Louie, EDC principal research scientist, is an education R&D leader. As principal investigator (PI) of initiatives funded by the National Science Foundation and foundations, she works to improve the quality of K–12 learning. Her focuses include data literacy, education policy, STEM education and workforce development, and technology integration.
Louie co-leads the EDC initiative Building a National Community of Practice to Support Regional Green and Blue Workforce Development. She leads EDC’s Data Paths initiative, which is funded by Massachusetts to help K–12 schools support students in gaining fundamental data literacy skills that are needed in the workforce.
Previously, Louie co-led EDC’s Preparing a Green and Blue Workforce initiative. As the PI of WeatherX, she led the design and testing of middle school curricula on extreme weather in rural areas. She was an expert panelist for the NASEM workshop, Foundations of Data Science for Students in Grades K-12.
Louie is a widely published author. She holds an EdM and EdD from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jacqueline DeLisi
Jackie DeLisi, senior research scientist, leads research and evaluation that advances knowledge about STEM educator practices and learning outcomes for Grade 6–12 youth. She specializes in measuring implementation of interventions, and has extensive experience in qualitative research methods and survey design. Her work examines STEM programs—including initiatives focused on science and engineering practices, data science, and computational thinking—in contexts such as work-based learning, STEM career pathways, and out-of-school time.
DeLisi co-leads the EDC initiative Building a National Community of Practice to Support Regional Green and Blue Workforce Development. She is a deputy director for EDC’s GLOBE Implementation Office and a co-principal investigator for EDC’s Center to Advance Elementary Science Assessment, Research, and Technology. She also serves as a lead evaluator of innovative STEM education initiatives such as Work-Based Learning for Computer Science and Seeding the Future.
DeLisi was a key contributor to a National Academies report on teaching engineering in K-12 education. Her work appears in Urban Education, Science Educator, and Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
DeLisi holds an EdD in Administration, Training, and Policy Studies from Boston University and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from University of Colorado at Denver.