The Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce’s next AT&T public policy event will be a panel about workforce development. It will be held at 11:45 a.m. June 27 at the Danville Country Club. Among the participants will be Beth Brinly, commissioner of the Department of Workforce Investment in the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet; Thomas West, executive director of the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board; and Stephen Rinehart, chairperson of the Chamber’s Workforce Development Committee and human resource administrator for Denyo.
About the speakers
Beth A. Brinly: Brinly serves as the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Workforce Investment that connects Kentucky to employment, workforce information, education and training through the office of career and technical education, office for the blind, office of vocational rehabilitation, and office of employment and training.
Prior to that, Brinly was the division chief of workforce investment in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Philadelphia Regional Office. She also served in the secretary’s regional representative office in theU.S. Department of Education, also in Philadelphia.
During her state government career, Commissioner Brinly has served in the governor’s office, the governor’s office for policy and management, Workforce Development Cabinet, and the office of school-to-work. She also has worked with Jobs For the Future, a national non-profit organization making the connection between work and learning as well as interned with Congressman Romano Mazzoli.
She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Louisville and her graduate degree from Pennsylvania State University. She also has served as the president of the Kentucky Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Tom West: West is the executive director of the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board, a 42-member council that advises the governor about issues related to workforce training investments and improvements to the system. Prior to joining the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, West spent more than 10 years as a community planning consultant serving communities of all sizes in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. He is responsible for numerous waterfront, downtown and comprehensive plans that helped communities grow and flourish by linking economic development and land use.
As executive director of the KWIB, he applies those same philosophies of linkage between economic development, education and workforce training. West is a graduate of Danville High School. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications from Eastern Kentucky University and a master’s degree in community planning and economic development from University of Cincinnati.
Stephen Rinehart: Born in southwestern Ohio but with family roots in Kentucky, Rinehart is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary education. During and following studies for a Master of Divinity degree at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, he spent a total of seven years in various assignments with the United Methodist Church in Kentucky.
A career change in 1979 resulted in taking an entry-level personnel coordinator position with the R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. in the Glasgow facility. In 1985, he moved to Danville as part of the start-up team for a new Donnelley magazine printing plant, with responsibility for designing and facilitating the training of locally hired employees.
He has been a trainer/facilitator in a wide range of topics and processes including leadership and interpersonal skills, behavioral interviewing, performance-based training, instructor skills, meeting facilitation, process variability reduction, conflict management, team building, and change management. He was one of the original instructors in Eastern Kentucky University’s “Human Resources Certification” program (1992-1995).
Panelists will share workforce development efforts at the federal and state levels, including the new Kentucky Work Ready Communities Program, and efforts locally within the chamber and community.
Reservations can be made by calling the chamber office at (859) 236-2361 or by emailing info@danvilleboylechamber.com. The cost for the event is $15 for chamber members and $20 for non-members. Lunch is included.
