Director; Detroit, MI

As a Director, Kaitlyn works to reimagine systems, policies, and practices to make them more accessible, effective, and equitable for the staff that work in them and the individuals they are designed to serve. She is particularly adept at stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and facilitating strategic conversations and group decision-making processes.

Some notable client engagements from her time at Afton include: 

• Conducted a needs assessment, developed a strategic implementation plan, and wrote an annual report for a large consortium of higher education institutions working to upskill early childhood professionals
• Conducted a study assessing barriers to employer engagement in a county workforce development system and developed a strategic plan with actionable recommendations to improve engagement.
• Facilitated a statewide task force of early childhood providers, advocates, and state agency representatives to develop recommendations for improving wages and available benefits for the early childhood workforce.

• Developed content for a conference of community-based organizations on pressing topics in workforce development and financial stability.
• Supported a statewide task force of early childhood stakeholders in developing recommendations to improve the early childhood system in the areas of affordability, effectiveness, accessibility, program funding, worker compensation, and wrote the report of resulting recommendations that was submitted to the state legislature.

Prior to Afton, Kaitlyn held various roles supporting and working within public workforce development systems. Specifically, as a Manager at Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, Kaitlyn was responsible for improving service delivery across the career center system, encompassing 9 locations and 300+ staff. This included implementing a human-centered design approach, trauma-informed and resilience-building practices, staff professional development, and policy writing and implementation. Before that, Kaitlyn served as Program Manager at the Chicago Jobs Council, where she designed and facilitated professional development for frontline workforce professionals and managed a project to train public service staff across the country on a two-generation career coaching approach.

Kaitlyn has her master’s degree from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and her bachelor’s degree in economics, international studies, and community action and social change from the University of Michigan.