About Us
At the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing, we are a dedicated and growing team of professionals working to enhance collaboration and communication between industry and education in Washington state.
Staff
Mary Kaye Bredeson, center executive directorMary Kaye Bredeson is the Executive Director for the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing. As the Executive Director, Mary Kaye provides leadership in promoting and maintaining the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing as a recognizable and highly valuable component in Washington's economic and workforce development initiatives.
As the center executive director, Ms. Bredeson works to encourage educational programs to share "Best Practices" and resources as well as providing a clear point of contact for industry employers to share their workforce needs with all 34 community and technical colleges as well as other education and training providers.
As the CoE executive director, Mary Kaye has developed a variety of workshops and projects focusing on K-16 outreach and developing awareness around career opportunities in the aerospace and advanced manufacturing industry. |
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Susan Bradshaw, program coordinatorSusan Bradshaw is the Program Coordinator for the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing. Prior to joining the Center of Excellence team, Sue was Program Coordinator for an on-campus program located at Everett Community College and has worked as Office Manager at a middle school in the Edmonds School District. Sue's position combines her passion for education and its role in the workforce and is vital to ensuring that the CoE runs smoothly, allowing the director to most effectively carry out the Center's mission. |
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Kathleen Lefcourt, grant writerKathleen joined the Center of Excellence in fall 2012 as a grant writer. Prior to joining the team, Kathleen spent 12 years writing grants for non-profit organizations throughout Snohomish & King Counties. She worked mostly with hospitals and schools and also worked as the Director of Development in several fundraising organizations.
Kathleen has experience writing large grants with multiple partnerships and will research funding sources for the Center of Excellence tied to workforce development.
She grew up in Everett and attended Everett and Mukilteo schools. Kathleen has a B.A. Business Marketing - St. Martin's University.
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Contracted staff - Air Washington grant
Dr. Richard Strand, industry analyst education consultantRichard is the current owner and chief executive of Richard & Associates, a company dedicated to developing leadership talent in organizations globally and enhancing the climate of employee engagement. Richard has had two highly successful careers as a leadership practitioner. First, as a commissioned officer in the United States Army. More recently, Richard served as the Dean for Business and Technology at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington where he had oversight for some 130 staff and faculty and 14 highly diverse academic programs.
Richard started facilitating discussions on leadership and management back in 1973. Since then it is estimated he has been featured as a facilitator/key note speaker on a broad range of leadership topics involving over 10,000 participants/attendees in nine different countries.
Richard has received numerous awards and decorations throughout his career.
Richard has a passion for developing relevant and reliable training and education programs that are focused on facilitating student success while at the same time serving industry needs. For the past two years Richard has had a lead role in facilitating program cluster workshops designed to bring key stakeholders together in an effort to identify critical job specific skills and abilities required by industry for entry level positions and match them against various educational program options and opportunities.
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Terryll Bailey, workforce development consultantTerryll Bailey is president of The Allison Group, which was founded in 1990. Prior to that, for 10 years she was with Context Trainings Corporation, and delivered transformational trainings in personal and professional effectiveness to thousands of individuals. The Allison Group specializes in workforce development research and evaluation and workplace effectiveness. With proven expertise in workforce performance, Ms. Bailey was one of twelve experts in the nation named to the Technical Team for the U.S. Department of Labor National Skill Standards Board. She has designed and implemented workforce development research projects for numerous organizations including the National Science Foundation, Boeing, Microsoft and the Bonneville Power Administration. An external evaluator for the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Program, Ms. Bailey’s work has been recognized by the NSF Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. In 2006, she was commissioned to facilitate the definition of college readiness in English and Science for Washington State. The author of nine books, her passion is individual and systemic transformation. She is a certified trainer in Collaborative Conflict Resolution and in Systems Thinking. |
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Jennifer Ferrero, communications consultantJennifer Ferrero is the Marketing and Communications Consultant for the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing. She has worked for over 10 years as the president of two website development firms and has being the project manager for hundreds of business-related websites statewide. In website development and marketing, she has produced concepts and copy for websites, brochures, flyers, ads, logos, tag lines and market research reports.
In her role with COE, Jennifer has produced the Center of Excellence Resource Guide, entitled, "Educational Pathways for Careers in Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing; A directory of community and technical college programs in Washington State;" the Center of Excellence website, trade show materials, brochures, business cards and quarterly newsletters..
Jennifer is a chairperson and business representative for the Career and Technical Education Advisory Council of Spokane Valley. She writes business and CTE related articles on a freelance basis for print publications.
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