Evaluation Team

Public/Private Ventures was selected to conduct an evaluation of JOIN’s first four years and to examine JOIN’s impact for workers, businesses and the regional economy. Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) is a national leader in creating and strengthening programs that improve lives in low-income communities. Founded in 1978, this nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit tackles the challenges faced by America’s most disadvantaged residents by seeking out and designing innovative programs, rigorously testing them, and promoting solutions proven to work.

JOIN is pleased to have three staff from P/PV’s Labor Market Initiatives team leading our evaluation:

Sheila Maguire, Vice President for Labor Market Initiatives As vice president for labor market initiatives and director of P/PV’s New York office, Ms. Maguire oversees a variety of research, evaluation and demonstration projects focused on programs that help unemployed and low-wage workers gain skills and access living-wage jobs. Ms. Maguire joined P/PV in 1999 to launch Working Ventures, an initiative designed to improve the practice of workforce development by producing accessible reports and guides as well as dynamic workshops and conferences.

Prior to coming to P/PV, Ms. Maguire worked for Essex County College (ECC), a community college serving downtown Newark and the surrounding Essex County towns, where she founded and directed the Training, Inc., program, one of a consortium of employment and training programs operating in seven cities. She was also responsible for customized training for employers, short-term job training programs, and welfare-to-work initiatives. At ECC she developed sector-specific certificate programs that combined credit and noncredit courses to build skills for short-term employment and the start of a college career. Before coming to the United States, Ms. Maguire worked in community development in India, Italy and Britain.

Ms. Maguire has authored or coauthored the following publications:
1. Job Training That Works: Findings from the Sectoral Employment Impact Study
2. A Foot in the Door: Using Alternative Staffing Organizations to Open Up Opportunities for Disadvantaged Workers
3. Working With Employers: Skills and Strategies for Job Development
4. Success Locally Grown: Key Strategies for Expanding Workforce Services
5. Hard Work on Soft Skills: Creating a “Culture of Work” in Workforce
6. Development Surviving, and Maybe Thriving, on Vouchers

She serves on the boards of the Workforce Alliance, a national coalition of community-based organizations, community colleges, unions, business leaders and local officials advocating for public policies that invest in the skills of Americas workers. She holds a B.A. in adult learning from the Gallatin Division at New York University and an M.S. in organizational development from American University.

Joshua Freely, Senior Research Associate and Director of Labor Market Research As director of labor market research, Dr. Freely coordinates research activities for P/PV’s labor market initiatives department. His areas of expertise are workforce development, the sociology of education, race and ethnic relations, evaluation and quantitative methods. Dr. Freely joined P/PV as a research associate in August 2006. Currently he is working on the Alternative Staffing Demonstration, Sectoral Employment Impact Study, California Career Advancement Academy Evaluation, and the Workforce Performance Benchmarking Project. Dr. Freely has recently authored A Foot in the Door: Using Alternative Staffing Organizations to Open up Opportunities for Disadvantaged Workers and Job Training That Works: Findings from the Sectoral Impact Study.

Stacy Woodruff-Bolte, Research Associate

Ms. Woodruff-Bolte joined Public/Private Ventures in May 2005, first as a graduate student intern and then as an Assistant Research Associate. Currently she is working on several evaluations and projects in the Labor Market Initiatives department, including the New York City Sectors Initiative, an evaluation of the Philadelphia Job Opportunity Investment Network and the Benchmarking Project. She is the co-author of Collaborating to Innovate: Achievements and Challenges in the New York City Sectors Initiative Planning Phase, the first of three published reports for the project. Prior research experience includes qualitative data analysis on the multisite, multimethod evaluation of welfare reform, “Welfare, Families and Children: A Three City Study.” She holds a master’s degree in public administration from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a master’s degree in sociology from the Pennsylvania State University.