GREATER TALENT

Today's students are tomorrow's business leaders. Our Education and Talent department works to bridge the gap between the business and education sectors to ensure that your business and our community have a highly educated, available, and technically skilled workforce.

Get Involved!

Are you passionate about our kids, their future, education, and our workforce?  We invite you to get involved today. To learn more, contact Meg Lindsay, Director of Education and Talent, GSI and Executive Director, Spokane STEM, or check out some of our education and talent programs in the left-hand navigation bar for more information.

About GSI’s Education & Talent Program

One of the key elements to a successful business and a thriving regional economy is talent – a workforce with the skill and background that businesses need to be successful. Building the talent pipeline is about more than putting youth through our early learning, K-12 and higher education institutions. It's about creating partnerships between business and education. GSI works to bring educators and employers together for the benefit of students and businesses, stimulating our economy and quality of life. Educators get a better understanding of the skills our businesses and industries need to be competitive, and businesses provide experiences that show our educators and students real-life business applications. 

Results that Matter

Our goals to support the growth of a skilled regional workforce include: 

• Improve the education attainment of our region by increasing the proportion of adults in Spokane County with high-quality degrees, certificates or other credentials from 40% to 60% by 2025, supported by Greater Minds.
• Organize and lead the regional Education Grows Economies campaign to support the passage of 13 local K-12 public school districts bonds and levies.
• Connect business and education to support and retain a highly skilled workforce:
  • Through organizing and delivering Teaching the Teachers and Business AfterSchool workshops engaging over 32 businesses, 200 business professionals, 260 educators, 30 parents and more than 5800 students both directly and indirectly; 
  • Through business and education partnerships working towards increased engagement of girls in underrepresented fields, and the expansion of work based learning opportunities for students in health sciences pathways;
  • In partnership with access2experience (a2e), an online platform to connect industry and education in a simple way for the benefit of students local students;
  • By facilitating the growth of the Spokane STEM Network and the engagement of our Network partners with the goal of increasing the number of students pursuing and achieving success in STEM competencies for future careers; and 
  • By engaging business and education leaders on the K-12 Roundtable, Higher Education Leadership Group and Health Industry Development Group (HIDG) to support education and workforce, economic development and public policy initiatives and goals. 

For more information or details on how you can get involved and be part of our Education and Talent efforts, contact Alisha Benson, COO  at 509.321.3608 or Meg Lindsay Director, Education and Talent and Executive Director, Spokane STEM at 509.321.3611. Visit our staff page for a complete staff directory.

Education and Talent Staff:

Alisha Benson
Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer
509.321.3608

Meg Lindsay
Director Education & Talent
Executive Director, Spokane STEM Network
509.321.3611

Wendy Ebach-Brill
Program Manager
509.321.3606

Cassidy Peterson
Career Connected Learning Program Manager
509.321.3621

Jodi Strote
Education Attainment Navigator
509.321.362