Hire an ISA Graduate
We are creating a pipeline of talent for our region!
To connect with any of our participants, please reach out to us at isa@workforce.org or (619) 228-2943.
Graduates of the Workforce Income Share Agreement Fund complete rigorous coursework at UC San Diego Extension that prepares them to add value on day one. They represent the diversity of our region’s workforce with 70% being people of color or from under-represented communities. Our ISA graduates have all demonstrated that they have the skills, work ethic and perseverance to provide lasting value to your business.
The students in this program were among the most hardworking and dedicated students I have had the privilege to teach through UCSD – Extension. Programs that connect students from under-represented communities to in-demand occupations are critical for San Diego’s success.
Dr. Micah Lomax, Head of Insights for NA and LATAM at HP, Marketing Instructor
Student Stories
- Claire Gregowicz and her son, Paul Gregowicz, learned digital marketing side by side and have found roles within the field. Watch their story.
- Ari graduated and landed a job as a configuration specialist at MedImpact Healthcare Systems. Read about his journey.
- Ellie landed a job in front-end development at Petco. Watch her ABC 10 interview.
View by Specialty
Digital Marketing
Graduates have practical knowledge in digital, content, social, mobile and data-driven marketing, enabling them to meet varied digital marketing challenges.
Students use a range of tools and resources to gain proficiency in strategies such as: campaign development, analytics and reporting, content creation and digital strategy on a variety of platforms.
For more on UCSD Extension, check out their website.
Graduates are open for employment opportunities:
Angel Askerneese
Digital marketing professional with over 15 years of customer service experience. Key skills include social media sourcing, problem solving, and quality assurance. Recognized for time management, resource allocation, content management, and fulfilling custom orders. Demonstrated success in effective communication, results driven work, and being a valuable team member.
Sean Marx
Results achieving professional with outstanding results in achieving increasing sales, revenue, and margins. Strategic business leader and exceptional developer of highly effective marketing campaigns and creative content. Excellent planning, organizational and leadership abilities to lead and manage sales, promotions, marketing, creative teams and digital marketing. Innovative thinker with excellent quantitative and intuitive business skills set that achieve brand/product strategy. Excels at leading diverse team, with strong aspiration for developing leadership ability.
A professional with high ethics and integrity. Collaborative in nature with a strong creative spirit that drives results.
• Managed E-Commerce website and merchandising store for the company in WordPress and solved shipping
challenges for direct sales that grew channel from zero to 30% of total sales.
• Achieved high scores in terms of customer satisfaction (CSAT), exceeding expectations and obtaining over 80%
user satisfaction score and 95% from feedback management.
• Creation of marketing campaigns for product push strategy, created email, video and landing page that strategically positioned the product in a differentiation strategy.
• Obtained Infusionsoft Certified Partner certification then launched email campaigns for clients’ accounts.
Marketing Strategy | Digital Marketing | Project Management | Operations | Customer service
WordPress | Google Analytics | Microsoft Excel |CRM |Financial management |Email automation
Marie Salinas
Marie Salinas has extensive customer service experience in a variety of positions. She has received her Associates degree from FIDM in Marketing/Merchandising. Her knowledge and expertise in case management is proven in her ability to manage and execute company goals. The completion of the Digital Marketing Certification has further equipped Marie to pursue a rewarding career in content marketing.
Michelle Ly
Michelle Ly is driven by the desire to inspire and connect with people. Her ultimate goal is to build brand content that engages and adds value to the lives of its consumers. As someone who holds experience in content creation and digital photography, she hopes to incorporate advanced skillset and experience to become an asset within the marketing department of a major cooperation. Michelle also holds over 5 years of customer service experience, where she has learned how to skillfully build and maintain valuable client relationships and connect with intended audiences.
Adam Taylor
Adam Taylor is a Marine Corps veteran who holds a long-standing passion for media in all forms, primarily expressed through his 13-year career in video production. Adam aims to put his newly acquired certification in Digital Marketing to use to invest in his future while maintaining his proximity to his passion for media. In his free time, he enjoys movies, comics, conventions and board games with friends.
Business Intelligence
Graduates can support data-driven organizational decision-making by effectively transforming data into actionable information. Analysts can determine how to improve processes, discover efficiencies, support customers and reduce costs.
Graduates have a comprehensive working knowledge of the complete analytics cycle, from determining requirements to extracting and disseminating information through various visualization techniques. They have a sound understanding of the fundamentals of SQL, Tableau and a programming language such as ad Python or R-Programming.
For more on UCSD Extension, check out their website.
Graduates are open for employment opportunities:
Douglas Vaughn
Degreed professional with over 15 years of Extensive experience in IT support, including work with various customers—from entry-level employees to C-level executives. My key skills include leadership development, problem solving, and quality assurance. Recognized for time management, end-user satisfaction, conflict resolution, and customer service.. Superior communication skills with proven success in relationship-building and end-user satisfaction. Broad knowledge of systems and hardware (PC and Mac). Proven ability to reduce customer downtime and mitigate stressful situations. Technical skill highlights: User acceptance testing, Troubleshooting, Vendor, management, Hardware installation, Software installation and configuration. Certifications: MCP, MCSA, MCSE, A+
Michael Villanueva
Degreed IT Support Technician with extensive skills using Windows 10 in customer focused and diagnostic troubleshooting of end user technology problems. Innovative, energetic, and quick to adapt to new processes and procedures while handling high volumes of tasks. Proven record of meeting deadlines, flexible, and demonstrated ability to sustain high levels of productivity while maintaining quality outcomes. Strong verbal skills, proven ability to communicate with technical and non-technical staff, cooperating with a team, attention to detail, critical thinking, fast decision making, Windows 10, Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, Microsoft SQL Server, Python, Tableau, R, Slack
Maribel Araceli Mejia Gordils
Engineer & Environmental Health and Safety Technician, with a strong background in customer and supplier service, who undertakes complex assignments, has a passion for learning, problem solver, attending to details, meeting goals, sense of urgency, capability to adapt to the changing needs of the organization and with the ability to grow with dynamic interpersonal and communications skills. Achieved expertise in analysis and improvement of quality, production, engineer and material processes. Bilingual English and Spanish.
Nancy Jane Sevitz-Poarch
Nancy Jane Sevitz-Poarch is a lifetime learner who enjoys using research and analysis to solve complex problems. She has the ability to explain technical and scientific concepts concisely to technical and lay audiences. Nancy Jane thrives working alongside others who are passionate and determined to make an impact using business intelligence, analytics, dashboards, and databases. Environmental and non-profit enterprises are her forte.
Sonia Udom
Sonia Udom is a business intelligence professional with 2 years of experience. Her key skills include analytics, leadership development, problem solving and quality assurance. She has been recognized for communication skills, analytical acumen, time management, conflict resolution and customer service. She has demonstrated success in leveraging business intelligence tools for results driven work and being a valuable team member. Sonia’s personal passions include music, dance and research.
Okello Charles
Okello Charles is motivated by his two young children to build a long-lasting career in the tech industry. Ever since he identified tech as the industry he wanted to be in, he’s been searching for opportunities to launch his career. Okello is focused, intentional and determined to reach this goal in order to provide a healthy example for his children.
Jerry Word
Jerry Word is an experienced IT professional who realizes that technology advances at a rapid pace. That’s why he strives to stay current with the latest methods used to manage the vast amounts of data present in today’s modern world. Finding insights hidden in volumes of digital information is what he loves to do!
Joy Gungon
Joy Gungon is a data-minded, detail and process oriented professional with 20 years of experience in various roles supporting the sales, operation and distribution needs of a global entertainment company. Joy is currently seeking the opportunity to apply her skills in Business Intelligence to help drive productivity and increase efficiency and profitability.
Meaghan Rios
Meaghan Rios Is a citizen science enthusiast and former product manager. She is passionate about the development of genomics based solutions that advance health and well being for all. With a background in project management and adaptive mobile app design, this drive has guided her towards a career in biotech; Meaghan is excited about the ways in which data analytics can prepare her for that challenge.
Mohamad Yassin
Mohamad Yassin is a business intelligence analyst with a range of experiences that focus on communication and leadership skills. He has a passion for democratizing data and helping enterprises transform this into intelligence that empowers decision making. Mohamad is proficient in a wide range of tools and driven to find a position that challenges him to continue to learn and grow in the field.
Rene Venema
Rene Venema is a seasoned business analyst who has been performing as an intermediary for businesses for over 15 years. Rene connects business with IT by understanding all perspectives of a business. Rene is an independent team worker who is results drive and loves challenges. Rene’s passions include field hockey (former active player and former referee), cooking and reading crime, thrillers and science fiction books.
Front End Development
Graduates can create websites and applications using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and jQuery. Front End Developers leverage project management skills and coding best practices to build applications that interact with the client-side and require input from the end user.
For more on UCSD Extension, check out their website.
Graduates are open for employment opportunities:
Joshua Miles
Joshua Miles is a web developer with expertise in HTML, CSS, CMS platforms, and JavaScript/JavaScript frameworks (React, Svelte). He brings an impressive array of communication and project management skills through his 15 years of experience managing teams of 30+ employees. He is focused on learning, growth and expanding his knowledge and techniques towards becoming a programmer. As a single father, Joshua leads by example for his children with the core belief that anyone can change their circumstances with hard work, effort, and a positive attitude.
Ricardo Vargas
Ricardo Vargas is a meticulous web developer who is passionate about leveraging new technologies to improve user experience. Having worked in a mobile first environment, he understands the need to ensure that the content will be easily accessible to Mobile and Web users everywhere. Ricardo is comfortable with every step of the Web Application Development cycle, having expertise in Front End Development as well as experience setting up AWS services and other external API’s.
Jedidah Cobarrubias
Jedidah Cobarrubias is an ex-Chef turned Web Developer, and a caring husband and father. Jedi brings his strong teamwork, organizational, and creative abilities to his web designer skill set. Versed in HTML, CSS, content management and google analytics, Jedi develops comprehensive marketing strategies for small businesses in need of an online presence. He is currently seeking entry-level web design positions and freelancing opportunities in San Diego.
Chris Jameson
Chris Jameson is a results-oriented systems engineer with 20+ years of experience in the IT industry. He is looking to leverage his proficiency in a variety of platforms, languages, and embedded systems (such as Java, HTML, CSS and ReactJS) towards new opportunities as a SysOps or DevOps cloud engineer. He is certified in front end development, AWS cloud, and Microsoft Azure, and is currently working towards completing a BS in Computer Science.