FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, CA — The San Diego Workforce Partnership is excited to announce the appointment of three new board members to the Workforce Development Board (WDB):
- Risa Baron, manager of Republic Services
- Brigette Browning, executive secretary treasurer, San Diego and Imperial Counties Regional Labor Council
- Jeremy Vellón, military program manager for Amazon Workforce Staffing
Baron has more than 25 years of experience and success in public affairs, community relations and communications with a focus on solid waste, energy, water and transpiration industry. Her expertise is in community outreach, strategic planning and project management and she excels in forging partnerships and building productive relationships. In her role, she leads outreach and education efforts to inform communities and engages with elected officials and stakeholders on policy impacting solid waste, recycling and organics.
Browning has led UNITE HERE Local 3, a labor union representing more than 6,000 workers in San Diego’s hotel and hospitality industries, since 2007. Browning has emphasized coalition-building with progressive community groups and like-minded labor unions to deliver better results for San Diego’s hospitality workers. On issues ranging from housing and public transit to environmental justice and health care, Browning works hard to ensure the needs of Local 30 members are considered in public policy debates around the County.
Vellón currently supports the hiring of veterans and military spouses throughout North America for Amazon. Prior to Amazon, he was the senior manager of early career programs at ServiceNow where he built campus and veteran talent acquisition strategy and operations for a global leader in enterprise cloud software. He also drove their intern program roadmap, initiatives and operational improvements. Vellón also served 20 years in the US Navy where he served as a US Navy helicopter pilot, earning the rank of commander.
“These three new board members continue to grow our diverse workforce board,” says Peter Callstrom, Workforce Partnership CEO. “Baron strengthens our ties in the energy, construction and utilities industry while Browning brings great experience and connections to help workers in the hotel and hospitality industries, who are amongst some of the hardest hit during the pandemic, and Vellón brings new relationships to help better support veternas and their families.”
For more on Workforce Partnership governance, visit workforce.org/boards.