The San Diego Workforce Partnership is pleased to announce the appointment of two new board members to its Workforce Development Board (WDB):
- Efrem Bycer, Senior Manager, Public Policy and Economic Graph, LinkedIn
- Jamie Gardner, Director of Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding, Watkins Wellness
Efrem Bycer leads North America workforce policy partnerships and global sustainability policy partnerships for LinkedIn. He worked at the City of San Diego and the San Diego Regional EDC before launching Code for America’s Economic Development team, which focused on improving the user experience of workforce development services. At LinkedIn, he focuses on how LinkedIn’s labor market data and platform can support reemployment programs and the just transition to a greener economy through working with government agencies and multilateral organizations, as well as internal product and data science teams.
Working closely with government agencies, workforce development organizations and think tanks, he is an expert on the future of work subject matter. He supports the development and roll out of impact-focused products, including LinkedIn’s data portal for economic development organizations, while also managing the company’s engagement with public employment services in the U.S. and around the world, resulting in the training of 5,000+ workforce professionals. He is rooted in community engagement. While living in San Francisco, he participated in Code for America’s Workforce Development Advisory Board, the San Francisco Foundation’s Bay Area Workforce Funders Collaborative and as a mayoral appointee on the Commission for Community Investment and Infrastructure (San Francisco’s redevelopment agency successor), among others.
Gardner oversees Watkins Wellness’s U.S. and Mexico talent acquisition teams, building and developing talent strategies for these teams and business stakeholders. He also leads their talent acquisition and employer branding efforts, including recruiting strategy, process improvement, strategic sourcing, analytics, branding and overall candidate experience. He is a volunteer member on the Board of Directors with San Diego Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), and has recently joined the Board for Hire Minds, a startup non-profit with a focus on supporting job seekers with mental health challenges and educating employers on issues of mental health in the workplace.
“We are pleased to have Efrem and Jamie join our board,” says Workforce Partnership CEO Peter Callstrom. “Both bring great private sector experience and a passion for elevating our workforce.”
The WDB provides oversight and strategic support to the Workforce Partnership. Members represent the public and private sectors, education, organized labor and other community leaders throughout San Diego County. For more on Workforce Partnership governance, visit workforce.org/boards.