Jo O'Brien Email and Phone Number

Acquisition and management of real estate investments

Increased college and industry relationships for mutual benefit. Engaged department leadership to work with successful employers. Attracted monies and opportunities for student benefit and development. Raised awareness of the college to both community and industry leadership.

Established with business leaders and fellow state agencies a design for talent pipeline development. Solicited with Colorado manufacturing, healthcare and IT leaders a set of skills and job competencies in most demand which, using regional Labor Market Index information, outline the most needed occupations.Built with local business and community college educators 72 individual regional career pathways toward these hot jobs in Colorado manufacturing, healthcare and IT.Outlined the… Show more Established with business leaders and fellow state agencies a design for talent pipeline development. Solicited with Colorado manufacturing, healthcare and IT leaders a set of skills and job competencies in most demand which, using regional Labor Market Index information, outline the most needed occupations.Built with local business and community college educators 72 individual regional career pathways toward these hot jobs in Colorado manufacturing, healthcare and IT.Outlined the skills, knowledge, and regional experiences best used to accelerate the development of an Advanced Manufacturing, healthcare and IT workforce. These focused on the most in-demand Colorado jobs in each industry.Discovered videotape and archives of powerful and significant new images of Colorado’s best work available in Advanced Manufacturing, healthcare and IT. These led to comprehensive tool development of an 88-page guide: “How to Manage Work Based Learning K-20”.Inventoried, by region, assets such as contests, internships, scholarships, mentors, courses and job shadows created for payoffs or awards such as cash tuition, industry certificates, courses/credit for competencies and rewarding experiences which can be leveraged for strong or even 1st position job interview opportunities.Created ICAP drafts which illustrate “fast track” career pathways in five distinctive Advanced Manufacturing, healthcare and IT categories aligned to Colorado’s economy. Show less

Promoted to create mastery-based senior high school diploma policies, establish research culture and agency agenda. Built Colorado’s first high school graduation policy based on marketplace entrance requirements by researching individual business, military and college cognitive skills. These became the exit criteria of the public school diploma.Built Endorsed Diploma criteria based on economic development need by linking expected rigor without need for later retraining necessary for… Show more Promoted to create mastery-based senior high school diploma policies, establish research culture and agency agenda. Built Colorado’s first high school graduation policy based on marketplace entrance requirements by researching individual business, military and college cognitive skills. These became the exit criteria of the public school diploma.Built Endorsed Diploma criteria based on economic development need by linking expected rigor without need for later retraining necessary for entrance in the military or college. Incubated successful state agency research design by indexing findings from student database, partnering with national and state researchers, investigating various efficient designs for mass distribution of compelling discoveries.Created strategic research agenda for state department using chronic student performance gaps, uniting analysts, building trust, disseminating recent, yet, unrecognized insights to policy leaders, state educators and legislators. Show less

Led state assessment system. Revised K-12th academic subject standards, and entire state assessment based on emerging workforce needs. Led team of 14 direct reports. Managed $20M annual budget.Delivered on time, on budget, highly accurate state academic subject area testing of all 480K 3rd-11th grade students, scandal free and with miniscule 0.25 miscalculation incident rate for eight consecutive years.Created unanimously (K-12 and university) adopted design of the next generation of… Show more Led state assessment system. Revised K-12th academic subject standards, and entire state assessment based on emerging workforce needs. Led team of 14 direct reports. Managed $20M annual budget.Delivered on time, on budget, highly accurate state academic subject area testing of all 480K 3rd-11th grade students, scandal free and with miniscule 0.25 miscalculation incident rate for eight consecutive years.Created unanimously (K-12 and university) adopted design of the next generation of learning feedback criteria.Spearheaded revision of existing academic standards that were unanimously supported by constituents and adopted by Colorado State Board of Education. Used Massachusetts, Virginia, Finland, and Singapore as industry benchmarks. Partnered with Colorado business executives, military leaders, and content experts to determine our emerging workforce needs.Established bank of 200+ credible and fair professional employee evaluation measures within aggressive eight-month timeframe by working with national partners to frame terms of credible assessments, designing bank to index and house these tools, creating business rules for access, and leading more than 10 teams of 160 people statewide to authorize measures. Led state to rank as one of top ten state peer-approved agencies and owner of longest standing, congruent results database in the nation.Recognized in media, state boards, legislative and policy settings for straightforward appraisals of performance and outlining solutions.Ten year record of aligning staff with their expertise, cultivating their ability to make sound decisions and developing viable solutions during a demanding reform movement.Enabled State of Colorado to accurately predict individual elementary students’ likelihood for their future likelihood of entrance and re-training in two-year college, four-year college, and the Armed Forces. Show less

Hired by state Commissioner to replace old educational assumptions with better practices. Led three accountabiliity reports. Managed $1M annual budget.Uncovered lean initiatives, institutional inefficiencies, formed and examined emerging bill paper in legislature for opportunities and questioned efficacy of select education policies.Engaged in productive, data-based dialogue with business leaders, military partners, educators and state officials.