Kristie Conklin is Workforce Development Senior Specialist at Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), an electric service provider in Northern Illinois. In this capacity she leads the company’s adult workforce and scholarship programs, which total over $1.5 million in investments and serve over 200 per year. She previously worked for the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation where she managed $1.5 million in funding for workforce programs and policy innovations serving Chicago residents. She also served as the Director of Community Development Initiatives at the University of Chicago where she co-designed and launched UChicago Local, the University of Chicago’s live, buy, and hire local initiative and the Civic Leadership Academy, an interdisciplinary executive education program for nonprofit and government leaders. Her career is built on a foundation of working for Cara Collective, a national workforce nonprofit, and Hilton Chicago in Human Resources. She is a first generation college graduate.