Eavey Returns to CareerEdge

MANATEE-SARASOTA COUNTIES, FL (January 14, 2014) – Mireya Eavey has rejoined CareerEdge as executive director of the regional workforce-development collaborative.  Eavey served as the organization’s original director from 2010 to early 2013.

“Mireya has a real passion for helping people transform their lives by improving their job skills and advancing their careers,” said Commissioner Joseph Barbetta of Sarasota County Government, which is an investor in CareerEdge.  “She is willing to challenge systems—and create new ones—if it can mean better results for workers and employers.  Our region will benefit from her continued leadership.”

Eavey returns to CareerEdge following a stint as president of the One Biotechnology division of Osprey Biotechnics.  “My time at Osprey Biotechnics was successful, but I missed the way I can help people improve their careers through CareerEdge,” said Eavey.  “We have important work planned for 2014, and I’m excited to be back.”

Major CareerEdge projects this year include hosting the National Fund for Workforce Solutions’ Partners Council Meeting in Sarasota this March, and presenting a new labor analysis of the Manatee-Sarasota region to identify additional sectors ripe for workforce development.  CareerEdge and its manufacturing partners will soon welcome the first graduates of a precision machining program developed last year by Sarasota County Technical Institute in response to skills-gap data from CareerEdge.  In the healthcare sector, meanwhile, CareerEdge will help fund the first worker trainings provided through the Sarasota Manatee Healthcare Collaborative, a consortium of employers and educators focused on healthcare-specific workforce issues.

“Under Mireya’s leadership, CareerEdge revived this important forum where we share best practices, discuss challenges, and arrive at solutions together,” said Veronica Lequeux Thames, chair of the healthcare collaborative and vice president of human resources at Blake Medical Center.  “Because of the collaboration among industry leaders and with CareerEdge’s support, we are better prepared to offer staff development and training opportunities that will improve quality of care while making our region’s healthcare sector more competitive.”

Eavey takes over the staff leadership of CareerEdge from Nathalie deWolf, who resigned late last year in order to spend time with family.