Our Team

WHO WE ARE

Meet the officers and staff on Michigan AFL-CIO’s team. The Michigan AFL-CIO is staffed by a team of folks dedicated to improving the lives of working families, bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our state and the nation.

Aaron Pelo

COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

Courtney Towsley

HUMAN RESOURCES SPECIALIST

Chris Palette

NATIONAL AFL-CIO SENIOR STRATEGIST & DATA TEAM LEAD

Luke Canfora

NATIONAL AFL-CIO SENIOR FIELD REPRESENTATIVE

Trent Varva

REGIONAL FIELD COORDINATOR (HURON VALLEY & MONROE-LENAWEE)

Bridget Mcconaughy

ORGANIZING SPECIALIST

Timothy Marvin

ORGANIZING SPECIALIST

Advocates

Michigan AFL-CIO Advocates is our public advocacy nonprofit organization. Our mission is to unite labor leaders, policy makers, and the general public to educate and advocate around policies, programs and projects that can bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to communities across Michigan.

Labor Foundation

The Michigan AFL-CIO Labor Foundation is our affiliated charitable nonprofit organization. Our mission is to curtail generational economic and social injustice through long-term investment in the memorialization, education, and association of the Michigan labor movement within our communities.

Workforce Development Institute

The Michigan AFL-CIO Workforce Development Institute is our affiliated nonprofit developing the next generation of Michigan workers. Our mission is to combat economic and environmental injustice by connecting the unemployed or underemployed with the training and resources necessary to find gainful employment and transition to a cleaner, greener economy.

Chong-Anna Canfora

Chief Executive Officer

As the Executive Director of the Workforce Development Institute (WDI), Chong-Anna and her colleagues work closely with the WDI Board of Directors to provide direction and leadership on a variety of workforce development grant programs and supportive services. Before joining WDI, Chong-Anna served as Executive Director of the Michigan Community Action Association, representing a statewide network of anti-poverty non-profit organizations.

Chong-Anna served as US Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Mid-Michigan Regional Representative, where she acted as liaison to provide strategic coordination of federal resources supporting workforce development programs, energy, environment, and higher education issues.

She later served as the Director of Rapid Response for the Michigan Department of Labor, leading the state’s Dislocated Worker Team to deploy a mix of public and private resources, including Trade Adjustment Assistance, Workforce Investment Act funding and Emergency Grants to assist workers impacted by mass layoffs during the Great Recession. She and her team partnered with local workforce development boards throughout Michigan to successfully usher more than 100,000 workers through the No Worker Left Behind re-training program.

From her years as a union member and working on both the state and federal level with organized labor advocates, policy makers, and forward-thinking business leaders, she knows how labor standards contribute to thriving communities by raising workers’ pay and benefits and improves their safety on the job.

Chong-Anna is part of an expert team of workforce development professionals committed to collaborating with communities to meet the challenges of emerging workforce issues and implementing innovative solutions that help bring people out of poverty, back into the workforce, and into the middle class.

She is proud to be a part of the Michigan AFL-CIO WDI’s efforts to stand with industry leaders and policy makers who support family-sustaining jobs.

Colleen Sullivan

DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Annette Donnelly

FISCAL / CONTRACT MANAGER

Walter R. Lodes

DIRECTOR APPRENTICESHIP & TRAINING

Russ Davis

WORKFORCE LIAISON

Ken Toll

TRAINING DIRECTOR

David Rowden

FINANCE DIRECTOR

Anne Fairchild

PROGRAM ASSISTANT

Michelle Fowler

MIS COORDINATOR

Rochelle Gray

ASSISTANT MIS COORDINATOR

Henrietta Hadley

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC OUTREACH

Nathan Walker

PROGRAM ASSISTANT

Southwest

Battle Creek, Coldwater, Kalamazoo, and Three Rivers

Blaine Farr

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, SOUTHWEST

Sandra Payne

PROGRAM TECH III

Julie L. Gregory

Program Tech III

Karen Knox

CAREER COACH

Geovany Ulario

CAREER COACH

Megan Tappenden

TRAINING COORDINATOR

Nikki Lumsden-Romeri

LEAD CAREER COACH

Amanda Pierce

CAREER COACH

Tina Ferguson

CAREER COACH

Trent Bronsink

CAREER COACH

Emma Robbins

CAREER COACH

Julie Wischmeyer

CAREER COACH

Southeast

Highland Park and Detroit

Sherry White

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Regina Jones

BUSINESS SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE

Tawanna King

LEAD CASE MANAGER

Edna Burton

INTERIM GREETER

Juanita Johnson

CASE MANAGER

Training Division

Si’Eirria Edmonds

PROGRAM SUPERVISOR WEST

Shukri French

PROGRAM SUPERVISOR EAST

Daniel Mahoney

CASE MANAGER

Vanessa Lee

CASE MANAGER

Courtney Alexander

RECRUITER

Ivy Chandler

CASE MANAGER

Rayonte Bell

RECRUITER

Tarsha Works

CASE MANAGER

Freddie Kelly

CASE MANAGER

Troy Pearson

RECRUITER

Michael Greening

CASE MANAGER

Devon Ivy

CASE MANAGER

Chris Clissold

CASE MANAGER

Dana LaLonde

U.P. APPRENTICESHIP READINESS LIAISON

Grace Taylor

CASE MANAGER

Instruction Division

JoAnn Bailey

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER

David Gregory

INSTRUCTOR

Malik Rollins

INSTRUCTOR

Tyrese West

INSTRUCTOR

Zachary El Amin

INSTRUCTOR

Theodore Spencer

INSTRUCTOR

Jim Dravenstatt-Moceri

INSTRUCTOR

John Perkins

INSTRUCTOR

LaTasha Smith

INSTRUCTOR

Carol Cool

INSTRUCTOR

Larry Tolbert

INSTRUCTOR

Linwood Bailey

INSTRUCTOR

Community Services

The Michigan AFL-CIO Community Services Department represents the partnership between the Michigan AFL-CIO and the Michigan Association of United Ways. The convening provides education, training, and service opportunities for union members to join with local United Ways in developing powerful responses to challenges faced in communities across Michigan.