Celebrating Tableland Services, Lisa Phillips - 2023 Workforce Education Star Award Recipient

Chamber of Commerce Workforce Education Star

This award is presented to an educator or business representative who has made a significant impact on connecting students to career opportunities while also making an impact on providing skilled workers to local businesses.

Link to Lisa's professional bio

www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-phillips-mscl-13a9536a

Lisa Phillips serves our community as the Directory of Community Services for the local Community Action Agency, Tableland Services, Inc., where she dedicates her leadership to cultivating a healthy and compassionate community by inspiring individuals to achieve extraordinary things.

Over the past 16 years, Mrs. Phillips has provided directorial oversight to a diverse array of community-based grant funded programs including - housing and homeless assistance, emergency services, welfare to work transition programs, workforce development and business education partnership programming. She is the lead grants writer recognized for her innovative design programs to serve the unique needs of Somerset County by engaging partnerships and community needs assessment data to develop community programs that have proven highly successful in connecting students to career opportunities and greatly impacted our business community. Additionally, she has designed programs to assist the hardest to employ with services that are sensitive to those with significant barriers to employment.

She serves on the One Stop Operator for the Southern Alleghenies Workforce Development Region and is the coordinator of professional development regional training for the six-county workforce region's PA CareerLink teams.

In 2015, Mrs. Phillips was recognized by the PA Community Action network for her exceptional advocacy and leadership efforts on behalf of anti-poverty and community development programs. The Outstanding Advocacy Award acknowledges efforts that directly impact policy, regulation or legislative agendas that compliment Community Action's mission and goals.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown and a Master's degree in Community Leadership from Duquesne University. She holds additional credentials in both Leadership and Career Development Instruction.

Lisa intertwines both her knowledge and extensive work experience as an Adjunct Professor for Allegany College of Maryland, where she is helping to prepare the next generation of workforce and civically minded future leaders. She loves that she gets to "live, work and play" in the ultimate backyard adventure here in Somerset County with her husband, five children, and their first grandchild. She enjoys hiking, camping, skiing, boating and exploring the many natural assets of our County.