Meet Our Team

Joe Ross
President & CEO,
Reach University & NCAD
Joe E. Ross brings extensive education, technology and entrepreneurial leadership to Reach University. Joe previously led a statewide education advocacy association, California County Boards of Education, and served for over ten years as an elected trustee of the San Mateo County Board of Education. Earlier in his career, he served on active duty in the U.S. Navy, and later as a deputy district attorney. The son of a U.S. Postal Service labor custodian, Joe received his B.A. from Yale College and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was President of the Stanford Law Review. Ross has been published in Inside Higher Education, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and Forbes.

Dr. Eric Dunker
Chief Growth Officer & Founding Executive Director
Eric joined Reach from Arapahoe Community College in Colorado, where he served as the vice president for Workforce and Economic Development for over five years. There he led the launch of two new campuses, cultivated $30 million in philanthropy and grants, co-created innovative apprenticeships in health care, technology, and business, and co-created responsive career-ready programs for displaced workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior, Eric served as regional director for Oregon State University. Eric currently serves on the Colorado state apprenticeship board. At Reach, he co-founded and launched NCAD, the university’s center dedicated to technical assistance and collective impact advancing adoption of the apprenticeship degree across the United States.

Holly Smith
Vice President of Apprenticeship Degree Design
Dr. Holly Smith, a seasoned higher education leader, joins NCAD as Vice President of Apprenticeship Degree Design. Dr. Smith has a rich background in building partnerships between community colleges, university systems, industry partners, and community and government agencies, driving educational innovation and workforce development.
Dr. Smith holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Leadership and an Ed.S. in Community College Teaching and Administration. Throughout her career, she has successfully led teams in developing educational programs that meet industry standards, with a special emphasis on competency mapping, curriculum design, and strategic planning. Her work is driven by a commitment to promoting access, equity, and inclusion, while integrating digital transformation into modern education models.

Jaime Pearson
Vice President Operations & Healthcare Apprenticeship SME
Jaime Pearson brings extensive leadership in healthcare workforce development to the National Center of the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD), where she expands Apprenticeship Degree opportunities in healthcare, driving economic mobility for working adults.
Jaime started her career as a Program Coordinator and Recruiter at Banner Health, where her passion for empowering healthcare career growth first began. In her tenure with Banner Health, she implemented the Business Internship Program, led the Recruitment team in their Application Tracking System update, and helped redesign the New Nurse Experience Recruitment Program.
Pearson most recently served as Workforce Program Manager at CommonSpirit Health, where she partnered with Colorado, Utah, and western Kansas’s communities, including universities, community colleges, and more, to build apprenticeship and training opportunities for current and future employees. In this role, she led CommonSpirit's apprenticeship programs and New Grad RN Residency Recruitment team, helping to transition future nurses from the classroom to the bedside.
Jamie's passion now brings her to the National Center of the Apprenticeship Degree team, where she advances job-embedded educational and professional opportunities, particularly in healthcare, to elevate representative talent nationwide.

Bri Barnes-Eldert
Director of Partnership Management
Bri Barnes-Eldert is an accomplished professional with a strong background in social work and higher education. With a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from Illinois State University and a Master's degree in Sociology with an Emphasis in Higher Education from Grand Canyon University, Bri has dedicated her career to supporting individuals facing significant barriers in accessing employment or higher education.
One of Bri's notable achievements includes her instrumental role in implementing the Colorado Health Careers Collaborative, a $2 million pre-apprenticeship grant with ZomaLabs. Through this initiative, she facilitated partnerships and managed engagements to create pathways for aspiring healthcare professionals, empowering them to embark on successful careers in the industry.
She loves spending time with her husband, infant daughter, friends, family, and her pets, Toad & Bug.
Strategic Partners

Tom Bewick
Senior Advisor to NCAD's International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD)
Tom Bewick has three decades of experience establishing and leading apprenticeship and workforce development initiatives. He was a policy adviser in Tony Blair’s first-term UK government (1997-2002), responsible for setting up the country’s network of employer-led sector skills councils. As the chief executive of the skills council for the creative and cultural industries, Tom launched the first apprenticeships in the creative industries. It led to thousands of opportunities for young people and adults from entry to degree level. As a visiting professor in skills and workforce policy at the University of Staffordshire, England, Prof. Bewick’s expertise continues to be in demand throughout the UK, US and globally. He has published extensively on skills policy, campaigning actively for stronger earning and learning pathways – such as apprenticeship degrees – to be made more widely available.

Libuse Binder
Senior Advisor
Libuse Binder provides strategic and analytic insights to federal and state policymakers, nonprofits, advocates, and businesses that include her expertise in pathways development, apprenticeships, state and federal policy, community engagement, student supports, coalition building, strategic communications, policy implementation, and data analysis. She was the Executive Director of an education advocacy organization that championed policies that gave more students opportunities to earn dual credit, gave students more time with counselors, and funded free college for many of Washington state's students. She is a former middle school teacher, as well as the author of the book Ten Ways to Change the World in Your Twenties.

Nicholas D'Antonio
Senior Advisor
Dr. Nicholas D’Antonio is an experienced professional and researcher in workforce development with a specific focus on apprenticeship and industry-education partnerships, holding a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. With over a decade of industry experience, he has led workforce initiatives at major organizations including Lockheed Martin, Amazon Web Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the National Association of Manufacturers. Dr. D’Antonio previously served as an industry fellow at Jobs for the Future and has extensive experience in providing technical assistance and implementation support for registered apprenticeship programs through the Institute for American Apprenticeships. His dedication to the field earned him the Nexus Award from the University Council for Workforce & Human Resource Education. He currently is a Workforce Development Post-Doctoral Fellow at Old Dominion University. He resides in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, Emily, and two cats, Buna and Wonk.

Chris Heuston
Healthcare Consultant
Chris Heuston works as an apprenticeship consultant with Reach University to promote and scale apprenticeships in healthcare. She formerly worked as the Director of Apprenticeships for Front Range Community College in Colorado building apprenticeship pathways with Career and Technical Education programs. Chris and her team have worked to train almost 500 apprentices in new and emerging industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, veterinary technician and early childhood. Her 29 years of experience in higher education, as an instructor, a faculty member and the department chair allowed her to build apprenticeship pathways where the community college was the related instruction provider and sponsor for local employers. Chris and her team worked with over 30 employers in Colorado, both large and small to identify hard to fill occupations to build earn and learn pathways into those occupations.

Maria Helpenstell
Fundraising and Grants Consultant
Marta Helpenstell is a dedicated grant writer, strategist, and nonprofit consultant with a passion for expanding access to education, youth mentorship, and workforce development. In 2020, she launched MK Consulting, a writing and development firm that has since been contracted out with organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, Kindering, Sister Cities International, the Seabury School, and most recently, the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD). Over the past five years, she has collectively raised over $3 million in pivotal funding for nonprofits, specializing in education, youth mentorship, health and family services, as well as workforce development initiatives that create direct employment opportunities. Her work is driven by a commitment to ensuring equitable access to essential services, higher education, and meaningful employment opportunities—especially for those furthest from opportunity. Marta holds a BA in Communications with a minor in Journalism from Western Washington University, where she later returned to obtain a Grant Writing Certificate in 2021. With a background in journalism, media production, and executive operations, she brings a unique blend of storytelling, strategic planning, and fundraising expertise to every project.

Jesse McCree
Workforce Advisor
Jesse is a national thought-leader in investing in human talent at the intersection of the future of work and learning.
​
He is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for South Central PA Works, a regional workforce development board that has invested over $100M in public/private funding over the past eight years to invest in high-impact programs that drive economic mobility. Jesse is an advisor to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank as a member of the Economic and Community Advisory Council, an officer at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council.

Geoffrey M. Roche
Healthcare Advisor
Geoffrey M. Roche, MPA, is the son of a nurse, healthcare expert, diversity advocate, and
education enthusiast, presently serving as the inaugural North America Director of Workforce
Development at Siemens Healthineers. In this role, he leads all national workforce development
strategy and partnerships to advance a sustainable future-ready healthcare workforce. Roche
speaks often on healthcare workforce topics at global conferences such as Becker's Annual
Conference, HIMSS, HLTH, ASU+GSV, HolonIQ, and ViVE. In 2022, Roche was nominated to
the Forbes Business Council for his national level work.
Roche has over 16 years of experience in hospital and higher education leadership in the United
States. He has served on various boards and committees, including the United Way of North
Carolina, United Way of Lebanon County, United Way of Pennsylvania, and Patient Safety
Committee for WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital. Roche also presently serves on the JFF
Corporate Innovation Council and the Goldman Sachs Horizon Inclusive Growth Corporate
Network, representing the healthcare industry.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Moravian University, a master’s degree in
public administration from East Stroudsburg University and is currently in a doctoral program in
leadership at the American College of Education.

Bridgett Willey
Healthcare Consultant
Dr. Bridgett Willey serves the Director of Allied Health Education and Career Pathways at the University of Wisconsin (UW) Health and as Adjunct Faculty for the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin where she currently oversees a growing number of youth and registered apprenticeship programs as well as traditional undergraduate programs in healthcare, including the UW Health Schools of Radiologic Technology and Diagnostic Medical Sonography. In 2018, Dr. Willey partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to establish the first Registered Apprenticeship program for Medical Assistants in the state. To date the Medical Assistant Apprenticeship program has graduated over 350 credentialed MAs. In 2023 and 2024, Bridgett partnered with Madison College and the Wisconsin DWD to design and launch the first Registered Apprenticeship programs in the United States for Registered Nursing and Respiratory Therapy, which include earning an academic degree and credentials.
Dr. Willey has been with UW Health since 2005 in various roles including, Clinical Education Coordinator and Program Director for the School of Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Manager for the Heart and Vascular Clinic Non-Invasive Imaging Lab, and Research Sonographer for the UW-Madison Thermal Ablation Laboratory. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Healthcare Administration from Ottawa University, a Master of Science in Educational Psychology, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She is the co-author of Adult Echocardiography Review 2nd Edition for Davies Publishing and has co-authored several articles on thermal ablation techniques.
​
In 2013, Dr. Willey founded the Health Occupations and Professions Exploration (HOPE) Program which provides one day intensive seminar sessions for underrepresented high school students and college mentors to support exploration of careers in health care. The participating students are eligible to apply for a HOPE Summer Internship or a Youth Apprenticeship position with UW Health. To date the HOPE Program and HOPE summer internships have supported over 6500 high school and college students. In 2021 she partnered with the Dane County School Consortium to establish and scale Youth Apprenticeship opportunities, across a variety of clinical and non-clinical areas at UW Health. Currently UW Health hires 60 Youth Apprentices each year with plans to scale to 100 by 2027. In addition to the Youth Apprentices, UW Health has hired over 500 HOPE and HOPE Summer Internship participants into part and full-time positions across the system, over the last decade.
​
Dr. Willey has given many national and international presentations on the value of apprenticeships as well as the intersections between academic and work-based learning as they support building a diverse and highly skilled healthcare workforce. She has served in numerous elected and appointed roles for local, regional, state, and national committees and councils for workforce, education, and professional development in healthcare. She currently serves on the Wisconsin Apprenticeship Council, as a Reviewer and Site Visitor for the Joint Commission on Education for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JRC-DMS) and as an advisor for the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) out of Reach University.