Meet Our Team
Joe Ross
President & Co-CEO,
Reach University
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
Co-Founder & Chief Executive,
NCAD
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.
Kristen Weeden
Director of Apprenticeship and Technical Assistance, NCAD
Kristen is experienced in nonprofit management and has a master's in Social from Case Western Reserve University. She is skilled in adolescent therapy, diversion, and trauma. Kristen has a history of successful program development in the clinical, case management, affordable housing, and workforce development sectors and has been able to secure funding based on strategic community initiatives and data evolution. Kristen is currently completing her Ph.D. in Human Services where she has focused on ways in which trauma impacts the law enforcement interactions with individuals experiencing mental health crisis. Kristen enjoys traveling, discovering new restaurants, and spending time with her family.
Bri Barnes-Eldert
Director of Partnership Management,
Reach University
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.
NCAD Senior Advisors
Chike Aguh
(Department of Labor Liaison)
Innovator-in-Residence, NCAD
Chike Aguh serves as a Senior Advisor at the Project on Workforce at Harvard. His research and work focuses on and includes the future of work, US competitiveness, economic mobility, supplying workforce to critical needs industries (infrastructure, cleantech, emerging technologies like AI, care economy, etc.), connecting workers from underserved communities to hard-to-fill jobs, job quality and the impact of emerging technologies like AI on the workforce.
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Previously, Chike was appointed by President Biden on day one of his administration to serve as Chief Innovation Officer at the US Department of Labor, the first black person to do so. Reporting to Deputy Secretary and later Acting Secretary Julie Su, he led efforts to use data, emerging technologies (AI, quantum computing, cybersecurity, etc.), and innovative practice to advance/protect American workers. Additionally, Chike has also worked as an education policy official and teacher in America’s largest school system; Fulbright Scholar in Asia; director of corporate strategy and performance technologies at education technology company EAB; founding leader of the Community College Growth Engine Fund; and Director of Strategy and Future of Work Lead at the McChrystal Group, a business advisory firm founded by Gen. (ret.) Stanley McChrystal.
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Chike holds degrees from Tufts University (B.A.), Harvard Graduate School of Education (Ed.M), Harvard Kennedy School (MPA), and University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (MBA).
Libuse Binder
Senior Advisor, NCAD
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, NCAD
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.
John Pallasch
Senior Advisor, NCAD
John Pallasch is Founder and CEO of One Workforce Solutions. He was previously the Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the US Department of Labor. The mission of the Employment and Training Administration is to contribute to the more efficient functioning of the U.S. labor market by providing high-quality job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services primarily through state and local workforce development systems.
Assistant Secretary Pallasch's appointment marked his return to the Department where he previously served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management and Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Prior to his return to DOL, Pallasch served as the Executive Director of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Office of Employment and Training where he led initiatives to improve outcomes for workforce education programs, increase accountability and performance of the unemployment insurance program, and consolidate job training and workforce development programs in a single cabinet agency.
An Illinois native, Pallasch earned a Bachelor of Science degree from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from Pepperdine University School of Law. He currently lives in South Carolina with his girlfriend, six dogs, and too many horses.