Peter Janzow and Yvette Vargas join the board to support the Lab’s mission to innovate more skills-based paths to economic mobility.
Education Design Lab, a national nonprofit helping colleges and employers design education toward the future of work, announces two new members who have joined its board of directors:
Peter “Pete” Janzow, Vice President at Credly / Pearson Workforce Skills. He recently completed a term as a director of the IT Certification Council and is a former director of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), and the American Society for Engineering Education. Pete is a digital credential pioneer and Credly co-founder, and a frequent speaker on topics important to the Lab, such as: the impact of technology and the future of work; digital credentials and their role in workforce development; and talent pipeline initiatives.
Yvette Vargas, Executive Vice President, Head of Development at Citizens. Yvette joined Citizens bank in 2012 and is responsible for defining and leading an integrated development strategy that is tied to the bank’s broader business agenda. Additionally, she plays a key role in developing and operationalizing Citizens’ work to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a first-generation Cuban American, Vargas has taken to heart her mother’s sage advice: remember to climb and to lift others. She has borne this out as a champion of DE&I initiatives within Citizens, as well as her developing and operationalizing the bank’s work of promoting social equity and driving economic advancement in underserved communities.
“This expansion of our board allows us to invite in the stakeholders that hold the keys to economic mobility for New Majority Learners: employers,” said Kathleen deLaski, the Lab’s founder and board chair. “Yvette Vargas brings deep talent pipeline expertise from inside a leading financial institution that already partners with the Lab, and Pete Janzow brings decades of experience working with employers and colleges to develop meaningful credentials. We are honored that they have agreed to serve.”
Yvette Vargas: “I am thrilled to join the Education Design Lab board to work with the executive leadership team as the organization continues to develop innovative strategies that address equity gaps in higher education. I look forward to supporting the advancement of the strategy to invest in the workforce of the future.”
Pete Janzow: “I am incredibly excited to join the board of Education Design Lab and contribute to their pioneering work in transforming education for the New Majority Learner. I am especially passionate about empowering adult working learners, many of whom rely on community colleges, through innovative, learner-centered solutions. The role of digital credentials is crucial in this effort, as they provide a visible and portable way for learners to showcase their skills and make progress in their careers. Together, we can continue to drive impact by scaling these critical pathways for economic mobility.”
Vargas and Janzow expand the Lab’s distinguished board, whose members include:
Bill Hughes, Lab President + CEO
Kathleen deLaski, Chair
Kris Clerkin, Vice Chair
Rufus Glasper, Treasurer
Lou Pugliese
Suzanne Gibbs Howard
Sofia Lopez Nunez
Education Design Lab (the Lab) is a national nonprofit that co-designs, prototypes, and tests education-to-workforce models through a human-centered design process focused on understanding learners’ experiences, addressing equity gaps in higher education, and connecting learners to economic mobility.
Since 2013, the Lab has worked on the ground with over 1,200 colleges + organizations, 1,000 employers, and thousands of new majority learners, who need education programs and pathways that better serve their futures. The Lab’s flagship initiative, the Community College Growth Engine, is designing shorter, stackable credentials — micro-pathways — with nearly 100 colleges and statewide systems across the country.
