Who We Are
The Economic Development Division at College of the Canyons is a team of individuals from industry who work to provide customized training solutions to local businesses. More than 500 companies a year rely on the Economic Development Division at College of the Canyons to give them the competitive edge in today’s global economy. We drive economic growth through education, training, and employment services for all companies in every industry sector. We serve as a catalyst of economic growth by valuing and leveraging the strength of community partners to foster innovation, job creation, and workforce development.
Employer Benefits
Customized Training
Our training is tailored to meet the needs of our employers; courses can be taken at the company location or on our campus.
Business Outreach
Through the Small Business Development Center we help more than 1,000 businesses per year gain access to capital, develop business plans, and manage their companies.
Skilled Workforce
We utilize Registered Apprenticeship to enable companies to develop a pipeline of talent to meet their critical employment needs.
How We Do Economic Development
We have created a number of Strategic Business Units designed to address the needs of today’s growing companies:
business units
Our flagship training program that provides customized solution for companies that seek to upskill their workforce.
Provides accelerated skills-based education for those seeking to employment in aerospace and advanced manufacturing.
An intensive 10 week course for Veterans, the Uniquely-abled and Minorities to acquire job skills that will lead to well paying positions.
Provides technical assistance in all phases of business from start-up to capital formation. The services of the SBDC are free and open to the public.
Offers companies the opportunity to develop their own talent in occupations such as Cyber Security, Advanced Manufacturing, Allied Health, Logistics and Education.
Prepares students with the skills needed to compete as freelancers. Skills such as creating a strong online presence, negotiation, and project management.
An initiative that seeks to bring employers, educators, and community-based organizations together to meet the needs for qualified labor in Nursing, and other health-related occupations.
Provides innovative solutions to delivering education in the area of Information Technology, and Digital Media.
We Understand What it Takes to Reach Success
Our instructors and consultants are hired based on industry knowledge and expertise understands what it takes to be successful in a global marketplace
- We maximize your potential to succeed through three core value propositions:
- We are experts in convenient, cost-effective business solutions to help you and your organization learn, compete and grow.
- We are deeply committed to our mission and will work with your organization every step of the way to ensure successful implementation and quantifiable results.
LEARN
Learn about your competition, new strategies that support your business, and new ideas and skills. Extra text to go to next line.
COMPETE
Stay ahead of market trends, assess your competitive edge and take advantage of tools and resources to be successful.
GROW
No matter where you are on the spectrum, start-up or large company, every business wants to work smarter and continually grow their profits.
COC: The right choice for growing your business
What does it take to start and grow a business successfully? It takes determination and the right resources at the right time.
College of the Canyons Economic Development Division is the right choice for your business. Our team of experts offer a comprehensive network of services, tools and resources to support you at every stage of your company’s development.
Meet the Team
Jeffrey Forrest
Vice President - economic development
Jeffrey Forrest serves as Vice-President of Economic Development for College of the Canyons, which focuses on aligning Career and Technical Education programs with the needs of industry, while offering job training for minorities, women, Veterans, and dislocated workers. In addition, Jeffrey oversees a number of business units dedicated to providing companies with training resources for growing their business. In August 2017, Jeffrey co-founded the Strong Workforce Apprenticeship Group (SWAG). SWAG partners with employers to fill their critical needs through apprenticeship. More than 80% of its current apprentices are minorities, women or Veterans. Because of its success, in March 2018, Jeffrey was invited to testify on Capitol Hill on the benefits of apprenticeship to small business. Jeffrey is committed to creating partnerships with companies, community-based organizations, and government entities throughout Southern California to advance the efforts of the community college in providing workforce development solutions that lead to economic growth and prosperity for the region.
John Milburn
Executive director - Employee Training Institute
John Milburn is a native Californian who has lived and worked across the state. He has owned and operated several businesses and has been a training and development specialist for more than 13 years. John has a wide-ranging background in economic development having helped many organizations and thousands of employees with organization and professional development. He has more than 4,000 stand-up hours delivering training and facilitation services for private, public and nonprofit organizations. As Director of ETI, John develops and delivers training programs targeted to assist local employers respond to changing markets, technology and the skill development needs of their employees. John holds a Psychology MA in Organization Development from Sonoma State University and BA in Business Administration from California State University, Bakersfield.
Justin Wallace
Business Partnerships & Workforce Engagement - ETI
Justin serves as a single point of contact for the local business community to access training and education programs through College of the Canyons. He is able to rapidly respond to the needs of business and is able to streamline processes to provide results quickly. Through training and educating the workforce we are able to make an economic impact in our communities and ultimately keep Santa Clarita thriving. Prior to his current role Justin was managing a Workforce & Economic Development Grant for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Economics from Graceland University and received his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh.
Catherine Grooms
Director, Small Business Development Center
Catherine Grooms leads and manages the SBDC hosted by College of the Canyons, a team of 25, including 20 Professional Business Advisors providing services to entrepreneurs and business owners in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley, Antelope Valley and Metro Los Angeles. Working with thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs, and her broad experience prior to joining the SBDC working with public and private companies both small and large on the East Coast, Midwest and in California including a variety of industries both domestic and international, helps clients positively impact the local economies.
Catherine has a BBA in Accounting from Howard University and an MBA (Accounting/Management Concentration) from the University of Baltimore. She is a graduate of the Leadership Development Program at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Executive Education; and the Leadership Development Program at University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.
John Cordova
Statewide Director - Health Workforce Initiative
With 15 years of experience in the community college system, John’s skills include policy/advocacy, workforce scans, curriculum development, simulation program implementation and grant writing. He promotes regional collaboration in allied health programs and serves regional health care providers thru information dissemination, training and consulting. John is a Registered Nurse and holds a baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) with a particular interest in public health nursing and case management. He has experience in the classroom, working with community-based organizations, grant writing, curriculum development and is Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) certified.
Paula Hodge
Regional Director - Information Communication Technologies and Digital Media
As Deputy Sector Navigator for the Information Communication Technologies and Digital Media, Paula brings 23 + years of extensive experience in information technology. Prior to joining College of the Canyons, she was the IT Director of a major educational nonprofit. Under her leadership, she applied technical and business acumen to steer the organizations technical advancement in data, voice and infrastructure.
Paula will serve as EDD’s liaison for bridging the gap between industry and education within the IT and Digital Media sectors. She will be leveraging opportunities that will benefit business, students, and the California economy.
Mike Bastine
REGIONAL DIRECTOR – advanced manufacturing
Mike is a native Ohioan and received his BS degree in Mathematics from Ohio State University. While as an Air Force officer he earned an MBA and ultimately retired from a Space Operations career while being assigned to Vandenberg AFB. He then worked in the aerospace industry as a Senior Systems Engineer in Redondo Beach and performed nationwide engineer recruiting for TRW, before beginning his career with the California Community Colleges in 1999. He has served as a faculty member on the academic senate, as well as an administer collaborating with business communities on various workforce development initiatives. His college management experience has included a variety of categorical funded programs involving – Adult Education, internships, work based learning, contract education, career services, and the statewide production of Braille textbook.
Irene Ornelas
Regional Director – Health Workforce Initiative
Her professional social work experiences include: working directly with individuals and families from diverse socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds primarily as a medical social worker in public health, renal dialysis, hospital, home health, hospice, and pediatric clinic settings as well as a working in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) as a behavioral health clinician. She also holds a license issued by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Currently, Irene is the South-Central Coast Regional Director for the Health Workforce Initiative and is hosted at College of the Canyons.
Devin Daughtery
Director, Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT)
Dr. Daugherty works with unemployed, underemployed, adults looking to change careers, veterans, and those with high-functioning autism to learn CNC machining and get placed into local CNC machining jobs. Dr. Daugherty was born and raised in Santa Clarita. He graduated from Canyon High School and College of the Canyons. After attending College of the Canyons, Dr. Daugherty went on to receive a Bachelors in Public Administration at Upper Iowa University, Masters in Public Administration at National University, Masters in Aeronautical Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Master of Arts in Communication at Liberty university, and PhD in Public Policy and Administration at Walden University.
Lynda DePerno
Coordinator, Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT)
Lynda DePerno is the Coordinator for the Center for Applied Competitive Technologies (CACT) at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California. She supports several programs for the Economic and Workforce Development Department and Employee Training Institute. She oversees the day-to-day operations and recruitment of two training programs; the CNC Fast Track Training and the Uniquely Abled Academy (UAA) training program. Her effort has directly guided several of the training programs toward statewide honors and awards. She is also instrumental in organizing and planning the annual SCV Manufacturing Day event, CACT Technology Workshops and other grant-related projects.
