Roane Alliance Hires New Education/Workforce Development Specialist
Thursday November 20, 2008
Kingston, TN - The Roane Alliance has hired Allen Lutz as a new Education and Workforce Development Specialist. Lutz is filling a newly-created part-time slot that was funded to work on the critical issue of education and workforce development.
Lutz worked for Junior Achievement locally for five years before coming to the Alliance. He is retired from the military, has his MBA and a lifelong passion for education, according to Leslie Henderson, President and CEO of The Roane Alliance.
"We are pleased to have someone of Lutz' caliber to help us at the Alliance work on these all-important issues facing our business and industrial sectors. Industry follows talent anymore, not sites," Henderson said. "But this is important not only to our industries, it is also critically important to our children.
"We are a global community and our children are going to be in competition with hundreds of thousands of college-educated Indians and Chinese, not just students from other parts of the US," she said in explaining the reason this new position was created. "The jobs they need to prepare for are no longer available to those with few skills. Even manufacturing positions now require a year or two of post-secondary training. The world is high-tech now and we must get prepared for that."
The new slot is being funded by money from the regional economic development initiative, called Innovation Valley Inc. This partnership -- made up of Knoxville and Oak Ridge and the four surrounding counties -- is working to raise $15 million to fund a five-year effort to improve the region and allow it to be competitive in today's high-tech world, especially in the area of education and workforce development.
"Business and industry are attracted to a well-educated community," Lutz said, "They come for the exceptional workforce the community provides and for a higher quality of living for their employees. Roane County already has an exceptional workforce in many respects; our goal is to ensure an even better workforce in the future and to attract even more business development because of it."
Prior to coming to the Alliance, Lutz was with Junior Achievement of East Tennessee (JAET) as the Director of JA BizTown, an experiential-based elementary education program for 5th grade students. Lutz was one of the primary JAET leaders responsible for the envisioning, planning, organizing and implementing of JA BizTown. He also served as the JAET Education Director, responsible for coordinating and delivering economic education programs that were taught by community volunteers in kindergarten through twelfth-grade classrooms. Lutz also worked for seven years in several positions at a startup company in Knoxville. Prior to coming to East Tennessee, he was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and served on active duty 21 years. Allen is married to the former Mary Duffy, a former Army colonel and daughter of Dr. Mary Duffy, Director of the Knox County Health Department for almost 30 years. They have one teenage daughter who keeps them young.
Lutz said one of his primary focuses as Education and Workforce Development Specialist will be to inform students, parents and the community as a whole how "critically important it is for our middle and high school students to take the advanced courses in school and to graduate from high school. But, to be successful in today's job market, education cannot end with high school.
"The strong correlation between economic success and educational achievement is incredible," Lutz said. "And the positive impacts that education brings to one's life is usually passed on to their children and grandchildren. The value that education brings to the individual has a direct impact upon the community and its business development."
The Roane Alliance is the economic development organization for Roane County. The partners who operate under the Alliance umbrella include the Roane County Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Board and the Visitor's Bureau.
##
