Workforce Rising: A Regional Partnership Breakfast

Workforce Rising: A Regional Partnership Breakfast
Hosted in partnership with the Moore, Norman, and South Oklahoma City Chambers of Commerce

Join us for a timely and impactful conversation at the Workforce Rising breakfast, where regional leaders and changemakers will come together to tackle one of the most critical challenges facing our communities: workforce development.

This dynamic event will explore the evolving needs of today’s employers, the importance of education-to-career pathways, and how collaboration across sectors can build a more resilient and future-ready workforce.

Be part of the conversation as we discuss innovative strategies, emerging trends, and shared solutions to strengthen our talent pipeline and drive long-term economic growth across central Oklahoma.

Presenting Sponsor: OG&E
 

Presenter Profiles

Brent Haken: Brent Haken was appointed as the ninth state director of the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education in January 2023. Prior to this role, he served as superintendent of Morrison Public Schools, where he led the district for four years. With a strong background in education and leadership, Haken has held multiple positions within Morrison Public Schools, including agricultural education instructor, elementary assistant principal, special education director, high school principal, and testing coordinator. Before stepping into administration, he taught agricultural education in Wellston, Stillwater, and Morrison. Haken’s contributions to education have been widely recognized. In 2022, he received the Superintendents Chairman’s Award from the Oklahoma Youth Expo and was named Oklahoma Association of School Administrators District4 Superintendent of the Year. He is actively involved in numerous professional organizations, including the Oklahoma State Professional Education Council and the Cooperative Council for Secondary Administrators. A dedicated advocate for career and technical education, Haken has served on the Oklahoma CareerTech Master Teacher Committee and held leadership roles within the Oklahoma Agricultural Education Teachers Association. He has also been a member of the National Association of Agricultural Educators and the Association of Career and Technical Educators. Haken holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Oklahoma State University.

Dr. Megan Oftedal: Dr. Megan Oftedal is a results-driven data leader with over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (OEQA), a state government agency focused on supporting an educational system where all Oklahoma students receive a high-quality education through data-driven decision-making, continuous improvement, and transformative innovation. Prior to serving OEQA, Dr. Oftedal led data science teams at Meta and American Fidelity. She also has an extensive background in educational policy and research, including tenure at the RAND Corporation where her work focused on aligning educational funding with quality outcomes and fostering innovation in K-12 education.

Dr. Oftedal earned her PhD in Policy Analysis from the RAND Pardee Graduate School, holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Loyola Chicago, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Educational Policy at Harvard University.

Kyla Guyette: Kyla Guyette is the founding CEO of the Oklahoma Workforce Commission.  Ms. Guyette was previously the founder and principal of The Work Lab, a boutique consulting firm specialized in workforce development system effectiveness, regional collaboration and innovative programming. In this capacity, Ms. Guyette trained and lectured at Local Workforce Development Boards around the country and has been a decade-long advocate at the federal level. She also served as Director of Strategic Partnerships for KRA Corporation with the objective of organization-wide modernization and strategy.

Previously, Ms. Guyette served as the Executive Director of the Greater Memphis Local Workforce Development Board and the founding President of Workforce Mid-South, Inc. In concurrent roles, she oversaw workforce development funding and initiatives in the four-county area of Shelby, Fayette, Tipton and Lauderdale Counties of Western Tennessee and, increasingly, the larger Mid-South region which extends across a 44-county span of West Tennessee Grand Division, Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas.

During her tenure, Ms. Guyette created and fostered the development of Workforce Mid-South, Inc. as a recognized 501c3 nonprofit to more effectively and efficiently deliver workforce services across the region ensuring a continuously diversified revenue base to enable mid-southerners ability to access a robust workforce ecosystem whether from the employer or job seeker perspectives. Aligning efforts, leveraging resources and eliminating duplication have been consistent drivers in system transformation with the theme of universal access through an equity lens serving as a grounding foundation to all work. Ms. Guyette is quoted to say, “The zip code where you happen to be born should never dictate your opportunities for success in life. We will continue our purposeful imagining of local communities and never stop pushing us all, as a collective, to become who we were always meant to be. Our goals are ambitious and our vision is HUGE because we wholeheartedly believe in the potential for greatness. There is much work to do for us all to realize that ideal; but, we are committed to it every single day."

The spirit of this vision was demonstrated through initiatives Ms. Guyette began at Workforce Mid-South, including the Mid-South Opportunity Center, Mid-South Youth Opportunity Center and the EDA Good Jobs Award recipient Opportunity NOW Accelerated Training Centers (delivering high quality credential opportunities in 30% time of traditional post-secondary).

Ms. Guyette brings over 18 years of experience in workforce programming with a specialization in serving muti-barriered individuals and young adults. Nationally, she is recognized as a subject matter expert in programs to address the specific challenges of workforce engagement for opportunity youth and systems innovation. Ms. Guyette is seated on the US Conference of Mayors’ Workforce Development Council and the National Association of Workforce Boards Board of Directors. She is a former Results for America Fellow and is engaged across the country in workforce related consulting projects with an invitation-only Workforce Leaders think tank. Ms. Guyette is also an approved workforce development trainer for the International Economic Development Council.

Ms. Guyette is an alumna of the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law. She is married and is the mother to a seven year old son, Adam.