Our Blog

Bare shelves, inflated prices, and late deliveries are among the results of the nation’s scarcity of blue-collar workers. According to a 2021 report from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 77% of manufacturers have ongoing difficulties attracting and retaining workers. The manufacturing skills gap could leave as many as 2.1 million…

WaTasha Barnes Griffin is leading SLA to invite more diversity to the table When WaTasha Barnes Griffin speaks, you listen. Whether she is addressing a crowd as CEO of the YWCA of Central Indiana or chatting with you at a neighborhood cleanup, Barnes Griffin speaks with intention. You get the…

Other leadership seminars taught Lance Paxson to play checkers. Shafer Leadership Academy taught him to play chess. “Many professional development sessions I’ve attended have been ‘one size fits all,’ but Shafer’s programs are personalized,” said Paxson, a senior production manager at FCC Indiana in Portland. “Members of the Shafer team…

Charlize Jamieson sat in the pews of College Avenue United Methodist Church a few months ago and heard the pastor say from the podium: “Transgender individuals are not God’s mistake; They are God’s miracle.” “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” said Jamieson, who grew up and has lived 45-plus…

“It was getting to the point where I would put in 200 to 250 hours a month, month after month, for years,” said Dustin Humm, owner of eKeeper Systems. “Working 250 hours is not healthy.” Founded in 2004, the Yorktown-based IT services company that began with a handful of employees…

From the first day, she arrived in Muncie seeking refuge from her native Lebanon—immigrating from a bitter civil war that left her homeland in ruins—Roza “Ro” Selvey has been on a mission to give back to the community that supports her. “I came to the U.S. in my early 20’s…

It was the fall of 2020. Twelve Ivy Tech Community College students from the Muncie campus had been selected to participate in the Student Leadership Academy, an annual 10-week leadership training program. Participants would be rewarded with a three-credit scholarship. As Assistant Director of Student Support & Development, it was…

Shafer Leadership Academy program helped Dorica Young-Watson find her voice. The kids in Dorica Young-Watson’s third-grade class excitedly shared their costumes for the school Halloween parade, a highlight of Young-Watson’s year. “I’m going to be Wonder Woman,” she announced, proudly. “You can’t be Wonder Woman,” a boy stated, matter-of-factly. “Wonder…