By Lauren King, PhD, Director of Workforce Programs  and Ella Delio, MPA, Director of Environmental Programs, Greater New Orleans Foundation (Cross Post)

Lauren King, Greater New Orleans Foundation’s director for workforce programs, and Ella Delio, the foundation’s director of environmental programs and a member of TFN’s Urban Water Funders steering committee, recently co-wrote an article for Water Environment Federation’s Stormwater magazine. The piece focuses on the equitable workforce development work that the foundation, the city of New Orleans, the Water Environment Federation and other partners are collaborating on in New Orleans around green stormwater infrastructure, highlighting the role of philanthropy in supporting this work. TFN is thrilled to have Greater New Orleans Foundation as one of TFN’s upcoming 2021 conference co-sponsors.

“In New Orleans, where the population of African Americans is more than 60 percent and unemployment among African American males has vacillated between 48 percent and 52 percent, the need was apparent. An opportunity in the form of around US $250 million in federal grants for GI Projects laid the foundation to develop the regions emerging GI sector – and the prospect of new jobs.”

You can read the full article here.

About the Authors: 

Lauren King, Director for Workforce Programs

Lauren N. King has spent two decades linking adults and youth to resources and opportunities that enable them to move from their current reality to one which they desire to ascend. She is the Director for Workforce Programs with the Greater New Orleans Foundation (GNOF) where she works to cultivate new opportunities for GNOF in the workforce development space. Under her current portfolio, she leads the New Orleans Workforce Innovations (NOWI) Program which offers post-hire support services to some of the state’s largest employment sectors. Additionally, Lauren staffs the New Orleans Funder’s Collaborative, NOW, which has successfully influenced workforce policies within the region. In her previous role as Director of Community and Economic Development with Delgado Community College, Lauren managed and implemented workforce programs and played an integral role in the launching of two major programs for the College- the Certified Line Worker Training Program and the Cisco Certified Networking Associates Program. Under her leadership, Delgado obtained the designation of Cisco Networking Academy and is a provider of the Water Environmental Federation (WEF) National Green Infrastructure Certification program. Lauren continues to work extensively with training providers in an effort to align workforce trainings to programs that provide credit toward associate and bachelor degrees.

A native New Orleanian, Lauren is a two-time graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana holding a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in Mass Communications and a Master’s of Arts Degree in Education-Curriculum and Design. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband and children.

Ella Delio, Director for Environmental and Regional Initiatives

Elaine “Ella” Delio joined the staff of the Greater New Orleans Foundation as director of Environmental and Regional Initiatives in September 2014. Previously, she was executive vice president and managing partner at Savior Media, a Boston-based strategic communications firm. Prior to that role, Ella worked in Washington, D.C., at the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, where she served as Global Director of the New Ventures program. In that role, she provided business development and investment facilitation services to innovative environmental enterprises in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, and Mexico. She co-led the development of the program’s five year strategic plan, and she helped build the Green Investor Network in India, a group of investors interested in funding environmental entrepreneurs.  In this capacity, she also worked with various funders from the philanthropic and public sectors.

Ella received her MBA and MPA degrees from the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and her Management Engineering and Economics degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. She was awarded the Don K. Price Award by the Harvard Kennedy School for academic distinction and leadership in public service.