Subject Matter Experts

Andrea is a communications strategist with more than 25 years’ experience developing communications strategies, branding and naming organizations, crafting messages, and managing all kinds of communications projects. She has extensive experience with community colleges and organizations that support them, including AACC, CCCSE, JFF, Complete College America, and NCII.

Before starting Next Chapter, Andrea was senior vice president at KSA-Plus Communications. She also has directed communications for the United Negro College Fund and other nonprofit organizations. Andrea graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in a self-designed major that combines communications, marketing, and psychology.

Most recently, Abner was the national director of outreach and engagement at the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA), where he focused on improving outcomes for underserved students. Previously, he worked at the Alliance for Excellent Education; educational technology company JumpRope; the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement; and the professional development provider Modern Red SchoolHouse. He spent eight years partnering with Winner (South Dakota) School District, helping this rural district improve outcomes for its Native American students.

Abner started his career teaching middle and high school students. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Dartmouth College, he received a master’s degree from Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. He and his wife Laura Jewett live in Bethesda, MD; their son Charlie lives in Portland, OR.

James Jacobs assumed the presidency of Macomb Community College on July 1, 2008. Prior to his appointment, Jim concurrently served as director for the Center for Workforce Development and Policy at the college and as associate director, Community College Research Center (CCRC), Teachers College, Columbia University, where he currently serves as a research affiliate.

Jim earned a doctorate from Princeton University and has more than 40 years’ experience at Macomb. He has taught social science, political science, and economics. He specializes in the areas of workforce skills and technology, economic development, worker retraining, and community college workforce development, and he is widely published in these areas of expertise. In addition, Jim has conducted research, developed programs, and consulted on workforce development and community college issues at the national, state, and local levels.

Jim is a past president of the National Council for Workforce Education, a national post-secondary organization of occupational education and workforce development specialists. He was also a member of the Community College Advisory Panel to the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ, and served on the board of the Global Corporate College, which provided consistent, just-in-time employee development to support business priorities across multiple time zones, locations, and languages through a network of U.S. community colleges and universities.

Jim serves on several local boards, including the Center for Automotive Research, Metropolitan Affairs Council, Detroit Institute of Arts, United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and Advancing Macomb. He is widely known for the Macomb County Economic Forecast, which he has presented annually for more than 30 years for the coalition of county’s chambers of commerce. Currently Jim is a senior advisor to the Ralph Wilson Foundation and lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Education.