Kirkwood executive receives 2011 Skills Champion award

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Steve Ovel, executive director of governmental relations for Kirkwood Community College, on Monday received the 2011 Skills Champion award from the National Skills Coalition in Washington, D.C.

Steve Ovel, Kirkwood Community College

Ovel, a 29-year employee the Cedar Rapids community college, received the recognition for his work over the last year to advance a skills agenda in the Iowa legislature and on Capitol Hill. The National Skills Coalition represents more tha  1,500 organizations in 25 states that promote investing in the training of America's workers.

At the federal level, Ovel has been instrumental in raising the visibility of the SECTORS Act with every member of the Iowa Congressional delegation, and helped to secure Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, as chief House sponsor.

Ovel has played a lead role at the state level in the development and promotion of the the Pathways for Academic Career and Employment Act, which calls for state investments in community college bridge programs and a tuition-assistance program for students enrolled in non-credit certificate programs.

Ovel began working with National Skills Coalition in 2004 and was a lead partner on the Iowa Works campaign, a multiple stakeholder coalition effort to raise the visibility of work force development in the 2006 Iowa gubernatorial election. He served on National Skills Coalition's board of directors from 2005 until 2009, and is a member of the organization's leadership council.

During his tenure at Kirkwood, Ovel has provided administrative leadership in the areas of development, foundation relations, community affairs, economic development, business and industry training, grants, and governmental relations. A longtime member of Iowa Workforce Development's board of directors, he was intricately involved in the redesign of the state's work force development delivery system in 1996.

For the past 20 years, Ovel also has been a lobbyist for Iowa's community college system before the Iowa Legislature, specializing in job training, work force and economic development, corrections education and telecommunications issues.