Description

The Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee invites you to attend a facilitated discussion with a panel of experts who will address the three major issues affecting our workforce challenges:  education, housing, and transportation.  This interactive discussion will focus on the solutions already in progress and will allow us to explore other opportunities to address workforce issues.

Our panel includes:

• Elissa Margolin, the Director of Housing Action NH, has been instrumental in securing a capital appropriation for the Affordable Housing Fund to assist with workforce housing.
• Marc Sedam is the Associate Vice Provost of Innovation and New Ventures and the Managing Director, UNH Innovation.
  As the state’s flagship, public research university, UNH is responsible for graduating a significant portion of new employees into the state’s workforce each year. UNH works closely with business to address emerging needs, as evidenced by new programs in Analytics, Brewery Science and Homeland Security, while also staying ahead of the curve to ensure graduates are prepared to take on the 21st century jobs that have yet to be created.
  What other opportunities exist?
• Michael Williams, Director of Operations, COAST Transportation, which operates the network of public transportation throughout the Seacoast.  What are our opportunities for housing along existing routes, what are the needs for additional routes, and where are funding sources?
• Robin Comstock, Executive Director of the Seacoast Workforce Housing Coalition, will discuss creating a culture that holds having a diversified housing inventory as a value in creating and sustaining a desirable community.  Ultimately, this value will result in supporting zoning, ordinances, and land use regulation that allows for quality middle – market “workforce housing “ to be established, expanded,  and sustained.