Hennepin County creates chief workforce development officer post and appoints Mei Jeong

Hennepin County on Aug. 20 established a new unclassified chief workforce development officer position and approved the appointment of Mei Jeong, effective Sept. 1, 2024, to lead workforce strategies and scale the county's pathways program.

County staff said the pathways program, started in 2013, has trained more than 1,000 people and Hennepin County has hired over 400 of them. "These job opportunities, the education and income opportunities, tie into our disparity reduction vision strategy and work," a county official said when describing the rationale for creating the new post. Appointee Mei Jeong, in brief remarks to the board, said she looked forward to building on existing work and scaling workforce strategies across departments: "I look forward to building upon the amazing work that's already been done by our office of workforce development and across the county with our department directors."

The board approved the position and appointment by voice vote. Staff did not present a separate budget line item in the transcript; further implementation details were not specified during the meeting.