Joanne Pokaski
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Director of Workforce Development 
Joanne Pokaski is the Director of Workforce Development at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Under Joanne’s leadership, BIDMC has launched programs that sponsor employees’ training and promotion to occupations facing skill shortages, including nurses, research administrators, patient care technicians and medical laboratory technicians. BIDMC has also developed a program to provide career and academic counseling and free on-site pre-college prep courses and college-level science courses for all employees. Joanne also oversees BIDMC’s ESOL classes, GED prep program, basic computer skills classes and partnerships with community organizations to hire adults from the community and provide youths with summer jobs. In May, BIDMC received the Associated Industries of Massachusetts’ John Gould Education and Workforce Development Award. In June, BIDMC was one of three employers honored statewide for championing workforce development at the Massachusetts Jobs and Workforce Summit. Prior to BIDMC, Joanne served as Director of Boston Career Link, a one-stop career center in Roxbury. Before that, Joanne oversaw government and community relations and strategic planning for Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries and worked as a Senior Research Associate/Economist for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Between college and graduate school, Joanne worked in the Clinton White House then served as Special Assistant to the Administrator of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Joanne earned a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard College and a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Joanne is a member of the Boston Private Industry Council’s Workforce Development Committee and is the Chair of the Boston Healthcare Careers Consortium, which is convening Boston’s healthcare employers, academic institutions, workforce system and others to improve education and training pathways that lead to jobs in healthcare. In 2006, she was one of “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders” honored by the Boston Jaycees. In September she received BIDMC’s Melzer award for leading constructive, lasting and all-embracing change at the medical center.

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