From Price staff reports
California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. recently named USC Price School of Public Policy alumni Imran Farooq and Michael Kelly to serve on the California Workforce Investment Board.
Established in 1998, the board is responsible for assisting the governor in setting and guiding policy related to workforce development. Its members represent various facets of workforce development including business, labor, public education, higher education, economic development and youth activities, according to the board’s website.
Farooq – who graduated with his doctor of policy, planning, and development from USC Price in 2011 – currently serves as a partner at the Omnius Group LLC, a Southern California-based Economic Development firm. He has also previously worked at the Riverside County Economic Development Agency.
His project on revitalizing neighborhoods is the subject of a local PBS documentary called SOS: Sustaining Our Society. He has also been a featured speaker to institutions such as the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
His record of community engagement includes: Riverside County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) member and chair of the WIB’s Western Region Committee; Board of Directors member for Building Industry Association – Baldy View; and founding member of Board of Directors of the Inland Empire chapter of the US Green Building Council.
Kelly, an alumnus of the USC Price School’s master of public administration program, has been executive director at the Los Angeles Coalition for the Economy and Jobs since 2010.
Previously, he served as manager of California government relations at the Boeing Company, and also held positions at the California Film Commission, including deputy director and associate director.
In addition, Kelly served in various posts at the Office of the Governor of California from 1999 to 2001, including deputy cabinet secretary and special assistant.